I have to get this out of my system
Deconstructing Queen of the Murder Scene
As performed by The Warning,
at the Lunario del Auditorio Nacional, Mexico City, 25th November 2018
Prologue: A prospective fan’s face journey
Like millions of other people, in 2018 I was aware of The Warning. The three Villarreal sisters from Monterrey came to the attention of pretty much everyone on the Internet in 2014, when their cover of “Enter Sandman,” recorded in their basement, went viral on YouTube. I joined Kirk Hammett of Metallica and many others in the enthusiastic praise of the young band’s performance and skills, and I will shamefacedly admit to being one of many who said (rather mean-spiritedly) that drummer Paulina (Pau) Villarreal, then aged 13, was “way better than Lars.” (this statement is true, but Ulrich didn’t deserve the pile-on) (oh yes he did) (ok I’ll stop now). And, I was vaguely aware of The Warning appearing on Ellen Degeneres’ show, doing a bunch more great basement covers, successfully raising funds to attend a workshop at the Berklee Institute, appearing on TEDx, releasing an EP and a full-length album, XXI Century Blood. And I’d heard in passing a few tracks of their original work and thought, yeah, this is cool. But that’s all.
In 2018, I myself was heavily involved in a major project, getting ready for a huge field expedition where I was literally without Internet for a couple months, and I just was not able to spend time listening to new music and catching vibes from the Internet. As a result I completely missed what was for The Warning an annus mirabilis. In addition to playing over 25 concerts (in small venues and festivals and opening for big names like The Killers and Def Leppard), they recorded and released their second independent full length studio album, entitled Queen of the Murder Scene, and headlined a concert at the prestigious National Auditorium in Mexico City; where they presented the new album in its entirety, interspersed with some songs from their previous release. A live YouTube recording of the opening number from this concert was posted on December 30th and, since I was back on the beach and finally on holiday, I was able to watch it. What I saw was completely unexpected. It blew me away.
What follows is a confused account of the concert, in present tense, and my reactions to it, in past tense, because when I was writing this I just felt like knifing literary conventions and pushing them out a high window. Sorry.
“Dust to Dust” (and the concert) begins with a solo bass part played by youngest sister Alejandra (Ale) Villareal (who seemed, at the time of their “Enter Sandman” cover, shorter than her Mustang bass was long; now, at age 13, she wields a massive Spector). Ominous minor chords ring out like some kind of heavy metal cathedral bell (this tone is incredible, I thought, and turned up the volume), followed by an insistent, sinister, 007-like ostinato. Behind the drum kit, Paulina raises her hands theatrically and glares fiercely at the audience. Then she picks up the sticks and the drums join in with a distorted, sinuous, repetitive figure from the lead guitar played by eldest sister Daniela (Dany). I was captivated, and I turned up the volume the rest of the way. And then Paulina starts to sing, challenging and inviting the audience to pay attention: Hey, come on in, walk this way, look what I have prepared to show you, let me show you… Wow. The pre-chorus is another insistent, building ostinato, with Ale and Dany in harmony repeating while Pau’s drums boom and throb: Dust to dust, our bones will rust and we shall start again … leading to an enthusiastic chorus, where Pau chides her audience for thinking of turning away: Hey, where are you going? Don’t trust all that you hear. What’s the use in running, it’s better to stay here ... The second verse returns to the first ostinato, somehow broader and more intense, and the lyrics take a turn down an even darker alley: I don’t seek right or wrong, I seek the truth found in DEATH, goes, hand in hand with remorse, is this something that is worth losing, worth pursuing? And I was like WHAT. What is happening here?!? And then there’s a brief, intense, precise drum break that makes you wonder if Pau is from some other planet; where you’d think in a typical band you’d have a guitar solo, instead there’s a return to the verse figure, building under a narration seemingly from a scratchy-radio preacher talking (in Spanish) about earning salvation and giving up anger and stepping into the light even if they try to cast you into darkness and for me it was like OKAY YOU HAVE MY ATTENTION. And then there’s a breakdown, inevitably, to the pre-chorus, starting quietly and building and building over Pau’s vocal and the harmonies until she throws her head back and belts out the last AGAI-I-I-N as the band surges into the chorus. At this point I had tears in my eyes and I’m pretty sure I leaped to my feet, sure I was in the presence of something amazing. The song ends with Dany wailing out a wordless “Immigrant Song”- like coda to a satisfying power chord conclusion, and I collapsed into my chair, exhausted. That was the first song? In that moment I became a fan. And my first and most persistent thought was, rock isn’t dead.
