Christian nu metal act P.O.D. is hitting the road this spring to promote their latest record, Veritas, which will be released May 3rd. With a bill that includes Bad Wolves, Norma Jean, and Blind Channel, the I Got That Tour kicks off at the 98 KUPD U Fest in Phoenix, Arizona. Tickets available now at payableondeath.com!
4/26 – Phoenix, AZ – 98 KUPD U Fest 2024^
4/28 – San Diego, CA – House of Blues
4/29 – Santa Ana, CA – Observatory
5/1 – Los Angeles, CA – The Belasco Theater
5/2 – Las Vegas, NV – House of Blues
5/4 – Colorado Springs, CO – Sunshine Studios Live
5/5 – Wichita, KS – TempleLive at Wichita Scottish Rite Center
5/7 – East Moline, IL – The Rust Belt
5/9 – Charlotte, NC – Neighborhood Theatre
5/10 – Atlanta, GA – Buckhead Theatre
5/11 – Jacksonville, NC – Hooligans
5/12 – Daytona Beach, FL – Welcome to Rockville 2024^
5/15 – Milwaukee, WI – The Rave/Eagles Club*
5/16 – Columbus, OH – Sonic Temple Festival 2024^
5/17 – Reading, PA – Reverb
5/18 – Ledyard, CT – Foxwoods Resort Casino*
5/19 – Sayreville, NJ – Starland Ballroom
5/21 – New Kensington, PA – Preserving Underground
5/23 – Joliet, IL – The Forge
5/24 – Turtle Lake, WI – St. Croix Casino Turtle Lake Hotel
Serpent Rising is a new heavy metal/rock project hailing from eastern Pennsylvania, comprised of members from various local acts. So far, the band has shared three singles, and they have a fourth on the horizon.
I was lucky enough to be given the chance to talk to lyricist/frontman Bradon Marshall! We dove into the members’ musical histories, their shared influences, what’s coming next for Serpent Rising, and much more!
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Mostly Music: Tell me about how Serpent Rising formed, and what’s the story behind the name?
Bradon Marshall: So the band was formed by two members (Josh & Clint) of an old punk band called Cold Blood Creep after they disbanded due to issues with their singer. Then, they found Seth, the guitarist, after seeing him cover a Lamb of God song. Finally, they met me about 3 months ago, before I left the group Two Dollar Horse. I stepped down as lyricist and frontman for TDH, and am filling the same role for Serpent Rising.
As far as the name goes, we bounced around on a bunch of names prior to Serpent Rising, but none of them felt right. Once the name Serpent Rising was put on the whiteboard, we knew it was the one. It sounded cool, rolled off the tongue, and represented our heavier tone, from the words to the drop tuned instruments.
A simpler way we all look at it is, as Josh put it – before this band, we were all kinda lost in music. Once we were all together, it felt collectively like we rose above the water and started treading.
MM: Did you all have a mutual direction at the beginning, or were you working from different musical backgrounds/influences?
BM: We definitely have different musical backgrounds, I think each member is all over the place; but we totally have our favorites.
Clint, the drummer, is old school. He really likes Motorhead. Josh, the bassist, really loves Dream Theater. So clearly, there’s a beautiful disconnect between all of us, where we as a team can pull from different styles to create.
MM: Who are the band’s major shared influences?
BM: I think if you listen closely, you can hear the best of different rock/metal subgenres come into play. Some honorable influences are as follows: Stone Temple Pilots, Alice in Chains, Megadeth, Periphery, Korn, Sleep Token, Lamb of God, and Acid Bath.
MM: That list definitely runs the gamut of subgenres! So, what is your writing/recording process? How do y’all bring it all together?
BM: Our writing process is currently pretty streamlined and fit so that each member can add their defining piece of the puzzle separately. The main songwriters are Josh and Seth. We are all pretty comfortable with audio engineering from a studio standpoint.
They [Josh and Seth] are really good at creating hook-based riffs with emotional transitions. Basically, they create the whole instrumental portion of the song on their own, then they send it to me to add my lyricist touch. Once the song is pretty much 100%, we bring Clint up to speed.
MM: On that same topic, what is the story behind the latest single, “Asphyxiation”?
BM: Another great question! “Asphyxiation” has done really well; better than any of us expected for the start up of the project. The song has its highs and lows instrumentally as well as lyrically.
In our mind, it tells an abstract and sad love story paired with the words, which is why when Josh and I laid out the script for the music video, we wanted it to not be too on the nose.
