If you’re not living on TikTok you may not yet know about Netherwilds, the “peasant metal” alter ego of Dave Monks. And even people who do know, may not realize that Dave Monks aka Netherwilds is the former lead singer and guitarist/bassist for recently-defunct Toronto indie band Tokyo Police Club, a band whose history with BrooklynVegan goes all the way back to 2006 when Dave from BrooklynVegan first discovered their music and then showed up for their first NYC show at Mercury Lounge. By 2008, the indie rock / dance punk band was signed to Saddle Creek and has since released much talked about records on Mom & Pop, Dine Alone, and Memphis Industries.
It’s been about 2 years since Netherwilds first debuted on social media — actually around the same time since Tokyo Police Club said goodbye (2 NYC shows at Irving Plaza included), but Netherwilds actually wasn’t Dave’s first shocking pivot. In 2024 it was also revealed that Dave was playing bass in a self-described nu metal band named Klokwise (their live setlists included a Limp Bizkit cover). Now Netherwilds, which started just as a social media thing, is also a band, and two other members of Klockwise included.
In Netherwilds, Monks is lead singer and bouzouki player “Worm Chewer,” and the rest of the band is: Loamspeaker (Klockwise frontman Jesse Turnbull, guitars, production), Two Spoons (Klockwise drummer Mitch Maidens, guitar), Viv (Vivienne Wilder, bass), and Boh (Bohdan Kotik, drums).
In June, Netherwilds released “Return the Goat” and its excellent, very funny video, and now they’ve announced their debut album, Peasant Rising, which will be out October 9 via metal label King Volume Records (which is also home to fellow fantasy costume enthusiasts Castle Rat). Netherwilds also shared a new single, “Siege Proof Hovel.”
From listening to the first two songs and seeing all the imagery, we can’t help but think Netherwilds would have fit right in on the recent Dethklok, Amon Amarth, Castle Rat tour. And actually, since that tour, Netherwilds hosted a costume contest before Castle Rat’s recent show in Anaheim. Netherwilds also just played their own debut show earlier this month in Canada. Stay tuned for more dates to be announced.
About new song “Siege Proof Hovel,” Worm Chewer says, “At some point amid the toil and taxation, a peasant must take a stand. A fool’s errand you say? Forsooth! How many townsfolk have a moat about their hovel? Better yet – it took a fortnight of every drunkard in town emptying their bladders to fill it up! If any royal nostrils come within a hundred paces they’ll be sorry they picked a fight with me. Indeed m’lord – your kingdom ends where I build my own. If ye have quarrel with that, bring your machines and archers – I shall watch them perish from within my siege proof hovel.”
Listen to that and watch the “Return the Goat” video — “which introduced listeners to Worm Chewer’s peculiar world through a tale of desperate survival, misplaced heroism, and one very important goat. Together, the two songs begin to reveal the larger narrative of Peasant Rising, with each release serving as another chapter in the peasant’s unlikely journey toward revolution” — below.
Peasant Rising:
1. Peasant Rising
2. Peasant Pit
3. Helm Yeah
4. Scroll I – The Fair
5. Ballad of Sir Gregory
6. Scroll II – The Mud Mages
7. Cry in the Hay
8. Scroll III – The Chase
9. Siege Proof Hovel
10. Scroll IV – The Dungeon
11. Dungeon Song
12. ;Scroll V – The Rescue
13. The Fall
14. Farmer’s Armoury
15. Scroll VI – The Plot
16. Blight!
17. Scroll VII – The Storm
18. Heretic
19. Scroll VIII – The Rising
20. Wickermech
21. Scroll IX – The Walls
22. Return the Goat