When searching for fantasy themed metal, Los Angeles may be the last place one might look. However, formed in 2017 by lead guitarist / vocalist Joey Love, Seizure developed an ever-evolving sound that fused the raw thrash metal style of the Los Angeles underground metal scene, with influences from some of Europe’s most melodic metal bands. Fast and heavy riffs, melodic solos, and lyrics filled with strange tales of wizards, ghosts, and dragons are an abundant part of the Seizure sound and aesthetic.
Seizure has worked with many musicians including Megadeth drummer Dirk Verbeuren and ex-Heathen guitarist Ira Black. Along with this, the band has played all over California. Venues like the Whisky A Go Go, the Viper Room, and the Rainbow Bar and Grill have welcomed Seizure with open arms and the underground shows frequently demand Seizure’s return. On top of all this, the support for Seizure from the fans (who they call “Wizards”) has been so overwhelming. The Wizards span not just California, but also the entire United States, and parts of Europe and South America
Since releasing the Grandmaster Wizard EP (2018) and Born in the Dark (2021), Seizure has been hard at work bringing the public their wicked dose of Fantasy Thrash Metal.
After joining the Facedown Family in 2021 and releasing four singles, HolyName is back with one more single and the announcement of their self-titled full length release.
Check out the new single “Creed” (ft. Eric Gregson of xDeathstarx) everywhere you listen to music.
HolyName’s watchword is preachcore, and their self-described sound of “holy drone violent worship” makes a lot of sense when you hear their songs. The new album is essentially a love letter to Christ and a tribute to the history of eastern orthodoxy.
A season of death and profound brokenness caused Tommy Green to dive deeply into the very beginnings of the church, seeking for the connection between holy orthodoxy and liturgical practices, and today’s modern Pentecostal charismatic church. He found beauty in a hidden treasure that he didn’t fully understand, his pain driving him to a place he never intended to go. Orthodox imagery is extremely influential to the graphics and lyrics of HolyName’s work. The holy orthodox church and the historical origin of Christianity became very important to Tommy personally and that’s why the imagery seems so saturated with traditional ancient orthodox Christianity.
The genesis of the idea of HolyName sprang from a lockdown project when Joe and Tommy recruited friends from their church community nationwide to participate in a worship “mix tape.” Tommy’s initial contributions were an acoustic song he wrote in 2014 called “Meet Me Somewhere Quiet” and a cover of a song by his brother-in-law Aaron Craner called “Fall On Your Knees”. He sent the songs to Joe who turned them from acoustics to fully instrumental heavy tracks. When the duo heard the first finished products they were excited to keep going. Tommy felt like he was using the songs and the choruses and the sounds of HolyName to try to keep his faith alive when he felt like it was dying.
“Some of the answers that I have been given by the modern charismatic Christian culture weren’t adequate. There were gaps that I couldn’t seem to fill in the face of death. I knew the faith that brought me brought me through Sleeping Giant and nurtured that ministry was beautiful, but I was losing such faith that I needed to find the eyes of Christ somewhere and I couldn’t seem to get my feet under me with the answers that I had. I was really in danger of walking away from quite a lot.”
The search into the origin of his faith opened the door for Tommy to fall in love with orthodoxy. He has been able to use the experience of this project to process his grief and work through broken-heartedness.
In addition to Tommy Green and Joe Holt, the HolyName project features mixing and mastering by Ryan Leitru, additional vocals from The REV Gang choir, Brook Reeves of Impending Doom, Eric Gregson of xDeathstarx, Joe Advent, Danon Saylor of Nothing Left, Ryan Clark of Demon Hunter, and Mike Felker of Convictions, with beats produced by Hunter Babcock of Wolf Skin.
Good people at Shudder continue to bombard us with great movies, this time a feature length documentary about one of the greatest little bands out there. Gwar never made it to front lines of the scene, but they managed to be a legendary band. This movie offers insight about how they came to be, how they did their art and costumes, creating a gang of misfit monster barbarians from outer space. In fact, they are real life outcast bunch of musicians and artists led by great and unfortunately gone too soon Dave Brockie, aka Oderus Urungus who was a main creative and driving force behind this band. Their shows are legendary, with fountains of fake blood and cum and similar body fluids, theatre, sci fi storytelling and above all, great music. This is a nice chronologically done movie, which through archive footage and interviews delivers insight into all ups and downs, fights, disappointments, deaths and reincarnations of these legends. This one if contender for one of the best music documentaries that came out this year. Go see this one.
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