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Queen of the Murder Scene is a concept album, written by Paulina Villarreal Velez and her sisters Daniela and Alejandra, otherwise known as the rock band The Warning, in 2018, when all three of the sisters were teenagers. It describes the journey of a young woman they call the Queen, whose unrequited love turns to obsession, then to madness, and to murder. The opening track of the album, “Dust to Dust,” occurs near the end of the story, when the Queen meets the three sisters in a near-empty diner and begins her tale.
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The Lunario concert, 25th November 2018
At this point in the Lunario concert, after “Dust to Dust,” Dany greets the audience in English and Spanish and thanks them all for coming and for the support that enabled them to get from their first video on YouTube to headlining a major venue in the capital city. They then launch into a ferocious performance of “Unmendable,” a propulsive four-chord rocker from their previous album, with Dany on lead vocals. In this song the girls promise that there will be consequences if you betray them: It’s unmendable, for better or for worse you’ll get what you deserve … and they make you believe it. Thoroughly. The song closes with surging energy, and the crowd responds. The Warning have got the audience’s hearts in their hands. Next … they will break them.
The Queen’s story begins with “Crimson Queen.” The rhythm section takes a well-deserved break, after the fury of those first two numbers, while Dany leads on vocals and acoustic guitar. Here the Queen confesses her feelings to her lover, and is mystified by their strength: I don’t know what it means but I know, I know, that you bemuse my soul. At this point, listening to this, I was starting to get a little bit outraged. Who … WHO on EARTH uses words like “conundrum” and “bemuse” in a rock song?!? Answer: Daniela Villarreal, and her sisters; also, English is their second language, just to rub it in a bit more. And the harmonies between Pau and Dany on this track are exquisite. I’d say, this song will get stuck in your head. But, all these songs will get stuck in your head. And in your heart. With barbs.
“Ugh” has the band returning to high-energy rock, but with a more conventional song structure than “Dust to Dust.” Still, the song has many of the features that The Warning love: pre-choruses, drum breaks, bridges. In this song the Queen confronts her feelings and finds them absolutely terrifying. She pleads for simplicity and clarity, but that is not to come. Oh, save me ’cause I’m falling down. We are so high above the ground. I don’t want to understand, I just want to hold your hand … ! This is not real, and what I feel is only making me reveal, what it will take for me to break once and for all … The song closes with a thunderous instrumental descant and a plaintive guitar line fading into darkness.
The next number’s a heartbreaker. In “The One” the Queen pleads for her lover to respond, but as nothing happens she begins to realize that she may need to take matters into her own hands. She is beginning to change, not for the better, and the emergence of her, um, more aggressive side is symbolized in how the lyrics change from “… let me be the one” to “I will be the one.” The song’s a banger, with hooks around every corner, lovely agile bass dancing over the pre-chorus, and a poignant bridge where the Queen says she’ll settle even for her lover pretending: Say that you will really, never hurt or leave me, say it and it will come true. Hold me like you really love me, tell me that you do … Not a dry eye in the house at this point.
Another interlude in the story and the band play their splendid teen angst anthem “When I’m Alone” from XXI Century Blood, featuring a lyrical guitar solo from Dany, a delightfully syncopated bass line, and rapid-fire fills from Pau which will make you wonder why you weren’t hearing this on the radio all the time, what on earth is wrong with people, this band should rule the world.
