Band: Heldtight
From: River Valley, Arkansas
Their formation story:
(Damian Ellis, vocals): "The band started out in early 2021 after Jesse Jester (guitar) and I had crossed paths seeing each other perform with our previous bands over the years. I remember catching him at a show playing guitar in his band Vangoons at the time. We chopped it up a little and learned we both liked a lot of similar bands.
"One day, he hit me up wanting to play drums in a project, I was playing guitar at the time, and we just kinda clicked from there. We didn't originally go in thinking we were gonna do hardcore, or any style in particular really, but that's just what came out between us. The plan for us was just to have fun, jam, and play some shows.
"For the better part of the year we played as a two-piece, but then slowly started adding members. After our bass player at the time left the band, I joked around with my buddy Trevor Sullivan (drums) that we needed a new bass player and I asked him to join. Trevor had been the drummer in a few bands with me (Harvester and Auspicious) going all the way back to other projects in high school. He might not have been much of a bass player at the time, but he sure as hell could jump really high.
"Soon after we added our buddy Christian Walters in, we started taking the band a little more serious. Did some switching around on instruments, and really started locking it in for some small runs, tours, and the release of our first EP, Life Sentence. After Christian parted ways we brought our buddy Josh Applekamp (bass) into the fray, who I met at our favorite local bar/venue called Hero's. He brought a lot of experience to the table through his band Koningsor and has been a rock to us ever since. From there we worked hard, busted out our latest EP, The Way It Is, and that's where we stand today."
Their sound in their own words:
"I would say we're a mix of metallic hardcore, punk, and some metalcore influence for sure. Some tracks have a little more or less of each of those elements. We all have a super wide variety of music we listen to and pull from but I would say as far as hardcore goes we are definitely influenced by bands like Backtrack, Trapped Under Ice, Terror, Comeback Kid, and American Nightmare."
Latest release info:
"For me, The Way It Is came from the bitterness and pressure of every day survival in a world that seems like it wishes the worst for each other. Having to wake up everyday to hear and see the new bullshit happening in the news, the atrocities people in power are getting away with, the pain and suffering brought not just to human beings but the entire planet.
"At the same time, it's about the absolute refusal to be crushed by the weight of these things. We still have to find the strength to keep pushing forward to take back reality into our own hands even when the odds are fully stacked against us."
Future plans:
(Trevor Sullivan, drums): "As far as plans for the upcoming months we have a couple shows on the books, such as December 4th in Mcalester, OK and December 13th in Fayetteville, AR. Also working on getting physicals for The Way It Is, some new shirts, and other types of merch. We are just going with the flow right now trying to push and promote the new release as much as we can. Hope you can take some time and go give the new record a spin!"
What other bands from their region should we check out?
(Jesse Jester, guitar): "The scene in Arkansas has been consistently growing in recent years, closest to home for us in Northwest Arkansas we’ve got our homies in Obliviate, Losing Game, and Jowls. Little Rock (our second home) has tons of great bands such as: Mazenko, First to Burn, Open Kasket, Second Life, Death Rattle, Zashed, and of course Morbid Visionz and Terminal Nation.
"Springfield, Missouri is another amazing city close by us with many more awesome bands like Primitive Rage, Precursor, Vulgarity, and Security Footage, just to name a few."
Heldtight on social media: Facebook | Instagram