I can’t speak for the band as a whole or anyone that pulls a meaning from the words, but personally, I have dealt with a lot of difficulty with love and put my faith in a lot of things and people that have burned me. Or it is as simple as just not being able to see eye to eye repeatedly, to the point where it creates a jaded “not where you belong” type of feeling when it comes to actually getting close to anyone. Almost suffocating, in a sense, hence the title.
MM: As a lyricist, from where do you draw most of your inspiration? And what made you start writing? Did you begin in a different medium (poetry, perhaps)?
BM: I think I draw most of my inspiration from things I’m too afraid to say not in front of a microphone, as funny as that sounds. It’s always personal for me, but I try and keep the words abstract. Someday, we could dissect the lyrics of a song to fully understand the meaning I put behind it.
I’ve been writing poetry for most of my life, and I have always looked at it as just poetry on top of music, but once I started playing instruments, I had a place to put the words & it opened up a whole world for me.
MM: Y’all have released 3 singles thus far. When can we expect an album or EP? Or does the band prefer to upload tracks to a streaming service and not actually put them into a collection like that? I know several bands are going that route with the decline of the demand for physical copies of records.
BM: As far as releases go, yes, there are currently 3 out of the 13 songs we have lined up for possible release. But I wouldn’t expect an album. It just doesn’t work like singles do. Albums are great, in our opinion, but there is a decline in desire for them and with us trying to also do music videos and cinema content for the majority of the songs, singles make it much easier to do so piece by piece!
Two of the three songs currently have music videos and an unreleased (as far as streaming services are concerned) track called “MUD” has only a video on YouTube.
MM: I am from the generation that set a lot of store by music videos, so I’m really enjoying this resurgence of artists who like to express their music visually as well. So, what are the band’s plans for 2024?
BM: As far as our plans for 2024, we’ve booked shows to fill out most of the year, and we’ll be focusing on recording songs to be released and content for music videos and things of that nature. Our plan is to be a little more than just a band that makes and releases music. We’re still planning out ideas for our next big music video adventure! Everything we do, we want to keep DIY. It seems to keep the creativity natural and we are cohesive together more than we’d be with an outside party.
A collaboration or two with another local artist/musician would be cool, though!
MM: What would be your dream collaboration?
BM: It would be really cool to work with an off-genre band to create a mixture of sounds that weave well together but not to be expected!
MM: Taking that a step further, what would be your dream tour lineup (that includes Serpent Rising, of course)?
BM: I always loved the idea of keeping it close to home. There are a ton of great bands locally. Just to name a few that I’d love to travel and share music with – The Stone Eye, Hannibal, People Food, Ben Grinder Group, Ephraim, Die Tired, The Spyders of HBG.
That’s just a few, there’s many more! The music is there, you just gotta look for it!
MM: I love when bands promote other locals! It helps me spread the word as well. Still on the topic of live shows, what’s your favorite thing about performing?
BM: I think collectively our favorite thing about performing so far since we’ve started is after a show we get to come off stage and talk to people who heard us for the first time, maybe have a drink with them, and just talk about the music and various other things. Short of the connection we get with them on stage, there’s nothing else comparable!
MM: Last but not least, is there any message you have for your listeners (and my readers)?
BM: If we could say something to those who listen and anyone who reads this, it would be to always try to create something each day, even if it’s just a little happiness, check out our new single “MUD,” releasing March 30th, and come say hi to us & have a beer or six at our up and coming shows!!!
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Serpent Rising is truly just getting started. If you are a fan of the heavier styles of music, I would highly recommend looking them up right now! Make sure you follow the band on their socials so you never miss any news in regard to upcoming releases or live shows. You can listen to their latest single, “Asphyxiation,” below, and don’t forget that “MUD” drops on March 30th!
Alabama-based metal band Maylene and the Sons of Disaster are hitting the road this spring with special guests Letter Kills, Islander, LIMBS, and Saltwound. Tickets can be found at mayleneandthesonsofdisaster.net!
Scottish metal band Alestorm has announced the Tour of the Dead Marauder with special guests Elvenking and Glyph. This North American run is in support of the release of their new EP, Voyage of the Dead Marauder, which will be released March 22nd! Tickets are available at alestorm.net.
Metal and guitar goddess Nita Strauss will be playing some shows this March with support from Diamante and Starbenders! You can grab your tickets and VIP packages at nitastrauss.com.
3/12 – Worcester, MA – Palladium
3/13 – Mechanicsburg, PA – Lovedraft’s (w/special guest Anoxia)
3/15 – Milwaukee, WI – The Rave/Eagles Club
3/16 – Minneapolis, MN – Studio B at Skyway Theatre
Faceless Objects is a psychedelic/doom/stoner metal project from Austria that came together in 2020. Since then, the band has released ten singles, each with a coinciding video, which will make up their debut album, Confused, when it drops later in the year.
