Slaughtersun - This is how a violin makes death metal

New information has come in! The earlier version of this review asked the question: "What type of violin makes such death metal?" Well, the man himself Ben Karas explains below how he achieves the sound. Here is the original review below, and under it, you will find Ben's answer to the question. You will also find a link to their Ampwall page where the physical CDs can be ordered.

Slaughtersun

Black Marrow

10 January 2025

There once was a little boy named Benjamin Karas. He lived in Montclair, New Jersey, U.S. He practiced the violin day and night. In 2010 he received a telegraph to join the melodic black metal band Windfaerer, from New Jersey, and to this day Ben plays violin with that band. Then, a funny thing happened in 2013. The mailman brought him another telegraph to join the prog jazz band Thank You Scientist, also from New Jersey. A crazy thought popped into Ben's head. It was something strange. He kept asking himself this question: "How would death metal sound if my violin eliminates the guitar?" Up until that point, in the other bands there are guitarists, and Ben was thinking about making his violin take the place of the guitar.

So, this band has no guitars and what sounds like guitar is actually a violin. What type of violin? What type of strings? I do not know. The music is a type of prog-tech death, but not excessively so. It does sound different with the violin, but not strangely so, if that makes sense. If there were no information available about the band, and I just listened to the music, I really don't think I would have noticed consciously that it is a type of violin, and not a guitar. I have a confession: I did listen to this recording many times while at the gym and I had not read the information about them. Therefore, I am telling you that I was not smart enough to detect the violin. I had only noticed that I liked the smooth or fluttering rhythm of the "guitar" and I kept coming back to it to figure it out. Well, in fact, I never did figure it. It was only when I read the information about the band that I finally realized that it is a violin in this headbanging death metal band.

The keys to the mystery are explained by Ben Karas himself. He wrote to this publication to answer the questions: What type of violin do you use and how do you make sound this way? Do you use a guitar amp?

"I use a 5 string ETJ electric violin. It's a solid body instrument with a Starfish piezo pickup. I used different combinations of equipment for each song on the EP, but I'm basically running it through an overdrive pedal into a tube amp sometimes with extra EQ. For amps I used a 6505, Engl Fireball and EVO BK50 all for various songs. The Electric Eye Mudkiller and Horizon Drive were probably the most frequently used boost pedals. The strings are D'addario Helicore violin strings; nothing unusual for the instrument. Most importantly the playing technique is a major part of the sound as I've practiced imitating metal guitar playing for many years. I'm running through a tube amp. Most of them are all guitar amps, but I have a signature model, the EVO BK-50 which is a custom amp that has been adjusted specifically for the violin. It's my primary rig, but sometimes I like to blend tones in the studio or simply change things up."

https://ampwall.com/a/slaughtersunnj/merch/black-marrow-ep

https://www.facebook.com/slaughtersunnj https://slaughtersunnj.bandcamp.com/album/black-marrow-ep