BAD WOLVES Is More Than Just The Band That Covered THE CRANBERRIES' 'Zombie'

BAD WOLVES guitarist Doc Coyle spoke to Australia's Loud about the musical direction of the material the band is currently recording for its upcoming second album, tentatively due before the end of the year. "It's diverse," he said. "There's stuff that's probably heavier, as or more heavy than the last record. We have four or five songs that are really trying to bring the beef, the shit you can throw weights around to. [Laughs] And then there's some really catchy, kind of more mainstream stuff to cover that end of it, and a lot of stuff in the middle.

"For us, it's so great that we were able on our first album to be diverse out of the gate — have a lot of ups and downs, and have a ballad," he continued. "Because that way you don't have to kind of warm your audience up to it; they already know what to expect. So we can kind of do whatever we want.

"But I'm really excited about it," he added. "I think it's really going to penetrate in a way… 'Cause the truth is, we have a lot to prove on this next record. There's a lot of people who are not familiar with our every day and our inner workings, who think that we're just a band that had a cover, and that's how deep it goes. But I know, being in this, that we do have a lot of dedicated fans. There are some sections that more favor the lighter stuff, and there's people who prefer the heavy stuff. But I think basically this whole year, we've toured with all these bands and understand the record we made and playing all the songs live, it inspires you. Like, 'This is cool, but I know we can take it a level or two up.' So that's really informed how we're working on the next record, but we're not done. We have a lot of work done, but we still have a lot of work to do and it's like that raw piece of clay, or a sculpture where it's slowly coming into form. But we're very committed to making this, because if this album is right, then it takes the band to that threshold to where we're headlining the arenas hopefully one day."

Asked if he feels that there is that misconception about BAD WOLVES among some critics, that they are merely the band that covered THE CRANBERRIES' "Zombie", Doc said: "I'll say this — it's better to be 'the 'Zombie' band' than the band no one's ever heard of. [Laughs] So it's better to be known for something than nothing. But I had a rant on my latest podcast, and the theme of it was, the Internet is not the real world. If the Internet was the real world, we would be playing a shack right now [in Australia] with NICKELBACK. Because NICKELBACK is the most shit-talked band that people love to hate, but every show is sold out and there's 12,000 people there. So why do those things not equate? How is that in this realm, everyone loves to talk shit about them, but when you go to the show, it's sold out? And you see the record sales and they're through the roof. So who are the people buying the records and going to the shows and buying the t-shirts? There's a disconnect there; the two realities do not match up. And now we're one of those bands.

"I was looking at this web site, The PRP, which I like and has a lot of metal news. They picked up something about our new record. There was literally like 40 comments, and I swear 39 of them were people just shitting on us. It was all about 'Zombie'. I'm, like, they're only really upset because the cover was successful. Let's say we would have done the same cover, but no one really cared. It would have been a non-story. It would have just been like, 'Oh, that band did a cover, whatever, they're a pretty cool band, they're pretty heavy, whatever.' But it's this idea that success attracts a certain type of attention, that in that environment is overwhelmingly negative. But the truth is, there's a much bigger… It's a response to the fact that you have a pretty big audience.

"I think it would be really bad if everyone's talking shit about you, but then no one showed up to the show, no one is buying the T-shirts and the CDs. The truth is the band's doing really well, so you can't… I really don't take it personally. And I think the more crap you're getting, the bigger you probably are. I think it comes with the territory. It's like, when you get rich, you've gotta pay high taxes. With the success comes a lot of ire. Being the kind of band we are, we are not going to be some band that just wants to play the most technically, scream the most or be the heaviest. We're making the kind of stuff that inspired us… It's the PANTERAs, METALLICAs and SLIPKNOTs, all those bands are massive. And they do a lot of different things. But I think any new band that comes along that has those aspirations basically gets shit on out of the gate. They want you to be humble, they want you to want to play in the basement in front of eight people and be happy."

BAD WOLVES was one of 2018's biggest breakouts, scoring a massive chart-topping hit with the aforementioned cover of "Zombie".

BAD WOLVES was formed in 2017, comprised of former members of DEVILDRIVER, GOD FORBID, DIVINE HERESY and IN THIS MOMENT. The band enlisted CRANBERRIES singer Dolores O'Riordan to appear on its version of "Zombie", but on the day she was scheduled to go into a London studio to record her vocals, she was found drowned in her hotel room bathtub at the age of 46.

"Zombie" surfaced on BAD WOLVES' debut album, "Disobey", which came out in May 2018 and has also yielded the follow-up single "Hear Me Now", featuring Diamante, which reached No. 2 on the rock chart.