Sunday, October 26, 2025
grindcore maniacs Barren Path are streaming two new unrelenting, frenzied songs
This band Barren Path is implementing a scorched-earth policy of grindcore songwriting, with 12 songs with something like an average length of one minute, give or take. In other words, this is the sound of perfection. Press play, and the barrage races out of the gate and continues in the same fashion for the duration, keeping the music at fast as humanly possible, with screaming and growling all over the place, from the left and the right, from behind and from front, up and down the line, and blasting like a horde of lunatics. The only problem is that this recording is too short. Besides that critique, there is nothing that I find to complain about, just fun, blast and fast. Wonderful.
Barren Path
Grieving
Willowtip Records
31 October 2025
ABOUT THIS GRINDCORE: After completing the final objective and rising from the ashes of the recently self-immolated GRIDLINK, Takafumi Matsubara and Bryan Fajardo now set mission coordinates towards BARREN PATH. Recruiting Maruta/Shock Withdrawal vocalist Mitchell Luna and re-enlisting grindcore commandos Mauro Cordoba and Rory Kobzina from the Coronet Juniper sessions, this operation requires relinquishing high tech weaponry. Only use of rudimentary blades, precision blast strikes, and amplified guttural attacks is allowed.
BARREN PATH elevate the flailing savagery of their genre through mincing, precise volleys of melodic and dissonant passages that rip and tear like a swarm of shurikens. By turns cruelly effective and strangely vulnerable, Grieving is a statement release by a new standard-bearer in grindcore. This is music for a vicious, unforgiving world.
Grieving
by Barren Path
prog metal guitarist Jim Matheos goes weird - Tuesday the Sky
Saturday, October 25, 2025
burped-death metal? really? Dead and Dripping
Tuesday, October 14, 2025
Wretched - Decay (Official Video)
Below you will find the informative official information about WRETCHED, an American melodic technical deathcore death metal band from the state of North Carolina, and their brand new album titled Decay that comes out this week. I have been enjoying the melodic yet heavy brutal sound of the album. Check out this video and see if you understand what this is all about. You're in for a treat!
Wretched
Decay
Metal Blade Records
17 October 2025
With Decay, the decade-long wait for new Wretched music is finally over, the dozen songs worth every moment of anticipation. The first LP since 2014's Cannibal, Decay sees the boundary-pushing lineup breaking past defined walls of their four previous releases. "We've had a lot of time to grow and reflect in the time between our last album and Decay," says drummer Marshall Wieczorek. "Wretched is doing what Wretched always does, and that's exploring our environment and leaving room for ourselves to try different things. To sum things up, the new album is DYNAMIC. We go here, we go there, we go everywhere. There is no shortage of groove, heaviness, speed, melodicism, prettiness, and sadness."
For the last two years, Charlotte, North Carolina's lauded metal monsters worked on the songs that would populate Decay. The result is a conceptual masterpiece that blends haunting melodies with progressive complexity. This fifth album, which is a prequel to 2010's Beyond the Gate, delves into existential themes, D&D-inspired mythology, and personal loss.
"Decay is 100% a concept album," confirms vocalist Billy Powers. "Beyond the Gate had an element this record shares, the talisman. I always knew there was more story there and was very excited to join up with the guys again to put that in motion. The first track I wrote was "The Golden Tide." I had no idea where I was going to take story in connection to BTG until I typed the first line of the song. 'They began in the dark.' After that, the lyrics poured out of my mind and by the end of it I realized that this story takes place many years before the content of BTG."
The LP's title track (and first single) contains the album's main character, Malus, along with a character from BTG named Elturiel, a djinn bound to any creation to come from Xzorian. "In the song, 'decay' refers to Malus' decaying existence, the feeling of loss, and helplessness/lack of control he has to influence anything outside of the darkness in which he has been cast."
In broader terms, decay refers to many elements of the album's story: "The decay of good intention, the loss of loved ones, the influence time and choices has upon our bodies and minds and the decay of the world around us due to the choices of those with ultimate power." Powers found that he'd also subconsciously written certain lines reflecting personal experiences of loss and deception, often influenced by writerly favorites including JRR Tolkien and Michael Crichton as well as countless comic book creators, such as Robert Kirkman and Jonathan Hickman. Decay world even sees Power using Latin words/phrases in the lyrics to "show that in this story languages can span across an incredible amount of time, space, even crossing dimensions."
If this sounds heady, Wretched are glad to expand and explain for fans, with Decay's liner notes offering a more fully realized journey. "The story tells you everything you need to know about what happens before and after each song, so the listener can choose to listen to the album again in story order to gain the full story experience of the album," Wretched explain.
