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Metal Around The Globe / Israel: Wild Boars sing on Valentin The Mad single

Valentin The Mad is a solo artist from Haifa, Israel, a city which has a large wild boar population and a selection of these auto-tuned boars appear as vocalists on the track ‘Boar Metal.’

Singing in a style which, when performed by humans, has been unflatteringly called by some Boar-core vocals, the track is delightfully unique.

Valentin told MetalTalk: “My city of Haifa is known for having a big wild boar population and in recent years it has come to the point where seeing them in some neighbourhoods became a daily occurrence.

“One day I encountered a family of hogs in the middle of the day on a busy street. I took out my phone and recorded a short video (the one you see at the start).

“Later that day I was listening to a Death Metal album and at the same time I had the hog video playing.

“There was a very notable similarity between the deep vocals in that album and the voice of the boar in the video, which led to this idea.

Valentin The Mad Wild Boar in the 'studio'
Wild boar recording in the ‘studio’

“I borrowed my friend’s B tuned guitar and in the following weeks I was walking around town late evenings and nights with my camera and a handheld recorder, sampling and filming the local pigs.

Hella Rock Festival

“So yes, all the vocals you hear in the song are auto-tuned street hogs from my city.”

Valentin says that the Metal scene is Israel is very active, until the corona situation, with Iron Maiden originally scheduled to play this year.

Drawing inspiration mainly from Metallica (“Kirk’s solos are what got me playing guitar in the first place”), Megadeth and Dream Theater, he also cites Devin Townsend, Neal Morse, Dethklok, Buckethead and Black Sabbath as favourites.

Valentin is working “on a solo project of instrumental guitar-centered music, with the genres ranging from Soft Rock to Heavy/Thrash Metal. It is a solo project in every sense of that word – for the most part I’m writing, recording and producing the music.”

Sleeve Notes

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