Band: Level
From: Chico, California
Their formation story:
(Bryan, vocals): "Pretty much all of our bands had ended right before COVID landed so during 2020 we were all adrift in a sea of riffs. Our drummer Clay and bassist Jared lived together during this time and our guitar player Colby would go kick it at their house and they started jamming a power violence recording project.
"During the summer of 2021 the four of us started hanging out and playing poker once a week, until someone said, “why aren't we just having band practice once a week?” Since they had already been working on that project, that just became Level and they told me I was singing. We rerecorded the songs they had done and I wrote lyrics for it and that was our demo."
Their sound in their own words:
(Jxrad, bass): "I’d say our sound is best described as power violence, or I’d like to think we fit somewhere in there at least. As far as influences, me personally, I strive to have sounds or parts of songs that represent agony, pain, and exhaustion."
Latest release info:
(Bryan, vocals): "Our new 7-inch, Gone West, came out at the end of February through 625 Thrash and Thrashtapes (thanks Max and Craig!). It’s 8 songs in 6 minutes and 54 seconds. We recorded it in February of 2022 at The Atomic Garden which is always great, Jack Shirley is the man. Vinyl pressing turn arounds are rough right now so we only got them recently.
"As far as the content goes, it’s broadly about the dissatisfaction of living in the hellscape that is American/Western society. The songs have their own personal meaning to me but I think people can find their own meaning in them. You can pick it up through ThrashTapes, Ebulliltion, or To Live a Lie."
Future plans:
(Bryan, vocals): "We’re playing Vancouver Speedfest in May and planning to do a little jaunt around the Northwest while we’re up there. We’re cooking up a summer tour as we speak but I don’t have any details on that yet. We’re also sitting on a full batch of new songs and planning to record them for a flexi sometime this month."
What other bands from their region should we check out?
(Bryan, vocals): "Our scene is pretty small, we’re from a part of California that people don’t really pay much attention to, there are two bands that some of the new kids in the scene have started that are great. Sedition and Exposure Therapy, keep it up homies.
"Gotta give it up for our local doom heroes Amarok, their singer Brandon is truly the wizard on the mountain, he always has our back and has done a lot for the scene as a whole."
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Tagged: level