The music "contributes to the story and helps paint an image, in the same way music and movies go together," Wieczorek furthers. To that end, the visually evocative "Radiance" is Decay's second single, described by guitarist Steven Funderburk as a "solid head-banging ripper of a song that has heavy groove riffing as well as a very mournful yet epic melody on the back half, which is something we're known for doing."
Sonically, Decay may be Wretched's most pristine-sounding recording, but it's still raw with a live feeling in the performances. The band didn't track the parts until they sounded like a computer. You hear Steven pick through the strings and fret the instrument, Andrew shines on bass with a potent musicality and movement, his parts as much a part of the sound and structure of the songs as the guitar. Vocally, Powers went as raw as humanly possible, pushing himself and the instrumentals to their furthest for an uncompromisingly powerful performance on every track.
The twelfth and final song on Decay is "Golden Skyway," which is a bit of a wildcard, rife with uplifting energy. Funderburk is drawn to guitar-driven melody from bands like Iron Maiden and Dissection, and that approach is used on "Golden Skyway. "I've wanted to do the key change / modulation move on every record, but it just didn't work out for whatever reason," he recalls. "But 'Golden Skyway' finally opened that door for us. I'm a huge fan of the 80's in general and that was a stamp all over music from that era so it was rad finally doing that." 'Golden Skyway' felt like the proper final track with its triumphant-sounding melody and groove giving listeners an uplifting end to an often-dark musical journey.
When Wretched emerged from North Carolina, in 2005 as a formidable force on the metal scene, their blending of melodic, death, technical and progressive metal captured ears immediately. With their 2025 debut album on Metal Blade, the band is officially back in full force with a tidal wave of music to lift up both old and new fans. "The world is such a wild place that can be hard to navigate. Many people have so many hardships in life. I wanted to create an escape for the listener with the hopes that they will be entertained, get lost in the music/lyrics and forget about everything else going on, if just for a little while."
Billy Powers: Vocals
Steven Funderburk: Guitar
Andrew Grevey: Bass
Marshall Wieczorek: Drums
https://www.facebook.com/wretchednc
Wretched - Decay (Official Video)
Monday, October 13, 2025
An Abstract Illusion "No Dreams Beyond Empty Horizons" - Official Video
Monday, September 29, 2025
Dawnbreaker - Black Metal after Nihilism, Atheism and Self-Destruction (Part 2)
Dawnbreaker is black metal from the United States, with five full-length albums released since 2018. What makes Dawnbreaker most unique is its history, which stretches back to 2004 and even before that. Before Dawnbreaker, there was Angelcide—ghastly black metal steeped in contemptuous blasphemy, the kind that would make Slayer blush. Angelcide released three albums, along with several EPs, splits, and demos from 2004 to 2017, in addition to numerous side projects, often profoundly entangled in blasphemy and satanism. The satanic lifestyle of drugs and perversion—and everything that goes with it, too graphic to describe here—was the hallmark of Angelcide.
That was, until one day, when it all became too much. A personal crisis of epic proportions occurred, and the man behind Angelcide, in a shocking turn of events, began to feel the presence of God. Thus, Dawnbreaker was born, and the black metal that had for decades mocked God was now, however unlikely, black metal in the service of God.
In a previous installment of this interview series, we gained insight into a happy childhood, an adolescence gone astray as a black metal anti-social extremist and dangerous weirdo, and the era of Angelcide up to the moment of his conversion to Christianity.
This, more or less, is where we pick up the interview in this installment.
I have read something about your music that I am not sure that I understand. You spent some 15 years making obscenely blasphemous, anti-social black metal against God. However, after you repented and you accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior, you actually went back and recorded your old satanic black metal songs and changed the lyrics to reflect your Christian faith in a project called Hosts of Lord? That seems like a huge amount of work! Is that three full-length albums and a bunch of demos, all your satanic music from 2004 to 2017! Did you go back and read your old lyrics or was that too painful or embarrassing to see what you had written? Did you play all instruments and record it all yourself?
- Yes, I took a great deal of the songs I had from “Angelcide” and other side projects from that era and rerecorded and restructured them for Dawnbreaker and Hosts of Lord. I actually didn’t need to re-listen to anything, I remembered all the riffs and song structures very well. The lyrics I didn’t remember for the most part, I wasn’t thinking about the lyrics at all when I decided to rerecord them. The songs (music, not lyrics) were meaningful and powerful to me and I didn’t want to be ashamed of them. They were also recorded poorly and I wanted to give them another chance now that I was better and more experienced with music production and also a much more proficient musician. This all came after recording and touring with the band Abazagorath, so I understood the recording process much better. And yes, I did it all myself with no collaborators. Just an engineer to record the vocals, since I was living in apartments during this time and couldn’t scream without disturbing the neighbors! There was at least a 10-year gap with everything I rerecorded since the original recordings, so I ended up combining the passion I had in the early days with many years of experience as a musician and audio engineer. And since nobody in the Christian/Unblack metal scene was familiar with my early work, it was all new and fresh to them anyway!
