“I read an article about how YouTube stars are the next ‘thing’, so we were like, ‘Let’s see what happens!’” says The Anchor guitarist Cory Jones. He’s talking about the Denver metalcore mob’s frontwoman Linzey Rae, whose YouTube channel – currently boasting over 55,000 subscribers – has helped The Anchor reach a whole new set of fans.
If Linzey’s name sounds familiar, it’s probably because of her Metal Kitchen parody videos, in which she changes the lyrics of popular metalcore songs to recipes, and cooks along as she screams. “It was a spur of the moment thing,” she laughs. “I was in the booth recording vocals, and someone was like, ‘Let’s order Chinese food.’ They said to scream my order, so I did, and we were like, ‘Oh my god, we could make a song about recipes and people wouldn’t know the difference because nobody can understand what you’re saying anyway!’”
In the first video, a meaty (geddit?) cover of The Ghost Inside’s The Great Unknown becomes a shepherd’s pie tutorial, and it’s racked up 1.5 million views since it was first posted on Linzey’s channel in December 2015. “We were doing The Anchor before the YouTube channel,” she explains. “We thought we’d get maybe a couple thousand views for the food stuff, but it blowing up was totally unexpected. It’s been a gateway to our band. People discover the channel and then find The Anchor.”
Screaming “I LOOOOOVE PARMESAN!” isn’t Linzey’s only talent. On The Anchor’s ferocious debut album, A World Ahead, which they self-released in December, she touches on issues like addiction and self-confidence. “Our YouTube channel is funny and the band’s serious,” says Cory. “Humans go through all these emotions; we can go through those feelings with our fans. Nobody has to go through that by themselves.”
The latest single, The Hardest Part, chronicles Linzey’s mum’s struggle with drug addiction. “It helped me move past it,” she says. “It hasn’t mended any relationship, but it helped me get through that process of grieving and allowed me to let go of the resentment and cherish the relationship we used to have.”
The band are now looking further afield than Colorado, having signed up with Napalm Events, the live booking division of Napalm Records. Management and PR are in the bag, and the next step is finding a label. “We haven’t made it out of America yet, but we want to!” Linzey assures us. We’ve got a feeling it won’t be long before these guys really set sail.
A WORLD AHEAD IS OUT NOW
