During a conversation about Polish folk-metal at the Geist office, I was reminded of something a friend told me: that there was a metal band with a parrot for a vocalist, but the parrot was killed by a dog who was the lead singer of a different metal band. I looked it up and found Hatebeak. Hatebeak is a death metal band from Baltimore, Maryland, and their vocalist, Waldo, is a 15-year old African Grey parrot. The band plays loud, aggressive death metal that includes a parrot making aggrieved bird sounds, which is disappointing because male African Greys are capable of speech. However, the part about Waldo being murdered by the dog vocalist of another metal band is incorrect. A dog-fronted band does exist—Caninus is a deathgrind band from New York with two female pitbulls, Budgie and Basil, as vocalists—but the two groups are on excellent terms, as I imagine the only two metal bands with non-human vocalists would be.