Is Hosts of Lord finished? Has the mission been completed, as way to rectify or atone? Why call it Hosts of Lord and not Dawnbreaker? It's probably not a good business decision, given that for fans it is easier to keep track if everything that you record is simply called Dawnbreaker. I like the raw black metal of Hosts of Lord. I like everything about a song like “I Beheld a Clash of Otherworldly Entities.” The harsh vocals, the guitar riffs, the tone, the drums sound, all of it. Do you use vocal effects on Hosts of Lord? Are the drums on a song like the one I mentioned, are those programmed?
- Hosts of Lord was started because I just had too much music! From about 2016 – 2021, I had a huge surge in motivation and creativity. Maybe it helped that I was getting a prescription for Adderall, which is basically just speed (it literally said “amphetamine salts” on the bottle) and drinking a lot of espresso coffee. But maybe living in New York City during these years also had a cultural impact, the hustle and bustle and the grind, you know? It made me want to work hard. Whatever it was, I couldn’t keep up with all of the inspiration that was flowing at that time. So, by the time of the early Hosts of Lord releases (2020) I had already released 3 Dawnbreaker albums that were improving in technicality and production quality. I didn’t want to oversaturate with too many releases, especially without a logical transition between them. So, I thought I would create a new project that would be raw, low fidelity recordings. To capture those early days of my black metal works, and also the early days of black metal in general. I wanted to take my earliest demos and turn them into completed, full length works. And also record some other stuff that was written from that time frame but never recorded. I didn’t use vocal effects (I used the worst quality computer microphone possible), tuned to standard (the Dawnbreaker albums are downtuned), and yes the drums are programmed but made to sound live. I also initially wanted to release the albums on secular record labels, whereas all of Dawnbreaker’s music was released on a Christian label. But the other labels got complaints from people about releasing a Christian band, so I ended up returning it to Christian Metal Underground Records (a sub label of Vision of God). But Hosts of Lord wasn’t very successful, and maybe I should have recorded this material as Dawnbreaker at some point. Sometimes I even think about rerecording some of it again for a Dawnbreaker release haha! I don’t plan on releasing any more Hosts of Lord albums, but I have admittedly been inconsistent when it comes to this stuff.
You are now a grown man. Do you have a wife and kids? Or, does doing music really leave no time for raising a family? If you don’t have a wife and children, is something that you think about? How does the prospect of raising children sound to you?
- I had a wife for many years, but unfortunately we ended up parting ways. This happens to many of us, Christian or not, although it’s extremely embarrassing as a Christian and a stain on my legacy and testimony. You can “not believe in divorce” but sometimes divorce believes in you! I never particularly liked being around children, and thus never had much of a desire for it, but I’m absolutely open to them if the situation arises! Not because I want to, but because it’s the right thing to do. I think it’s objectively better to have children and I probably would have been a more fulfilled, better version of myself if I had them. But I also believe you don’t necessarily have the right or guarantee to them. I definitely will re-marry if/when the opportunity arises, as the Catholic church never recognized my first marriage (it’s a long story).
When you became Christian, how did you go about telling people? Did you deal with ridicule?
- I was off social media at the time. For years, I was private about it and told no one. Maybe for two years. I didn’t consider myself a full-blown Christian yet. But I was praying to Jesus Christ daily, fasting, meditating. But in 2016 I went to a Joel Osteen event, and they read the verse in the Gospels where Jesus says “He who denies me before people, he I will deny before my father.” So I answered the altar call that night, and became a Christian publicly. But I was pretty isolated at the time. Eventually I joined a church and a church worship team, playing guitar in fairly large services of 300-400 people. It all happened fast, and was surreal. But I needed to make a public declaration still. And I did it with the first Dawnbreaker album, DEUS VULT. That was my true declaration of the Christian faith, and it was intended to be so. I even self-released the album, created a record label to release it, because I wanted to make sure the message was exactly as I wanted it. All of the layout, everything, that the lyrics were there. The album was literally me screaming about my conversion and that I was a Christian now. It was probably the most important thing I ever did. I wanted that testimony out there, so if I died that year, it would be on record, for everyone to see. Most of my friends in the metal scene accepted it, as they had found their way into the “conservative” ecosphere where Christian voices were prominent. Some said “I’m glad your happy, but don’t try to force your beliefs on me.” But others – not my good friends, but others – have said “I don’t like that you’re a Christian.”
