Bag Medicine: Who Are Fungonewrong?

Forget make-up. Forget masks. If Fungonewrong have anything to do with it, brown paper bags are the future.

Even without their cheap headgear, this Southern Illinois quintet have plenty to commend them, not least a sound that combines ferocious thrash riffing and solos with slamming, nu metal grooves and a generous dose of booze-fuelled silliness.

“Although we feel the music has substance, we didn’t want to take ourselves too seriously,” says frontman Belter Skelter. “We just decided to take it to the next level. Kiss had the make-up and Slipknot wore the masks… we just ran with the idea! It gets people’s attention, we keep our anonymity and now we’re getting tons of kids coming to the shows wearing their own bags!”

On a self-proclaimed mission to combat “boring music”, the FGW boys have been touring intensively in the US, generating a buzz that is rapidly becoming deafening. According to Belter, it’s all about making metalheads dance like maniacs.

“At our shows we get everyone from 14-year-old kids through to elderly women!” he laughs. “I guess our music has that groove that makes old ladies shake their butts! We lock into a groove and it evolves from there.”

Bulging with shoutalong anthems like first single Cry Me A River and the self-explanatory Metal Rulez, Fungonewrong’s self-titled debut looks certain to be one of the party albums of 2014. With plans to conquer Europe next year, Belter Skelter and his bag-sporting brothers are offering the world an open invitation to join in the fun.

“We’re known as a party band now and that’s fine with us because we like to party! If you want to dance and that’s your thing, then go for it. If you want to get in the pit, that’s cool too. You’re not really having fun unless it’s fun gone wrong!”

Fungonewrong’s self-titled debut album is out now via Legend Group

Dom Lawson began his inauspicious career as a music journalist in 1999. He wrote for Kerrang! for seven years, before moving to Metal Hammer and Prog Magazine in 2007. His primary interests are heavy metal, progressive rock, coffee, snooker and despair. He is politically homeless and has an excellent beard.