Back to breaking hearts. “Stalker” takes place where the Queen is still hopeful that her lover will come around, but her evil side (for lack of a better word) is becoming more apparent, as the lyrics change from I love you so, to I’ll lock the door, to I’ll tie the rope. Dany starts out on the piano for the sweet, sad, intro and quickly jumps to her mic stand and guitar as the band joins into the main line of the song. Starring here are the sophisticated lyrics: I’m a maniac when it comes to you, I’m obsessed with what we both could be, the possibilities … and the powerful bridge, where Dany roars I want you to love me, touch me, let me in your heart; I want you to want me, haunt me, like I’ve done from the start, backed by titanic drum rolls and the audience screaming along. The song ends as it began, on a single sad piano note, but nothing in the story will be the same. The sisters have said that at the climax of the last verse the Queen kills her lover.
What follows is a struggle between the Queen’s good and evil sides, taking place over several songs. In “Red Hands Never Fade,” the Queen’s good side wants to make amends for her crime: Tell me, what I must do to atone … In “The Sacrifice” the evil side shoots back with oh, but you loved it: One more simple question, no one answers, no one mentions the emotion, the commotion, that fills your every need, that fills your fantasy! If you let this go much further, there’ll be no turning back from me … and taunts her(self) further with a promise: What if you were to let go, I will lead you just follow, all your thoughts of tomorrow, I’ll make them disappear. Hand them over, all the pain will be mine, to keep! This is heavy stuff, but the music is tight and compelling and irresistible.
Taking a break from the emotionally fraught story of the Queen, the band lighten things up by playing the title track from their album XXI Century Blood, a song about alienation caused by suffocating technology and greed in a world that’s collapsing due to climate change, all driven by a foot-stomping riff. Emma Goldman said if there wasn’t going to be dancing, she didn’t want to come to the revolution. Well, it’s more of a mosh pit, Emma, but here’s the soundtrack. And if you watch Abraham Marcos’ award-winning music video for this song, you can get a little more insight in to the feeling that’s driving this sort of composition from them — it’s rage. We’ve bequeathed their generation a ruined world. Ask any fantasy writer what the most powerful force in the universe is and they’ll tell you it’s a teenage girl who’s been wronged and has a sword (or, in this case, an electric guitar). Viva la revolución.
The conversation between the two halves of the Queen’s personality comes to a climax with “Sinister Smiles.” Dany and Pau trade off lead vocals, personifying the conflict, interspersed with a fist-pumping chant of Break, break, just break apart accompanied by thundering tribal drums and an insinuating guitar lead. The Queen’s evil side seems to take the upper hand, with Pau (representing her good side) saying I’m not a fool, there is nothing left for me, do what they say or else there will be hell to… and the whole band replies … pay the price and grab the dagger, cut through skin and stain the water, and for what it’s worth you’ll never live until you die! On the stage, Dany swings her hand up to point at her sister, who delivers a drum fill that seems to announce the arrival of Ragnarök as the band charges into the chorus, which features a dancing bass line and swirling strings under crisp falsetto harmonies from Ale and Pau, with the Queen telling herself … my hands, your blood, won’t let you win but darling you can barely take much more. At the end the Queen cries I have done no wrong, I have done no wrong, Oh, I have done no wrong. Well, I would disagree but … she’s got a knife. This song is to me the high point of the concert, particularly as it is a pure collaborative effort — the music and lyrics are credited to The Warning rather than to each of the sisters individually, as most of the tracks on the album are; it’s a glorious, titanic achievement.
The next two songs celebrate the evil Queen’s takeover and highlight the band’s cohesion and hard rock style. “Dull Knives” is a driving, straight-ahead rocker featuring sudden silences, shake-the-building bass drops, and a drum rave-up at the end that will have you frantically waving imaginary sticks unless you are some kind of soulless robot. “Queen of the Murder Scene” is classic heavy metal, opening with a pulsating riff that would have Mick Mars and Nikki Sixx going “damn I wish I’d written that one,” monstrous bass lines, extremely metal bass drum rolls, a stuttering, echoey guitar solo, and thrilling defiance that can’t just be from the Queen. I think it’s also The Warning asserting their independence; And if you wanna destroy me? Open your eyes ’cause you can’t even see the fact, that I just can’t be controlled by anything BUT ha, LET’S SEE YOU TRY! If that’s not a message to the record companies who wanted to make them into teen idols, I’d be very, very surprised.