If a person reading this, is thinking about what you have been telling them about Jesus, but they don’t know where to start. In religion there are charlatan preachers asking people for money. There are many scams and scandals. So many denominations, too, fighting each other, attacking each other. It is not always easy to know where to start. What part of the Bible is a good start for them to read? How can you help them to start to learn about the real Jesus?
- Just jump in and start reading. I would start with Romans and read to the right – this will give you a sense of what the faith actually entices. Then read one of the gospels, John or Matthew maybe.
To be continued.
--
Deus Vult
by Dawnbreaker
https://www.facebook.com/dawnbreakerworship/
Readers that are curious about the Dawnbreaker interview installment that came before this one, please see this link.
Dawnbreaker – From Blasphemous Music to Making Christian Black Metal (Part 1)
https://metalbulletin.blogspot.com/2025/09/dawnbreaker.html
Looking back on things, to when you were a teenager and a young man, how do you think that your parents felt seeing their baby become this really disturbed, mentally sick individual? - Yes, all the time. It was hell for them! But they always loved and believed in me anyway. They tried there best to help in whatever way that they could. They didn’t see the worst of most of it, outside of me going to jail a few times! But we all got along most of the time after my teenage years, even though I still had some troubles to work out. There was only one or two years where things were really terrible. But they were happy we had a continued relationship and I tried to be respectful as I got older. I still see them often! I sent you a link to an article about a former satanist to whom Jesus appeared. The former satanist had a crisis and a breakdown because he was heavily involved, not just in atheistic-satanism, but rather in worship of the devil. Given your years in the anti-Christian lifestyle, did you come into contact with devil worshippers? Looking back on it now, what are your observations about such people? Are they angry? Are they frustrated with their lives and with the emptiness of their life? It's usually single people who are not real adults because they live their lives for themselves, and are not responsible for other people, family, children or other people in general. Being 18 years old does not make one a man or woman, but when you become directly responsible for the well-being of other human beings, it teaches you the value of serving other people and about the meaning of life, a life shared with other people. What are some of your conclusions and observations as to why disturbed individuals, angry people, people frustrated with their empty lives, people who are unhappy, anti-social, who hate the human race, drug-consuming people, hedonist/pleasure-obsessed people, these types of people attracted to atheism, satanism, nihilism and self-destructive ideologies and behaviors? - I did read the article yes, fascinating stuff! Yes, I met some real witches, theistic satansists, and genuine psychopaths! I could tell you countless horror stories. Yes, a lot of frustration, hatred, darkness, and psychotic episodes. Our society naturally leads people to hedonism and pleasure obsession. From baby boomers on, these became the new gods and nothing mattered as long as “you were getting yours.” People pursue this hedonism in different ways, and it isn’t necessarily limited to devil worshipers in the literal sense. You have so many pleasures at your fingertips now, the phone that sits in your pocket all day can bring you whatever your mind and heart can conjure up. Just a few swipes from your finger and there’s whatever food you want at your door, or whatever kind of woman you want ready to take her clothes off. Or a community of sickos to tell you that whatever debased habit or thought is in your head, is totally normal and should be encouraged and pursued. There’s a funny meme about this… if somebody in 1970 has sexual fantasies about toasters, they just get over it and live a normal life. But in 2025 there’s a whole Reddit page of people sexualized by toasters ready to encourage you to ruin your life! It takes severe and extreme discipline to keep yourself grounded in this age. Because much of popular culture is ready to reinforce your worst temptations. Have you encountered people who formerly lived their lives in these ways, but that eventually became tired of the emptiness of their atheistic and satanist way of life? Sometimes such individuals feel the need for a connection with God. They feel God pushing them towards Him. Yet, they resist. They resist, in part, because they know all of the disgusting things that they have done in their past. They feel shame. Shame for alcoholism and what it has done in their lives. Shame for the drug addiction. Shame because of the extreme sexual immorality, thievery, violence, deceit that they have done. Shame because they know they have used people, exploited people, maybe killed people (like drunk driving), raped, spent time in prison, and who knows what else that they have done. It is normal for people to feel shame. How about you? Did you feel shame? What would you like to say to someone reading this, someone who feels a deep sense of shame. That person feels God calling them to a better life, but they don't do it. They feel unworthy. They think, “God won't want me. I'm too filthy.” What would you like to say to that person that is reading this right now, feeling ashamed? - Yes, I felt great shame. Because in my past, I engaged in almost all of those things, maybe all of them besides rape and murder! But God still decided to not only forgive me, but pursue me relentlessly! Of course, there were consequences to all of them. Consequences I’m still facing over 20 years later. But in Jesus Christ there is forgiveness, there is a way, a truth, a light. A narrow gate. And all through the Gospels, Jesus sees the poor, lowly and broken sinners. He sees the heart and not the exterior. So yes, if you are reading this, look at all the terrible things I’ve done, and see how God forgave me and chose me to represent the Christian faith within the metal scene! There are many who seem so far beyond hope or redemption, that God will do incredible works with. So someone reading this, maybe could be one of them!