I discovered Faceless Objects last year, and after following them on Facebook (and adding bassist/vocalist Ella Baphomet on my personal profile), I knew I wanted to interview them. So we made it happen!
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MM: Thank you so much for your time! Let’s dive right in with a basic two-part question. How was Faceless Objects formed? And what’s the story behind the band name?
FO: Faceless Objects was formed in 2020 by Ella Baphomet and Mike Seed (on Mike’s birthday, to be exact). We both always wanted to do something new and different but never found the right people to start. We wanted to combine classic doom metal, stoner metal, and psychedelic sounds, and each song should be a journey on its own – accompanied by a video to make the story of the song visible.
The name Faceless Objects is describing how we as artists see other people. It is more about collecting biometric data than actually seeing the whole face like other people do.
From the beginning, it was only two people who ran everything – composing, playing/singing, recording, mixing & mastering, video shooting & cutting, as well as promotion. And it still is. The only exception is for our upcoming live gigs – playing four instruments at the same time is quite impossible – even for Mike. But finding the right people for our music was a bumpy road.
MM: Y’all have both been involved with previous projects?
FO: We both have our experiences with prior bands or projects of different kinds..but like our lyrics in “Reborn” say…“no turning back, the past is gone”…
MM: Are there any particular bands/artists that inspired y’all to go down this path, as far as creating for the doom/stoner/psychedelic subgenres?
FO: We have a lot of influences…different music styles, bands, artists..but can’t say that there is a particular one that made us go this path. Maybe a mixture of different artists and something that just always was inside of us waiting to surface. But if you want some names…Mike loves Pink Floyd and Rage Against The Machine, and Ella’s favourites are Judas Priest and Alice Cooper.
MM: I love Alice Cooper and Pink Floyd! And I can definitely see where the stoner/psychedelic inspiration comes from if y’all are listening to those artists. Lol.
FO: Nice, we like the same music 🙂
MM: We do. Y’all are from Austria, right? Is there a big metal scene there? (My familiarity with music from Austria is limited, but the few artists I have heard are industrial or electronic. Lol.)
FO: Yes, we are all from Austria, though from different areas. Me and Mike founded the project in 2020 and have been looking for musicians who wanted to share our goals and the love for the music.
The metal scene in Austria got a lot bigger than it was once. There are many bands now, mostly in the genres of death/thrash or speed metal. Not so much in the classic heavy metal or melodic metal genres. But there are still more rock bands than metal bands – and it is very difficult to reach people with original music. So there are a lot of cover bands as well.
MM: I saw a recent post about your upcoming album, Confused. Can you tell me a little more about it? What has been the writing and recording process for this album?
FO:Confused tells a story like a book, and each song is a chapter in that book (each song also has a music video on YouTube). We are telling our stories and experiences, but it was always very important to us to leave enough room for the listener to find themselves and their own meaning in our songs. We always have a journey within the song – it starts out in a certain way and then changes into something completely different, and many people told us how cool it is because you don’t really realize it when you listen to it. You just get taken with the story and the music.
Writing and recording was a step by step thing. We thought about what the next chapter would be about, wrote the song, and recorded it. After that, we made the story visible with a music video. So we did this song by song – and the order the songs were released is also the order the songs will appear on the album. The last song on the first album – “Crossing” – is kind of a cliffhanger. The song fades out..and the first song on album no. 2 will fade in at that exact point, making “Crossing” into “Crossing…Over The Bridge,” a song more than 9 minutes long, full of surprises and changes. The album will also include a previously unreleased bonus track called “Void.”
MM: I like the idea of a coinciding video to visually tell the story. I don’t think bands take time with music videos the way they used to, and I’m the generation that was all about videos. I understand it can be costly, so I’m not complaining.
FO: Absolutely true. Many bands don’t have the money for cool videos, others think it’s not worth the effort as no one watches videos anymore because it’s all about streaming music nowadays. But we still believe that a video helps putting the music on another level.
MM: So y’all have planned the way you want to do the release. I assume the album is going to drop this year? Any other plans for 2024?
FO: Our plans for this year are doing some live gigs with the new band and releasing the album in March/April. We are also working on new material – the first song of the second album is done and we’re gonna shoot the video for it soon.
MM: I like the concept of storytelling. Maybe it’s because I write short stories, but I just really enjoy the full experience of music and imagery.
I have a few more questions, kinda just for fun. What would be your dream tour lineup that features Faceless Objects?
