Heavy metal to the rescue: Members of Voraath embarked on post-Helene mission of mercy

It’s an epic tale of neighbors helping neighbors — with a decidedly metal twist.

Morganton’s Joshua Ward (drums, vocals, keys) explained how he and guitarist Tylor Kohl initially set out in the midst of the destruction to rescue bass player Paul McBride, who was trapped at his washed-out apartment building in Asheville.

“We had one last message from him and didn’t hear from him again, so we were like, ‘we’re going to get our bass player,’” Ward said. “We’re a bunch of hillbilly metal guys, so we’re getting him.”

They found McBride huddled with some other survivors around a radio, awaiting official news updates.

“It was very post-apocalyptic,” Ward said.

So is Voraath’s music.

The band’s first album, “Vol. 1: The Hymn of the Hunters,” was released earlier this year. “The whole lore of our music is literally about a dystopian future focused on the Appalachian Mountains,” Ward said. “A huge part of our story is about a great catastrophe that happens in the Appalachian Mountains.”

“So, while we’re doing this, we’re asking, did our story just come to life? Did our story come to get us?”

It would seem so.

With that initial rescue mission completed, Voraath quickly found itself drafted into a new one.

Ward, a former National Guardsman, said a buddy of his in the Guard told him officials needed some sturdy guys who could hike into remote locations carrying essential items, so the bandmates volunteered.

Forced to scrap the tour since many of the venues were within the hurricane’s zone of destruction, the group converted its music rig into a different kind of equipment hauler, eschewing amps and microphones in favor of medicine and drinking water.

“We ended up being in a way crazier thing than we meant to be in,” Ward said. “I was so proud, because these guys, they gave up the tour, they gave up the money. One guy didn’t even have a home. But we spent nine or 10 days out there.”

Four members of the five-piece outfit ended up helping the cause. Vocalist Chelsea Marrow drove up from Pensacola, Fla., and joined with McBride to keep supply lines open while Ward and Kohl roamed the mountains.

Along the way, they picked up de facto teammates like National Guardsman Adam Millspaw, Jade Louis, and former Marine Andrew Woods, a chef who spent $2,000 of his own money on medical supplies.

Ward said he saw a lot of elderly folks in desperate need of assistance, and the group was determined to help them and other people with health problems get necessities like insulin and oxygen.

“I called our team ‘The Savior of Old People,’ because every time we made it somewhere, there would be an old lady on a road that had been destroyed,” he said. “People kept messaging us saying they hadn’t heard from someone, so we took on a sheet that probably had 50 names, and we’d just go out finding these people.”

At one point, Ward said rescue teams in Spruce Pine needed to get oxygen to people but lacked the converters they needed to distribute the gas into smaller tanks.

Voraath to the rescue: “Metal-band connection: We know breweries,” he laughed. “We’ve drunk some beers. So, we contacted breweries, and they started giving us oxygen converters, and we took those up there and they were able to use them to get oxygen into smaller tanks.”

Ward recalled coming across a man in Old Fort sitting on a pile of mud where his house once stood. Ward stopped and asked what his group could do to help. The thirsty survivor replied he sure could go for a cold beer. Voraath obliged.

At one point, the crew made an impromptu stop in the wilds of Bat Cave to help a family track down some wayward livestock, a horse, and donkey that had escaped their enclosure.

As a wave of outside help began pouring into the mountains, Ward and his mates stepped down to an on-call role. That means they’ll be free Saturday night when they headline the music lineup at the Brown Mountain Lights Festival in downtown Morganton.

A donation drive for hurricane relief is part of the festival, and Ward said Voraath would personally make sure the donated items are delivered.

After Brown Mountain Lights, the band will begin work on its second album, which will include some of the adventures the members shared while on the rescue mission.

“We’re definitely writing this event into our canon,” Ward said.