Tuesday, September 23, 2025
Maldisdeun - American death doom from the forests of Bellingham, Washington
The new EP in 2025 is called Into the Flame of Fear. I’ve been enjoying the two new songs. When you were recording the new music, were there some things you wanted to improve upon? For example, the drums cut through more clearly. What does your drummer Drake think about his real drumming being replaced by sampled sounds? Drake: Glad you enjoy the songs! We were 100 percent bound and determined to make a better recording this time around than the LP. I figured with a new lineup, we needed to make a statement and give it our all in the studio to turn out something we were really happy with, because our last experience definitely left me with a sour taste in my mouth. The older I’ve got, the less I care about sound sampling or whatever, I just want a recording to sound good. Before you even enter the studio, you should be dealing with someone you’ve researched and trust – this point cannot be stressed enough. If you find that person, you should then give them the free rein they need to do their job because they know what they’re doing better than you. You don’t go to a mechanic to fix your car and then start taking wrenches out of their hand. Likewise, don’t go to a producer to make your album sound good and then start telling them to not use x or y effect, because they likely have a better idea as to the big picture sound for the record. I’ve been stringent and controlling in the past with producers when I’ve recorded, and every time I was, I ended up with a recording I didn’t like because I wasn’t willing to butt out and just let them do their job. How instruments interact with each other in a studio isn’t the same as in a live setting, and you need to make sacrifices in order for everyone’s performances to shine through in the studio. I’m not 100 percent certain, but I’m fairly sure the kick drum is sampled, that’s about the only sound replacement that I believe exists on the drums. Like I said, I don’t really care, because sampling/triggering is not the same as programming drums. I’m still performing the drum parts, the sound just has to be altered because there is limited space to define low-end frequencies with our band because we play super downtuned. If the producer felt that was the best way to add distinction to the bass drum sound, I’m not going to argue; he’s not pulling that out of a hat just because he can, he is doing it because he cares about the totality of the record and knows what it will take to make it sound the best it can". And when I listen to it now, I can tell he was absolutely right in making the decisions he did. He's not making those decisions randomly. What themes are you exploring in Into the Flame of Fear, particularly with the tracks “Pervasive Strife” and “Mass Suggestion”? Drake: Andrew wrote “Pervasive Strife”, I wrote “Mass Suggestion”. “Mass Suggestion” is a song about statues appearing in a village where nobody knows how they arrived there. The general populace’s interpretations of said statues lead to lethal consequences for the unfavored of their community. Thematically, the song is about paranoia and fear driving the actions of most “civilized” people – hence, “Into the Flame of Fear”. You could really boil down most of my lyrics to “people suck and are not to be trusted”. Andrew: In regards to “Pervasive Strife,” Musically I wanted something kinda simple to play but sounded really big, something that could be off [Morbid Angel’s] Gateways to Annihilation or like some Immolation tune. Lyrically I was thinking along the lines of an early concept for the next album that Drake had told me about, I wanted a bit of a side conversation in that early story about human struggle and the fact that to be human means to struggle. I chose to write about Ahriman (or Angra Mainyu) because he is the demon of struggle in the Zoroastrian religion, like he is the thing that encompasses the entire concept I wanted to go for, so Ahriman it was. Was there a particular event or inspiration that sparked the creation of Into the Flame of Fear? Was there a certain catalyst for the music and lyrics of the EP? Drake: The main driving force for getting this new EP out was the addition of our new members. We really wanted to release something this year to showcase the strengths of our new lineup and to show we’re more focused and driven than ever. I think our songwriting has improved overall and we have a clearer vision of the music we want to make, because there was some grey area when the band first started. “Mass Suggestion” was wrote quite a while ago, while Andrew brought “Pervasive Strife” to the table pretty fleshed out. We thought these 2 songs would be good to release on their own since I have a specific concept in mind for our second full-length, and I felt like these 2 songs seemed more like singles than something that was part of a larger whole. I also thought it’d be a cool way to stretch our wings lyrically by still having a story in mind for each song, but being lyrically contained to one piece of music.