For the last interlude, Pau takes lead vocals to sing “Copper Bullets” from their previous album: an unflinching, gruesome look at domestic violence and murder. From, as another fan once said, their teenybopper phase. It’s gutwrenching and exhausting, but compelling rock. And a good transition into the blood-soaked final chapter in the Queen’s story.
On the run now, the Queen taunts her enemies in “P.S.Y.C.H.O.T.I.C.,” a throwback raveup with chants and shouts, a buildup with a snare roll and “Twist and Shout” aaahs and screams; loads of fun but the Queen has blood on her hands and is taking up the knife, and by golly she’s going to have her revenge. And in “Hunter,” driven by a yet another compelling riff, she gets it: … it’s my turn I’ll pass my judgement, you can’t escape your fate … RUN! Most satisfying.
As the pulse-pounding, ears-ringing thunder of the last song dies away, Ale plays the piano to begin the poignant finale, “The End (Stars Always Seem To Fade).” Apparently back in the diner finishing telling her tale to the sisters, the Queen says farewell, knowing that her life is forfeit and that what she did was wrong. To bookend “Dust to Dust,” Pau sings her heart out again, saying stars always seem to fade; it’s a little too late to start over again. It’s an ’80s Heart style power ballad, with beautiful harmonies, clear and heavy bass, and one of Dany’s best guitar solos. If this doesn’t move you, you are, again, some kind of soulless robot.
As an encore, the band performs “Survive,” one of their most widely played songs from XXI Century Blood. It’s ostensibly about a broken relationship, but again it is the band defiantly asserting their independence from anyone who would interfere with their creative process or trifle with their emotions. The song ends with a groovy mid-tempo instrumental, and in a very satisfying mirroring of the opening of the set, a final solo bass figure from Ale, who throws her fist into the air at the last note in triumph and relief. I’ve never seen a group pour 100% emotional and physical energy into every song in a 90 minute set before. Ever. This was incredible. And even more so now that some fans have told me that the band were really a little bit off their game this night. What. They can be better? I’m lost. Absolutely lost in love with this band.
I suppose I don’t need to tell you that this music gave me All The Feels. It all brought me back to a time when I was their age, and my emotions were hot and roiling, and rock and roll was the most important thing in my life. In 1981 (I think) I was in a high school production of “Romeo and Juliet.” The director, who had worked on Broadway before having a call to join the Jesuit order and getting stuck teaching us, made a point of telling the cast that the characters were us — the same age, having the same feelings, going through the same changes in body and mind, feeling the same intensity of emotions: confusion, rage, love. And it worked, we were immersed in that stew of boiling hormones, and we channeled that naked raw energy into our performances. Hearing this music made me remember and feel how I thought rock and roll was going to save the world, and how did I forget that? Never mind. The Warning have brought that back for me, and lots of others. A common thread though the comments on their many videos on YouTube is exactly that: that these sisters have single-handedly saved rock and roll. That’s hyperbole, because who knows what that means; but I know, I know, that they’ve bemused my soul.
“They don’t even know what it is to be a fan. Y’know? To truly love some silly little piece of music, or some band, so much that it hurts.” — Cameron Crowe, Almost Famous
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The Warning are:
Daniela Villarreal, lead guitar, lead and backing vocals, piano: Dany is the group’s main singer and front woman. Outgoing and extroverted on stage, she engages with the audience with wide-eyed intensity and a voice that can and does range from kitten to lioness in a heartbeat. She is also a gifted and unselfish lead guitarist with a keen sense of texture in her playing. She doesn’t waste a note, making those rare times when she takes a solo all that much more special.