FO: Dream lineup… Well, Judas Priest and Rage Against The Machine, lol. But seriously, we are looking forward to meeting cool and interesting new artists and bands..and if you find some you really connect with those would be the ones for a dream lineup.
MM: Are there any bands/artists you guys listen to that you think would surprise people? “Guilty pleasures,” so to speak.
FO: Guilty pleasures… I think to some it might be surprising that Ella likes Glenn Miller a lot and generally 1930/1940s music. Mike’s hidden treasure is Kraan, a former DDR jazz-rock band.
MM: That is one of the more surprising answers I’ve gotten to that question. 30/40s music. Most people throw out a pop or rap artist.
FO: Haha, yep! 30/40s might not be the first guess with a metalhead, but it’s so soothing and the melodies are so beautiful. They also take you on some kind of journey.
MM: I should probably wrap this up, but I’m curious – are you guys self-taught, or have you had any lessons?
FO: Well, Ella and Mike are self-taught. Mike has been playing guitar since he was a little kid and taught himself to play the other instruments over time. As for the rest of the band, Zoka had guitar lessons and also started playing as a young boy, Mexx had coaching and has his own drum school, and Martin is a classically trained pianist.
MM: Is there any message you would like to give your fans, both old and new?
FO: We thank all our fans for their support and love they continue to give us (and some have been with us from the very start). Receiving feedback like “this song really helped me,” “those lyrics just hit my current situation so well,” or just “I love your music and videos, there is so much to find in there.” But we also wanna say..believe in yourself and your dreams. Don’t let anyone decide what you can do or not. You can do what you allow yourself to do.
And thank you, Melia..for this wonderful opportunity to express ourselves and the really good picked questions. It’s been fun and a pleasure, and I hope we’ll do this again sometime!
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Faceless Objects will be releasing Confused in the spring of this year – and hopefully album #2 will quickly follow. In the meantime, you can immerse yourself in the story via the tracks on Spotify, or the visual side on YouTube. And be sure to follow the band’s socials for news and updates!!!!
Metal band A Killer’s Confession, fronted by ex-Mushroomhead member Waylon Reavis, has announced a spring run with special guest Mike’s Dead. The 19-date tour kicks off in Joliet, Illinois, and draws to its conclusion at the band’s home base, Cleveland, Ohio. Tickets and VIP are available at akcglobalrecords.com!
Aggrotech/industrial metal band Combichrist is touring this spring with Dead Animal Assembly Plant and Esoterik. They also have a revolving assortment of special guests, which includes Curse, Unitcode: Machine, Treasvre, and Cultus Black. Tickets and VIP are available at dsolprod.com!
3/14 – Anaheim, CA – The Parish at House of Blues*%
3/16 – Los Angeles, CA – Whisky A Go Go*%
3/17 – San Francisco, CA – Neck of the Woods*@
3/18 – Eugene, OR – WOW Hall*%
3/19 – Portland, OR – Star Theater*%
3/20 – Seattle, WA – El Corazon*%
3/22 – Idaho Falls, ID – The Gem*
3/23 – Salt Lake City, UT – Leatherheads*@
3/24 – Denver, CO – Kulture Music Hall*@
3/26 – St. Louis, MO – Red Flag*@
3/27 – Minneapolis, MN – Varsity Theater*@
3/29 – Madison, WI – Annex*@
3/30 – Chicago, IL – Distro Music Hall*@
3/31 – Toronto, ON – Lee’s Palace*@
4/2 – Detroit, MI – Magic Bag*@
4/3 – Albany, NY – Empire Underground*@
4/4 – Montreal, QC – Foufounes Electriques*@
4/5 – Providence, RI – Fete Hall*@
4/6 – Mechanicsburg, PA – Lovedraft’s*@
4/7 – Philadelphia, PA – Warehouse on Watts*@
4/8 – New York City, NY – Brooklyn Made*@
4/9 – Pittsburgh, PA – Preserving Underground*@
4/10 – Columbus, OH – King of Clubs*@
4/11 – Piedmont, SC – Tribbles*
4/12 – Atlanta, GA – The Masquerade (Hell)*
4/13 – Tampa, FL – Crowbar*
4/14 – Orlando, FL – Conduit*
4/15 – Miami, FL – Gramps*
4/18 – Houston, TX – Scout Bar#
4/19 – Austin, TX – Come and Take It Live#
4/21 – Dallas, TX – Haltom Theater#
4/23 – El Paso, TX – Rockhouse#
4/24 – Phoenix, AZ – Rebel Lounge#
4/25 – Albuquerque, NM – Inside/Out#
4/27 – Las Vegas, NV – Sick New World Fest 2024 (Combichrist only)
Mostly Music 