Wednesday, September 17, 2025
Tomas Lindberg (1972-2025)
The YouTube channel BangerTV does a tribute to Tomas Lindberg.
Tomas "Tompa" Lindberg (16 October 1972 – 16 September 2025) was a Swedish vocalist who fronted many death metal bands, most notably At the Gates.
Amongst the other bands he worked with are: Grotesque, Infestation, Lock Up, Nightrage, Sign of Cain, The Crown, The Lurking Fear, Liers in Wait, Necronaut (live), Sacrilege (live), Ben-Hur, Conquest, Disfear, Hide, Skitsystem, Snotrocket, The Great Deceiver, World Without End.
"Sam shares some thoughts on the passing of At The Gates vocalist Tomas Lindberg and shares a previously unseen extended interview from Metal Evolution in 2010."
A Tribute to Tomas Lindberg | Raw & Uncut Interview from Metal Evolution
Sunday, September 14, 2025
Interview: Inpathos - melodic death metal from Washington State, U.S.
Surrounded by mountains, forests and cloudy skies, the college town of Bellingham, Washington State, one of the northernmost towns in the contiguous United States, located about one and a half to two hours north of Seattle, depending on traffic, is home to a gem called Inpathos. The band (2020-present) has steadily built their discography with a debut album in 2020 titled Divinity, the sophomore in 2021 named March Towards a Blackened Sun, an EP in 2023 called Ascension, and now their third album, Apparitions in 2025, which features 12 tracks spanning approximately 57 minutes. Brimming with ideas, their latest release represents very well their dedication to their craft. From their debut, Inpathos demonstrated a clear and well-formed musical identity: intense, fast, shredding guitar work combined with melodic yet heavy and brutal sensibilities. By releasing albums in rapid succession, they have honed their sound through growing experience in songwriting and recording. Fans of melodic extreme metal would do well to look into this hidden treasure of a band in a town near the border between the United States and Canada.
A third album! That's not an easy feat. It looks like no big financial institution is bankrolling you. Three albums and EP since 2020. Keep up the good work!
Thanks! Yeah, we try to do as much as we possibly can ourselves so we can maintain total creative control over our music. Plus, it pushes us to learn and grow as artists and generally as creative people.
It seems like there is a metal music scene in Bellingham. How many of your members are Bellingham natives?
It’s pretty great here! A bit expensive, but we have a dedicated scene with a lot of surprises. Black Breath were originally from here, which is pretty awesome, we have some pretty notable acts that roll through here (Red Fang, Helms Alee, Anciients, High on Fire, etc) and some seriously awesome venues like the Shakedown, the Makeshift, Karate Church, the Wild Buffalo, and many more. Three of us grew up in Bellingham or the surrounding towns, and our previous guitarist grew up here as well (check out his new band Hunter’s Dream btw!)
Metal Archives says that your band began in 2020, but also that you did your debut album in 2020. That doesn't add up, does it? You must have had this bun cooking in the oven way before 2020.
Yup, the band officially formed in 2020. Adonis (Ado) had already written and arranged most of the songs before that though, some coming from ideas written as far back as 2009!
Metal Archives lists two brothers, Adonis (guitars) and Nabil Reed-Boulos (drums), as the constant members since 2020. Therefore, these brothers must have had music written since their middle school or high school days, correct?! What metal bands did you like when you were younger?
That is correct, Ado and Nabil have been writing and playing music together since they were both in middle school, and some ideas from then ended up becoming songs on future albums (see The Void Above and Starless Void... two “Voids”, quite the coincidence huh?). Our biggest metal musical influences were Opeth, Avenged Sevenfold, and Metallica in those years, which is funny because they only shine through clearly once in a while. We’ve always taken our influences and put our own unique twist on them, even from the beginning. That said, we had a ton of influence from the music we grew up with, and since we’re Lebanese that meant a LOT of Lebanese and French music. Dabke, oud music, Charles Aznavour and Edith Piaf, and so on.
The rhythms and melodies blended into the metal influences and our own self-expression to create something vastly different from the original inspirations.
As if an album in 2020 was not enough for an independent band, then you recorded and released a second album in 2021. What do you remember about this period of 2020-2021 for the band? It seems like you must have been very busy.
Oh yes, we were definitely excited to get the music out. Plus, with all the lockdowns during those years, we definitely had some free time. Our guitarists would both write constantly, so there were a ton of songs already in the making by the time Divinity was released. It is always stressful too, but in the end it’s worth it, especially when we finally get to play the new songs live and connect with the scene and fans!