Alejandra Villarreal, bass guitar, backing vocals, piano: Ale is the youngest and quietest sister on stage and in public, but perhaps that’s because she prefers to make statements that involve shaking the room. Definitely a queen of tone, her massive sound anchors the band; but she can dance and shimmer over Dany’s power chords in a way that grabs at you and doesn’t let go. Let me just say this: Over the years in live concerts I’ve seen Geddy Lee, John Entwistle, Ross Valory, John Wetton: I am mentioning Ale in the same sentence because she belongs there.
Paulina Villarreal, drums, percussion, backing and lead vocals, piano: The Warning first captured attention in part because of Pau’s powerful and athletic drumming style, which elicited comment from Kirk Hammett himself after their cover of “Enter Sandman” went viral on YouTube. Since then Pau’s power and precision and ability to play different styles has only improved, she’s an absolute monster on the kit. But of course that’s not all. She frequently sings lead, something that is rare but not unheard of for drummers; but is vanishingly rare in hard rock because of the intensity required. Can you imagine someone like Don Henley singing “Copper Bullets” while ripping out metal bass drum rolls? No, you can not. Pau can do that. But wait, there’s more: the sisters have repeatedly stated that their songwriting process is intensely collaborative but most of their songs begin with Pau at the piano. Queen of the Murder Scene as a concept was her brainchild, as well. Triple threat.
I’ve tried to summarize The Warning’s sound descriptively with out a tremendous amount of luck. The best I can do is, say, imagine the best and heaviest of ’80s rock, stripped of the smirking nastiness and misogyny that characterized the scene at the time, with added focus on composition and quality lyrical content, delivered with 100% musical, physical, and emotional commitment. It’s simultaneously familiar and fresh. Just go listen. Chances are you’ll react like a number of my friends, who have all said “I finally got around to listening to The Warning and …” followed by an invocation of the deity and profane expressions of awe. This is (to borrow something Rolling Stone said about Mötörhead way back when), music for the thinking headbanger. And, let’s be honest here, the feeling headbanger. It’s been a couple years and I still can’t get through “Stalker” without tearing up. I CAN’T.
The Warning have since 2015 independently released an EP, Escape the Mind, and two full-length studio albums, XXI Century Blood and Queen of the Murder Scene. In 2020 they signed with Lava Records, joining artists like Greta Van Fleet, Lorde, and the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, and completed work on their third album (title still secret), with producer David Bendeth. The first single from this album, “Choke,” is to be released on the 21st of May 2021. Lava Records is the project of Jason Flom, who has said that he values artistic freedom above almost all else for the artists on his label. I hope, for his sake, that he means that most sincerely because you do NOT want The Warning to write a song about how you betrayed them, oh, my gosh no. It’d be a pretty awesome song though.
Clips of The Warning’s live performances are astonishingly easy to find on YouTube, mostly published by their official account, including the complete Lunario concert and a subsequent performance at the Foro DiDi in their home town of Monterrey. Their albums are available digitally through their official website (thewarningband.com), as are links to articles and interviews. Announcements and whatnot are also on Instagram (@thewarningrockband). Exclusive content and early warning of announcements can be had through Patreon sponsorship, which at some levels also comes with a digital copy of the studio recording of Queen of the Murder Scene and its fantastic album art by Gretel Joffroy and Enrique Palacios. To learn more from the band you can also buy a copy of the video for their live performance at the Aqua Fria club, where they did a “Storytellers” like description of what their process is like, and answered questions from the fans. The band also produced a yet-unreleased documentary about Queen of the Murder Scene which is going to be an absolutely fascinating look into that creation.
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I backed the band’s Kickstarter a few centuries ago back before the pandemic, to get an early crack at their third album and tickets for their (ultimately cancelled) North American tour. As a result, this week I got an early listen to “Choke.” Let’s just say that if you follow the band’s social media and have been listening to the little clips of them covering current pop hits (from Nelly Furtado to Dua Lipa to Billie Eilish), you might get the impression that they’re going to lighten things up a bit for this record. Allow me to disabuse you of this notion. From what I can tell they’re louder, darker, tighter, and HEAVIER than ever. This song’s got some impact. When you get it on Friday, play it LOUD.
