It was a hot, steamy night about 2 years ago the first time I saw
Graveshadow. Nestled in with fellow metal heads up against the Blue Lamp’s bar,
I kicked back with my beer in hand as the lights dimmed on the stage. The scream
of a guitar and the crash of a cymbal and they were off, assaulting the
mesmerized crowd with a wall of intricately crafted, soaring, and brutal metal
that I have yet to have heard equaled here in Sacramento. Their crushing rhythms rumbled under
their bright and gorgeous keyboard sound. The guitar work was dynamic and
exciting, only further underscored by their gorgeous brunette lead singer,
singing and screaming to each and every one of us.
I have never pulled out my phone to like a band Facebook page that fast
in my entire life.
From there, Graveshadow has
grown into a prominent name among metal bands and other fellow musicians here in Sacramento. They have gotten to play in San Francisco,
L.A., and have even gone on tour with legendary metal band Anvil across the West Coast and Southwest in 2016. They also won a Sammie Award for “Best Metal Band” in 2016, and have had continued local success ever since then.
And they show no sign of
stopping.
Changing gears to the present,
it’s a chilly December day, and I am pulling up to the house of one of their
guitar players, Will Walker, where they regularly practice. I waltz into their
living room, where I am greeted by the bass player, Ben Armstrong, and the
drummer, Roman Anderson. They are comfortably splayed out on the couch in the
living room. As we settle down to chat the lead singer, Heather Michele, joins
us, followed a little bit later by guitar player Aaron Robitsch. We all settle
in and start talking about the band and their music.
Coming together from an amalgamation of Craigslist ads, Graveshadow took
its original shape back in 2012, and has evolved to their current lineup with
the addition of Robitsch on lead guitar and key/symphonic sample work. In getting
the timeline straight, I am able to get the precise sub-genre for their sound: Symphonic
Gothic Metal.
Now, for those of you that are surely curious what that sounds like, they
have a music video here for your viewing and listening
pleasure.
Walker adds that their main influences can be drawn from genres like
power metal, melodic death metal, doom metal, and black metal. Anderson remarks
that he, personally, is more into black metal stuff himself. Walker kind of
shakes his head a little, to which Anderson smiles a little bit, gesturing his
direction,
“I also got Will more into that genre, too.”
“As long as it has good production. If it doesn’t have good production, I
don’t care.”
“He can’t do the true black metal,” adds Anderson, with a sly smile.
To which Walker replies,
“You can call it true all you want, but using Fisher Price microphones and Squier Bullet guitars isn’t the way to go!”
“Then it’s wrong!,” Anderson protests playfully. “Wrong!”
Walker sighs, adding,
“It’s got a have good production.”
We all had a good laugh at that one.
Giggling aside, I refocus to Michele, and ask her how she feels about her
role as the sole female in the band and as their lead singer.
“I feel very included in this band,” she says cheerfully with a smile.
“Yeah,” interject Anderson, “She’s like one of the guys, in this band,
honestly.”
I also asked her if she caught any
crap from crowd, as women can often catch a lot of it in the male-dominated
genre that is metal.
“Not really, but when someone yells ‘Show me your tits!’, or something,
all the guys take their shirts off.”
She goes on to add,
“Mostly though, I haven’t gotten a lot of that, though. I have mostly gotten
a lot of respect from our crowds, honestly.”
And that is to be expected for a front woman who can growl and sing with
the caliber that Michele brings to every performance. One shows worth of her
screaming, and you won’t want to mess with this girl.
At least I wouldn’t, that’s
for sure.
As our chat continues, we start
to talk about the Sacramento scene, as conversations of this manner tend to do.
Anderson lends his words by saying,
“There’s been a really good
response from our community. We have people that try to make it to every local
show, and we have also become friends with some of them. The Boardwalk [in
Orangevale, CA], we’ve played there so many times, it’s always a big thing when
we play there. Starlite [Lounge, in Sacramento, CA] is another big place for
us [to play] too…”
Walker also adds,
“I’d definitely say Sacramento
has been good to us. We got the write up in Submerge [Magazine] when our
album [Nocturnal Resurrection] came out, and that was great. When we
opened for Apocalyptica and Children of Bodom, the reaction we got [from the crowd]
was definitely humbling to me…We have been fortunate to get the following and
the fan base that we have.”
