If you had begun to think there couldn’t possibly be any more subgenres of heavy metal with silly names left to mine, then welcome to Italian act Wind Rose and their peculiar brand of… Dwarven Metal?
Formed ten years ago in the home of the world famous wonky tower, the Tuscan five-piece already have three full-length albums to their name, but it may very well be this daft little cover version which finally plants their name onto the metal map.
Originally written in 2011 by a group of Minecraft playing YouTubers (yes, that’s actually a thing) collectively known as Yogscast, ‘Diggy Diggy Hole’ (aka ‘Dwarf Hole’) has subsequently gone on to rack up nearly forty million views.
And if you don’t believe it’s possible to take the world’s diggiest song about dwarves digging holes and somehow make it even diggier and dwarfier by adding Heavy Metal, then you would be very much mistaken. Wind Rose’s version of ‘Diggy Diggy Hole’ ‘(Napalm Records) may have only been up on Youtube for a couple of weeks but it has already been viewed well over two million times.
Staying faithful to the source material, the achondroplasia enthusiasts have simply added guitars, gruffer vocals, and a shedload of extra oomph! Available as a strictly limited edition 7” single (featuring an orchestral version of the song) from July 7th, it’s bouncy, it’s silly, it’s ridiculously catchy, and it’s basically just bags of fun. It’s a dwarven goldmine.
8 / 10
GARY ALCOCK