Kari Wahlgren Is ‘Mad About You’ With Release Of New Single ft. Nikki Stringfield

Celebrated voice actor Kari Wahlgren is a student of 80s and 90s metal, and her upcoming album is a reimagining of songs from throughout Slaughter’s dynamic, and wonderfully menacing, catalogue.

While Slaughter’s music is a perfect union of artistry and attitude, Wahlgren’s interpretations of their tracks also display a deep awareness of the musical trends of the past few decades. There’s traces of industrial music, buzz-saw garage rock, dangerously splintered metal subgenres, and even a little polished pop and jazz, all audible in her version of Slaughter’s music.

‘Mad About You’, her latest single, is paired with a playfully murderous video. Slaughter’s original was a relentless song that was anything but soft. Wahlgren’s take on the song is aided by a blistering guitar lead by Nikki Stringfield from The Iron Maidens, the all-female hard rock band who’ve opened for KISS. While they’ve slowed down the tempo down, they’ve dialled up the distortion; and they’ve squeezed every ounce of grit and menace out of a song that was already pretty filthy.

The SlaughtHER project grew out of Wahlgren’s stage show of the same name – a live tribute to Slaughter and a radical reinterpretation of the glam-metal band’s catalogue. The ‘Mad About You’ clip is an extension of the SlaughtHER show, and Kari Wahlgren plays her role to the hilt. Fellow voice actor and viral video maker Ben Giroux captures her as a demented Alice in a dangerous Wonderland, mixing up a homebrew that she’ll later feed to a captive man. In between those sequences, she takes centre stage and snarls as Nikki Stringfield squalls away beside her. She looks every bit the part of the ferocious, hyperkinetic, slightly frightening rock and roll frontperson. Her heroes in Slaughter couldn’t have done it any better.

Check out the video below.

Kari Wahlgren - "Mad About You" (feat. Nikki Stringfield) [Official Music Video Cover]

About the author

Lisa has been writing for over 20 years, starting as the entertainment editor on her university newspaper. Since then she's written for Popwrapped, Maximum Pop, Celebmix, and ListenOnRepeat.

Lisa loves all good music, with particular fondness for Jedward and David Bowie. She's interviewed Edward Grimes (Jedward), Kevin Godley, Trevor Horn, Paul Young, Peter Cox (Go West), Brendan B Brown (Wheatus), Bruce Foxton (The Jam), among many many more. Lisa is also available for freelance writing - please email lisa@essentiallypop.com