Their reputation precedes says a
bit more than that, having also played places locally like Blue Lamp, The
Colony, and Café Colonial. In addition to their Sammie they won this year, they
were also nominated in the “Artist of the Year” and “Release of the Year” category,
in addition to their 2015 “Best Metal Band" nominee for the same award.
Changing gears slightly, I turn
my attention to Robitsch, since he is the newest member of the band. He fills
me in that he is from Redwood City, CA, and came to know the band as a whole
when they wound up crashing at his place before venturing to Southern
California.
The rest, as they say, is
history.
He also fills me in as we talk,
“I’m a music major, right now,
and I have been studying a lot of classical styles…and arranging for string
quartets, violins, violas, cellos, and brass as well…It’s [arranging samples
and keys] a matter of isolating the different approaches and resolution to
those notes, from a whole orchestra, for example, and arranging in a way that
fits our style.”
This, coupled with his
experience on keyboards and other MIDI run things of that like, helps him fill out
his role as both guitar and keyboard player, without having to grow a third
arm.
That would be pretty metal,
though.
Mutations aside, I asked them
about their tour this last year opening for Anvil and Unleash the Archers. It turns out, as Walker tells me, that Jeff Keller, of the Artery
Foundation, is their manager. Well, he got Mausoleum Records to sign them to a
deal, and guess who else is Unleash the Archers and Anvil’s manager?
So, Graveshadow got to open on
their West Coast shows, and 4 or 5 shows after that. Walker adds, with a grin,
“We even got to camp with them
at the Grand Canyon on our day off, which was pretty cool…They’re really
awesome guys…”
Armstrong pipes up on this one
with an additional experience he got to have with anvil’s drummer, Robb Reiner.
“We were setting up for
our Las Vegas show Counts Vamp’d [Rock Bar and Grill], which was this amazing
place that was designed and built by a metal fan and had memorabilia and stuff
all over it…and there were TVs showing classic music videos and stuff. So, Robb
and I were watching Metallica. And I said, ‘Hey do you ever listen to these
guys and be like ‘I remember writing that riff he’s playing back in
1980whatever’’. He looks at me dead in the eye and just says, ‘Yes.’ [laughs]
It was obviously a touchy subject…He was so stoned-faced about it…”
“I learned a lot from those
guys, and I am excited to do it again…” adds Walker.
Starting in March 2017, they will be joining Night Demon and Anvil on tour yet again, as
an opening special guest. This time, though, this tour will take them to spots
on the East Coast and The South in place they haven’t gotten to play before.
I’d be excited too.
As our conversation winds its
way down, we venture back a bit to our previous discussion on the local music scene,
yet again, only this time, the discussion has mutated a bit, and the subject of
all ages venues and presales come up. Walker remarks,
“The Café Colonial and The Colony are great venues for those all ages bands, those younger bands to go in
cut their teeth on, but it would be really great to see, say what you will
about how it was run, another Club Retro. It would be really great to
see another Underground, or another Junta…because its really valuable
to get the pre-sale experience, because that’s just an element of the industry that’s
not going to go away, and you can complain about it all you want, but through
that it teaches you how to market yourself and how to market your band. Also it
gets you out and gets you meeting people…”
Armstrong also adds,
“Those [venues] would be great, but,
in building off what Will said, we also need those kids to come out and see
bands, and support local music. Because a lot of these younger kids will
download music from bands that are only in, like, Iceland, who are never going
to tour anywhere close to here…You got to have an audience that’s willing to
give local bands a shot…”
Walker underscores this by
adding,
“We have a lot of our younger
fans who can’t go to our shows because they [shows] are 21+ …I think it’s a disservice
to the bands because they aren’t getting a chance to play to their entire fan base,
like Ben said and building off that, I think it’s an absolute disservice to the
younger people in this city because they don’t have anywhere they can go to
enjoy music…”
And, ultimately, ideas like
these getting thrown out into the ether is how, sometimes, change can be
brought about for the better. It is all a part of the broader conversation on
music that bands like Graveshadow and countless others continue to have here in
Sacramento, and abroad. There is always room for fresh ideas and new initiative,
and Graveshadow is a band with that in spades.
Through their ironclad combination of determination, talent, and sheer love
of their art form, Graveshadow continues to be a pillar of the local metal
scene and the music scene as a whole. As I make my way to my car after saying
goodbye, I am excited.
Some would say rejuvenated, even.
Talking with a group of people who mesh so well together, even in such a
casual setting, has given me a good bit of warmth for these cold winter months.
I, for one, look forward to what Graveshadow will bring to the table in the future.
