For someone who knows nothing about Seattle sludgy doom metal band Year of the Cobra except for their recordings, it’s easy—and understandable—to assume they are a full quartet. Their songs are built with different tones, heavy riffs, solid rhythms and haunting melodies to create music that creeps into space and fills the silence.
However, when it comes to YOTC–who play a very special matinee show at Moe’s Alley on Aug. 11–it’s important to remember the old saying about what it means to assume.
Not only is Year of the Cobra not a quartet, they aren’t even a power trio. Incredibly, their dynamic sound is created only using drums by Johanes “Jon” Barrysmith and a bass guitar and vocals by Amy Tung Barrysmith.
The couple married in 2010 and formed the band five years later. However, they never thought Year of the Cobra would be only them.
“We moved to Seattle and didn’t know anybody so we started jamming together,” Amy remembers.
“We had every intention of adding a guitar player. But after playing together and writing songs, the challenge of creating a full sound with only two people was really fun so we decided to go with that.”
Metalheads everywhere are thankful, too, because while Year of the Cobra is assuredly doom metal, they bring in elements of sludge and psychedelic stoner metal as well. It culminates in a refreshing sound with Amy’s empyrean vocals soaring over the heavy riffs. Somehow, someway, they create a full, rich, layered sound that rivals some groups with twice the members.
“It was all very organic,” Barrysmith says of the band. “There was no intention of it turning into a touring thing.”
Which is ironic because the duo has become known not only for their sound but also their constant touring. No strangers to Santa Cruz, YOTC has a history of playing here, performing at the Catalyst last year almost to the date of their upcoming Moe’s Alley appearance.
Despite being a Seattle band, Year of the Cobra’s roots are deeply planted in Surf City.
“I grew up in Santa Cruz,” Jon says. “So when we first started it was easy to book there. I love coming back home.”
Santa Cruzans might remember Jon from his former punk band, Lonely Kings. This Sunday’s show also features local post-punk rockers Hot Lung, who shared the bill with YOTC at the Catalyst last year.
“I’ve known [Hot Lung guitarist] Joe [Clements] since I was 15,” Jon says. “I played in punk rock bands from high school through my late 20s. There’s a natural progression for older hardcore and punk rock dudes to listen to harder music, play slower, and here we are.”
Shortly after they formed in 2015, Year of the Cobra released their debut EP, The Black Sun, with their debut full-length, …In the Shadows Below, arriving the following year. Three years later—in 2019—they released their follow-up album, Ash and Dust.
While their debut is an introduction to their sound, tinkering with the configuration of songs to cover the high and low ends, the sophomore album found the band coming into their own.
From the opening track, “Battle of White Mountain”—about the real-life battle of the same name that on Nov. 8, 1620, turned the tides in the Thirty Years War, solidifying Habsburg reign of Bohemia (modern-day Czech Republic) for another 300 years—the album flows organically. The third and title track delivers a punk rock mentality, faster than the others on the album with a chorus chanted rather than sung, harking back to Amy and Jon’s separate hardcore beginnings.
That said, one of the things that makes YOTC so striking is Amy’s singing. With so many modern metal acts using guttural, death growls (which originated with death metal, hence the name) that many non-metalheads find confusing or disagreeable, Tung keeps the tones clean. She utilizes the gamut of her abilities, sometimes singing so softly it barely creeps above a whisper, as on tracks like “Demons,” “Dark Swan” and “In Despair.”
“The singing took a little while because I never really sang before this band,” she admits. “So it took a minute to figure out because Jon didn’t want to sing.”
Johanes laughs.
“The way I play drums it’s like running a half marathon, so I’m trying to catch my breath and not whack the microphone,” he says. “But speaking of Amy’s singing, our new record isn’t out yet but I’m very proud of Amy for how far and confident she’s become fronting this band.”
While there’s no release date for the new album–aptly self-titled as YOTC–the duo says it has been finished for months. Fans can expect a series of singles to be released before the final product drops–which will most likely be sometime at the beginning of next year.
“I write about things that I personally find interesting,” Tung says. “I love stories, I love history, I love Greek mythology, and you can hear that in a lot of the songs. I think they are things people can truly relate to deeply in their soul.”
