Music / Raised by Owls

L-R: Lee, Alex, Sam, Tobias, Mark

Raised By Owls are a comedic Death Metal/Grindcore band from Derbyshire, England, featuring Tobias Cope on bass, Mark Bainbridge on guitar, Alex LeGrice on guitar and backing vocals, Lee Deane on drums and Sam Fowler on Vocals.

Imagine the harsh sound you'd expect from death metal or grindcore, but underscored with a flavour of dry British humour, an attitude which persists throughout their various assorted comedy skits.

Their music can be found on Bandcamp, and their skits can be found on their YouTube channel.

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You know how we know Raised By Owls aren't metal?

• Caring Gardener: "The Raised By Owls Crowdfunding Patreon Extravaganza" promises the latest gardening tips from bassist and landscape gardener Tobias.
• Companion Cube: "Napalm Geoff", an otherwise-ordinary man who married a copy of Napalm Death's Scum on CD. The voiceover pins this on a mental disorder.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus: The last verse line in the "Jekyll and Hyde" parody in "How To Write A Five Finger Death Punch Song" before cutting to the chorus less than a second later is the very unrhythmic, "When people don't change the toilet roll"
• Great Balls of Fire!: Played for Laughs with the stage manager at a Rammstein gig.
  Manager: What? That's their pyro? Are you joking? Fuck me, I thought we were under attack!
• Harsh Vocals: Comes with the genre, not that it stops Sam from shrieking some pretty silly things.
• Hood Ornament Hottie: Parodied in "An American Werewolf in Bognor Regis" with the video's "Extreme Car Wash".
• Horrible Camping Trip: Lee trying to pretend he's at a festival in his garden. The location doesn't stop his "festival" from being plagued by a tedious walk, warm beer, terrible food, "rain" (read: the narrator telling him to put some waterproofs on and stand under the shower), the dreaded PORTALOOS, being hounded by a man peddling drugs, and a tent with half of the kit missing (which somehow had a cat inside it). For a total of five days.
  Lee: (wearily) Best weekend ever- (vomits)
• Lame Pun Reaction: "Down With The Sickness" builds up to a Dude, Not Funny!-based one of these. (Tobias was making the pun towards Lee accidentally namedropping Disturbed)
• Miniscule Rocking: Several, including "Harry Potter and the Curse of the Student Loan", "David Cameron's Favourite Band is Pig Destroyer", "Scary Spice Has a Gangrenous Arm" and "Owen Wilson Says Wow"
• "Not Making This Up" Disclaimer: In the second "You Know How I Know You're Not Metal?" video, Lee claims that he knows Sam isn't metal because he once saw him getting a piercing in the window of a Claire's Accessories. A title card suddenly appears pointing out that Sam really did get a piercing in such a place.
• Our Product Sucks: The advert for their album Dreadful lists all the different ways you can listen to the album. Most of which seem to involve blunt physical trauma, ending with simply throwing the album away.
• Piss-Take Rap: Sam embarrassing himself (to the voiceover's horror) in "How To Write A Rage Against The Machine Song", where he raps to the backing of "Bulls On Parade" about the British government's handling of the COVID-19 Pandemic, at one point digressing into a few lines about his favourite soup solely for the sake of the rhyming.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: "The Band Group Chat" - Lee ends up leaving the group chat in frustration after many failed attempts at organizing a gig. The tipping point was Sam giving the excuse of "Cba" (his claim that he was joking sadly came too late).
  • Similarly, the ending to "Trying To Host A Band Practice In Isolation" ends with Sam slamming his laptop closed and storming off for another wank.
• Self-Deprecation: "Do you know how I know you're not metal? You think Raised By Owls are funny!"
• Shout-Out:
  • "VIDEO DATING: METAL EDITION" has one bachelor who explicitly references Gaahl's infamous "Satan" interview.
  • "The Santanist", a play on The Satanist.
  • The title of their debut album, The Great British Grind Off to The Great British Bake Off.
  • Their third album title, Vol. 3: The Satirical Verses, is a nod to Slipknot's Vol. 3: The Subliminal Verses.
• Speed Sex: One of the bachelors in the Video Dating sketch says, "Sometimes I like to listen to music in the bedroom. We'll listen to 'You Suffer' by Napalm Death, and I'll be finished before the song ends!"
• Stink Snub: Sam receives one of those after continually refusing to wash after a festival.
  Lee: Good god! He smelt like a dead skunk's foreskin!
• The Stoner: In "Pretending You're At A Festival In Your Own Garden", Sam shows up as one of these in Lee's back garden. He's also carrying a PS2, much to the narrator's confusion.
• Take That!: "How To Write A Five Finger Death Punch Song" (mostly at Ivan's expense and an extended parody of "Jekyll and Hyde")
  • "The Raised By Owls Crowdfunding Patreon Extravaganza" is one five-minute shot at the expense of Wintersun, complete with promises for each of the members to publish content unrelated to the music, alongside other personal expenses.
  • A constant back-and-forth of these occurs in both of the "You Know How I Know You're Not Metal?" videos.
  • One video has Sam unaffectionately parody Gal Gadot's infamously tonedeaf "Imagine" singalong with various other metal vocalists passing the song between them using their different varieties of Harsh Vocals.
  • "How To Write a Six Feet Under Song" consists entirely of, "Step one: Don't bother".
• Wacky Marriage Proposal: Someone asked the band to do a proposal video for his girlfriend. Sam assumes he had to have known they are an extreme metal band.The result?

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