Hevisaurus: The Finnish Fursuiting Metal Band for Kids – by Tempe O’Kun
by Dogpatch Press Staff
Welcome to Tempe O’Kun: author of Paranormal Furry Romance, anthropomorphic-animal Westerns, and a frequent guest of the site. I’m very happy he’s covering these literal dinosaur rockers. I loved seeing them, but never got to it because I don’t pay enough attention to the people and reptiles of Finland. Tempe had the head of the Hevisaurus fan club look over the article and he said it rocks. It reminds me, I just interviewed Jello Biafra, the punk legend, and he was curious if dinosaurs will come to his first time meeting furries as a DJ at their dance party. He also made funny reference to the cartoonish alien metal band GWAR – this is like an evolutionary cousin between them and furries. – Patch
Why isn’t heavy metal a genre for children?
Certainly plenty of metal songs aren’t kid-friendly —don’t go replacing Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood with Metalocalypse— but adult themes in music are a matter of lyrics and visuals. Nothing about the genre on a technical level limits it to adults. Extended guitar solos and amped-up distortion, no matter how hard core, will not cause your child to explode.
The main reason we don’t see much metal for kids is the same reason we’re only now seeing young kids at furry conventions: the genre is just too new. Heavy metal only emerged in the 1970s, which means 1) society hasn’t had time to get comfortable with it and 2) many fans are only now having kids.
Adapting a previously adults-only genre for kids might bring to mind the half-hearted and ultimately cringeworthy attempts at kid-friendly rap in the 90s, but Hevisaurus has serious metal chops. Established figures of the metal scene are hired to portray the characters, who perform both live and in studio. Household names like Megadeth, Nightwish, Sonata Artica all either share members or have worked with the band. If you listen to Hevisaurus without knowing Finnish, you’d never know it was intended for kids.
Check out this music video, which has scenes from the 2015 Hevisaurus film.
Hevisaurus – “Juranoid”
Nor does Hevisaurus discard metal imagery. The band’s mythology is full of magic, with the Hevisauri hatching because their fossilized eggs were struck by lightning and being raised by a witch who plays electric guitar. The band members themselves dress in heavy belts and spiked black leather, sporting dreadlocks and dyed hair. And, of course, they are dinosaurs.
So what do heavy metal dinosaurs sing about? Some of their music centers around epic quests to find lost friends. Others are about blowing too big of a bubble-gum bubble and floating into the sky, such as “Pirkolla on Purkkaa.”
Hevisaurus – “Pirkolla on Purkkaa”
Strange as this all sounds, Hevisaurus is quite accessible, even to someone like me who is only occasionally into metal. Much like listening to pop music from India or Japan, Hevisaurus songs are peppered with English words and phrases. If watching Aggretsuko has left you in a metal mood, I’d strongly recommend checking them out.
On the topic of the metal music of Aggretsuko, I recently did an interview with Jamison Boaz, who voices her during the karaoke scenes. You can listen to him react to Hevisaurus for the first time.
Tempo Talks – Jamison Boaz
Hevisaurus is, in many ways, a peek at the future. The future of fursuiting is certain to include CG-augmentation, as we see in the Hevisaurus film. Localization of music is only getting easier and more in-demand in an ever more globalized world—as we see with the Spanish, Swedish, and Hungarian versions of the project. And heavy metal, one of the most international genres of all, will be considered ever more a part of normal society.
If this all sounds like it’s totally up your alley, you can find an entire history of Hevisaurus by the furry fandom’s own Kraken D’Waggin, who is literally head of the Hevisaurus fan club and interviewed one of their producers.
Kraken D’Waggin – The History of Hevisaurus
Tempe O’Kun is a Siberian husky cowboy and furry novelist. He’s been cited on the Huffington Post, seen on CNN, and interviewed twice on NPR. He also writes and does interviews for the furry pop culture analysis YouTube channel Culturally F’d.
His books can be bought here: https://furplanet.com/shop/category.aspx?catid=219
You can check out his work on Culturally F’d here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTLM2s914zA_O2S6II_BCWw/videos
Who knew when dinosaurs made a come back it would be as a heavy metal band! Play the music, attract the crowds, bring them close to you and eat them, brilliant! Just joking, love the T-Rex especially! 😀
Wonderful stuff — not just anthropomorphic and fun, but also some very well-done heavy metal. UNFORTUNATELY they are now a shadow of their former selves… In The Way Of All Things, the band got in a fight with their record label, and most of the original band left — including the drummer, who conceived of the band in the first place as a gift for his own kids. They’ve kept the original lead vocalist, but with all new songwriters the current crop of music is… not to my taste. Certainly not up to the first two albums. Sad.