I always enjoy hearing artists’ takes on songs they love, and the most fun reimaginings to me are the ones that come from a completely different genre than the original. Over the past week, two such renditions have been released into the world. The third cover… Well, it was always a dark song, so an infamously dark artist sharing his version makes sense.
1.Priest: “Black Hole Sun”
Yes, that “Black Hole Sun.” It’s so Priest, but I think it’s a very respectful nod to Soundgarden and the original. And, let’s be honest, it takes balls to release a song and know everyone is going to be comparing your vocals to Chris Cornell’s.
2. Aesthetic Perfection: “Fade to Black”
Aesthetic Perfection is a self-proclaimed industrial pop act. Hearing them do a Metallica track was unexpected, but I dig it.
3. Marilyn Manson: “In the Air Tonight”
Manson prides himself on shocking people. His entire career is based on it, in fact. He has done odd covers before. However, I just never would have predicted a Phil Collins song. Lol. As stated above, it kinda makes sense. The subject matter of “In the Air Tonight” is rather dark. Who better to reimagine it than Marilyn Manson and Tyler Bates?
Killswitch Engage has shared eight dates for May alongside Shadows Fall, Fit For a King, and Boundaries! Tickets and VIP are on sale at killswitchengage.com.
5/8 – Columbus, OH – Sonic Temple Art & Music Festival 2025*
5/10 – Indianapolis, IN – Egyptian Room
5/11 – Memphis, TN – Minglewood Music Hall
5/13 – New Orleans, LA – Fillmore
5/14 – Birmingham, AL – Avondale Brewing Company
5/16 – Daytona Beach, FL – Welcome to Rockville 2025*
Evil disco pioneers Static-X have shared dates for the Machines Vs. Monsters Tour. Featuring support from Gwar, Dope, and A Killer’s Confession, this late spring/early summer run kicks off May 23rd in Tucson, Arizona. Tickets and VIP are available at static-x.org! (Dope and A Killer’s Confession are also offering VIP experiences.)
5/23 – Tucson, AZ – Rialto Theatre (No Gwar)
5/24 – Albuquerque, NM – Revel Entertainment Center
Attila is setting out alongside Butcher Babies, Ded, Dealer, and Nathan James for the America’s Rejects Tour! The spring run of 23 shows will kick off March 4th in Destin, Florida. Tickets are on sale now at attilaband.com!
3/4 – Destin, FL – Club LA
3/6 – Oklahoma City, OK – 89th Street
3/7 – Houston, TX – Warehouse Live Studio
3/8 – Dallas, TX – Trees
3/10 – El Paso, TX – Lowbrow Palace
3/11 – Albuquerque, NM – Sunshine Theater
3/13 – Grand Junction, CO – Mesa Theater
3/14 – Eaglewood, CO – Gothic Theatre
3/15 – Colorado Springs, CO – Black Sheep
3/18 – Iowa City, IA – Wildwood Saloon
3/19 – Indianapolis, IN – Deluxe
3/20 – West Chicago, IL – The WC Social Club
3/21 – Lansing, MI – Grewal Hall at 224
3/22 – Covington, KY – Madison Theatre
3/25 – New Haven, CT – Toad’s Place
3/26 – Amityville, NY – Amityville Music Hall
3/27 – Scranton, PA – Ritz Theater and Performing Arts Center
Swiss thrash metal band Coroner is hitting the road in North America next year to celebrate their 40 year career. With special guest Deceased, this tour will begin March 5th in Philadelphia and concludes March 22nd in Houston. Tickets are on sale now at coroner-reunion.com!
3/5 – Philadelphia, PA – Johnny Brenda’s
3/6 – Baltimore, MD – Metro Gallery
3/7 – Brooklyn, NY – The Meadow
3/8 – Boston, MA – Sonia Mideast
3/9 – Montreal, QC – Piranhabar
3/11 – Ottawa, ON – Overflow Beer
3/12 – Toronto, ON – Velvet Underground
3/13 – Cleveland, OH – No Class
3/14 – Chicago, IL – Reggie’s
3/15 – Indianapolis, IN – Black Circle
3/18 – St. Louis, MO – Red Flag
3/19 – Nashville, TN – The End
3/20 – Atlanta, GA – The Earl
3/21 – New Orleans, LA – Siberia
3/22 – Houston, TX – Hell’s Heroes/White Oak Music Hall
Testament and Kreator are heading out this fall for their Klash of the Titans North American Tour! Featuring special guest Possessed, the 33-date run kicks off September 12th in Reno, Nevada. Tickets available at testamentlegions.com, or snag tickets and Kreator’s VIP option at kreator-terrorzone.de!
9/12 – Reno, NV – Grand Sierra Resort and Casino
9/13 – Las Vegas, NV – House of Blues Las Vegas
9/14 – Salt Lake City, UT – The Complex
9/16 – Seattle, WA – Showbox SoDo
9/17 – Portland, OR – Roseland Theater
9/18 – Vancouver, BC – Vogue Theatre
9/20 – Calgary, AB – MacEwan Hall Concerts
9/21 – Enoch, AB – River Cree Casino & Resort
9/22 – Saskatoon, SK – Coors Event Centre
9/24 – Winnipeg, MB – Burton Cummings Theatre
9/26 – Maplewood, MN – Myth Live
9/27 – Chicago, IL – Radius Chicago
9/28 – Huber Heights, OH – Rose Music Center at The Heights
9/29 – Royal Oak, MI – Royal Oak Music Theatre
10/1 – Cleveland, OH – Agora Theater & Ballroom
10/3 – Toronto, ON – HISTORY
10/4 – Montreal, QC – MTELUS
10/5 – New Haven, CT – College Street Music Hall
10/6 – Boston, MA – House of Blues Boston
10/8 – Silver Spring, MD – The Fillmore
10/10 – Montclair, NJ – The Wellmont Theater
10/11 – Bethlehem, PA – Wind Creek Bethlehem
10/12 – Raleigh, NC – The Ritz
10/13 – Atlanta, GA – Tabernacle
10/15 – Orlando, FL – Hard Rock Live Orlando
10/16 – St. Petersburg, FL – Jannus Live
10/18 – Houston, TX – White Oak Music Hall
10/19 – San Antonio, TX – Aztec Theatre
10/20 – Dallas, TX – The Factory in Deep Ellum
10/22 – Denver, CO – Fillmore Auditorium
10/23 – Albuquerque, NM – Albuquerque Convention Center
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!
Mostly Music 