At that time, you had the same line-up for the two albums, but nowadays only the two brothers remain from those days, and are now joined by bassist Brendan Brendible and Patrick Bradford on vocals. There was an EP in 2023, but it does seem like it took you some time to build the band back up with new members and to record your third album Apparitions in 2025. Did the stress of being in a band become too much for previous members? Do any of you have children yet? Are any of you students at Western Washington University, given that you live in Bellingham?
Do you ever think: “One day I will be old, and I will have children. Will I be ashamed or proud of my music and my lyrics?” How would they react? If a musician is too embarrassed by their own music and lyrics, what does that say about one’s life’s work and the time and effort spent making metal music?
My thoughts on this one are actually pretty straightforward. I think lyrics and music that are written with intent, meaning, and as true personal expression are an insight into who the writer is at that point in their life. Might they be a bit embarrassing at some point down the road sometimes? Sure. Does that matter? Eh, not really. It’s a snapshot of a point of time from which you have moved on. As far as relatives’ reactions to the music, I suppose it really just depends on the person and the individual relationship?
So, in 2023 there was the EP Ascension. It seems like this EP was a time of transition. By this time the band had reached a new level of skill: the music sounds melodic and heavy in a more skilled way, sharper, and tighter.
It was definitely a time of transition for us, and we wanted to try out a lot of new stuff in a smaller format release so we could focus on doing them really well - a music video, pro mixing/mastering, etc. We’re glad you think it was a step up to the next level! That was definitely the goal.
Your 2025 album Apparitions finds the band once again changing course a little bit, a bit bolder and more confident to expand on the melodic death metal sound. For example, tell me about the extra percussion on the song “Last Embrace.” There are more things happening in the music, I sense.
Apparitions was an extremely ambitious project for us in many ways, including learning how to blend all the different elements we wanted into the music. That’s how things like the percussion on “Last Embrace” (Nabil recorded it), the interlude of “Grand Design”, the intro of “Unraveling Creation” and other quirks came about. Ultimately, we don’t want to play typical melodeath because that’s not who we are. We have so many other influences, and we will always strive to express ourselves as much as we can. That said, we’re definitely not a prog band either. What we try to do is focus our diverse influences through the “lens” of melodeath to get something that feels coherent, intentional, and focused, but also unique to us.
The song “Apparitions’ showcases a very tight, sharp guitar sound while keeping melodies at the forefront. I feel like the changes from 2023 are now the permanent state of affairs: At a certain point, your musicianship and your recording skills have become more refined. Your album stands up very well to the more established bands in the melodic death metal genre. I'm proud of you guys and how much you have grown in your abilities.
Thank you so much! We really appreciate that. We’re always trying to do something better or more interesting with every album, so it’s great to hear others affirm that we’re on the right path.
Sometimes metal bands run out of money after self-financing albums. You are not making money, correct? Every album is a net loss in terms of money. That's why fans supporting your music means a lot.
The support of our fans is everything. Financially, it helps us try new things with our shows, get better gear for recording, hopefully tour soon, and so on. More than that though, sharing the music with people and connecting with them is what makes it worth it. There’s nothing more exhilarating than playing music for people that love it and seeing them enjoy it, then nerding out with fellow musicians and metalheads after a show about other great bands, shows, merch, and gear. It’s one of those things that makes being a metalhead so special.
Of course, we also all work full time and split the remaining costs where we can, but I think like with most musicians the dream is that one day this could become a part-time or even full-time thing (I don’t think anybody is happy in a soul-sucking 9-5, and especially not artists and musicians!). Either way, we are just extremely thankful that we get to do this at all and that we have so many people who enjoy what we do and support us in so many ways!
What are your plans for 2025 and 2026? Are the two brothers constantly writing new music? more shows in Bellingham? what about Seattle and Tacoma? What about other towns like Arlington, Marysville, and Everett?!
Oh, we have all sorts of plans! So yes, first of all, we are planning to get more shows lined up all around NW Washington and even beyond (Oregon, Eastern WA, etc), and even a tour in 2026 if finances allow. The brothers are always writing, as well as the other members - we try to use a very collaborative approach to writing. We are planning a few EPs, a new album, etc. We’re just going to see how many of those many goals we can achieve and go from there.
What have I forgotten to ask about? What is the best pizza in Bellingham? Do you ever go swimming in the waters in the bay in Bellingham?! I bet it's cold! Ice cream at Mallard!
I (Ado) have been swimming in the bay a couple times, but I definitely prefer being in the woods up in the mountains. And yes, it is definitely cold in that water! Mallard is a great Bellingham staple, and while I’m a terrible judge of good pizza, The Racket (the other side of the incredible venue The Shakedown) has some of the best food in town in my opinion, plus pinball upstairs! It’s a great place to grab a bite and a drink before heading next door to The Shakedown to catch a metal show.
Apparitions
by Inpathos
https://www.facebook.com/InpathosBand
So funnily enough, Brendan has actually always been our only bassist. We had lined someone up originally that was going to play bass with us when we started playing live, but he ended up not being able to before we even started. And since Ado recorded the bass on Divinity, it’s really just been Brendan from the start! So, I’d say the three of us are all still original members, with Ado and Nabil being the founding members. We parted ways with our first vocalist Jordan around early 2022 as I recall. He had some other really exciting plans he was pursuing at the same time, so when the opportunity to build them further presented itself, it was a no-brainer! We definitely missed him, but it was really exciting to see him get to pursue his dreams! It took a really long time for us to find a new vocalist, and I think Ascension was instrumentally complete sometime in fall-2022 if I recall correctly. We finally found Patrick in early 2023, and he breathed new life into the band. We finished Ascension, filmed a music video, and released that summer. After a string of shows to finish out the year, we dove into the next album in early 2024. Little did we know 2024 was going to be a brutal year for us all personally. A couple of us were affected by job changes, we had some illnesses throughout the year, Ado had a long string of injuries and couldn’t play guitar for the better part of six months, a lot of our gear was starting to fail and needing replaced, etc... Finally, our guitarist Anthony decided that after finishing the album, he would be parting ways to dedicate more time to some other projects he was passionate about. So, we finally finished recording the album in Fall of 2024, but were now down a member. We still had to mix/master the album, shoot a few music videos, and begin the hunt for a new guitarist, all while preparing to play shows come spring. That brings us to the present. We’ve found our newest member (official announcement coming soon, though he has been playing shows with us for some time now), the album and several videos are out, and we’re getting back to playing shows! 2024 and the first half of 2025 were tough, but it can only go up from here! As for the last part of the question, no kids for any of us at present. Nabil and Brendan both studied at Western, and Ado almost did but headed down to Seattle for a few years to attend UW instead. What are the Inpathos lyrical concepts? Your very first single, according to Metal Archives, in 2020 was “The Void Above” and the lyrics can be read as a contemplation on the skies. For readers who do not know, in the Bellingham area there are a lot of mountains, hills, forests, and trees. Therefore, at night, it is easy to see the stars and to see the sky. Looking at the night sky makes human beings react with awe. “The Void Above” could be read as atheistic and nihilistic, which carries over to the first album in general, while the second album seems more brutal and gruesome in the lyrics. Where does the year 2025 find you? Lyrics are a funny one for us, because we’ve actually had a different person write them for every release. The lyrics for the Divinity album were almost all written by Ado, with some editing by Jordan to improve the actual execution of them. As can be seen in the lyrics, Ado can be a pretty depressing dude (don’t worry, he’s the one saying as much!) and that definitely comes out in his writing. Moving on from there, Jordan took over primary lyric writing for the second album, which is a super brutal concept album with a dark, medieval feel. With the Ascension EP, Ado was back to writing again, but this time it was more of an abstract concept. That EP is really an ode to this incredible area we call home up in Whatcom County, with undertones of depression inevitably sneaking into the lyrics. Patrick made some edits when recording to improve the structure and flow of lyrics, but this latest album is where he really took the reins. He wrote a full concept story for the new album with the help of his partner Sabrina, and from there they crafted a really cool, post-apocalyptic, occult/sci-fi lyrical journey that carries through the full album. That’s a type of story setting/concept that he really enjoys working with, so from here on out we’ll probably have a few albums in that vein and plenty more concept albums to come. Was there an overall lyrical theme to the 2021 album March Towards a Blackened Sun? “In Reflection” was an interesting composition that causes more questions than it answers. That album, one could say, seems like the story of a traitor or heretic who has to face his final fate. Honestly, you nailed it. It’s absolutely the story of a soldier that has been branded a heretic and traitor by the tyrannical conqueror he has been serving. He decided he can’t stand by idly and watch the atrocities any longer, so he deserts and tries to escape and help others, only to be caught and executed in the end. Definitely a really dark story for that one. How do you approach lyric writing for your band in general? It’s tough since each release has been written by a different person, but one thing I think those of us that have written lyrics have all had in common is we don’t want the lyrics to be meaningless. Even with the concept albums, there are strong emotional undercurrents and/or personal experiences that give the stories actual meaning and purpose. They aren’t just stories for the sake of having lyrical content - they always have intent and meaning.
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