Band: Mark of Fatality
From: Erie, Pennsylvania
Their formation story:
(Anthony Hudock, guitarist): "We started up back in late 2022. Bailey, Jake, Lennon, and I all played in another hardcore band in high school and we’ve remained friends and been apart of other bands ever since then. We decided we wanted to start another band, which is all great and all, but I was usually the drummer in other bands.
"I wanted to try out guitar with this new upcoming band, because I always wrote riffs but now I wanted to straight up play them now! We needed a drummer, I did some searching around. But then I came across Zach on Facebook and remembered him from shows in high school. Shows were just coming back around at this point due to the COVID 19 regulations from 2020 (which is when I graduated high school) to 2021-2022. This was a perfect time to start a new band. So I hit up Zach in hopes that he’d be down to jam with us, and we immediately hit it off. He came to jam one time and the rest is history...
(Zach Keffer, drums): "I had always seen Bailey and Anthony at shows back in 2019 and saw them play together in Shattered Utopia a couple times. We hung out in different friend groups so we never really knew each other well. Fast forward to August of 2022, Anthony hits me up to see if I’m interested in drumming for a hardcore band. I met up with him, Bailey, and Jake and we wrote a song the first day. Mark of Fatality was born. Then the rest is history."
Their sound in their own words:
(Anthony): "I grew up listening to Iron Maiden, Dio, all the essential '80s metal from my dad (Zach Hudock drummer from Brother’s Keeper) so that metal sound has always been my appeal since day one. When I found out you could do awesome harmonies and have ass beating riffs, it was game over.
"I knew I wanted to write OG metalcore style stuff. We all come from similar yet different musical backgrounds so our sound is derived from 'tough guy'-style hardcore, to pop-punk, to metal, and to even some emo type stuff. My personal influences have to be Undying, Prayer for Cleansing, Gates of Ishtar, Disembodied, xElegyx, and Cold as Life."
(Zach): "We primarily take influences from really heavy hardcore and early '00s metalcore but also throw in a taste of bands like Iron Maiden, Van Halen and other '80s hair metal bands especially in our guitar parts."
Latest release info:
(Anthony): "So this release, Last Breath Under One Thousand Stars, was actually thought about right after we released our demo back in November of ‘22. We knew that we wanted to get a monstrous recording of songs we’ve been sitting on for a year. Zach suggested we go down to Pittsburgh to try out Cerebral Audio. I’ve heard great things about Shane from Cerebral Audio, and some of our friends in bands like Arc of Violence, Human Animal, and Bushido Code recorded there and all had great experiences.
"We decided to go there in September of 2023, and record this release. It was easily the most fun and comfortable I’ve ever felt in a studio. I can’t thank Shane and Alex enough from Cerebral Audio enough for the hospitality and the awesome overall experience recording and mixing with them.
"We went with Alfredo Carvalho from the band Adrienne to do our cover and our release show flyer. It came out super awesome and did exactly what we were thinking without us even laying it out for him. That’s how you know you’re working with a good artist, when they already have the vision in mind."
(Zach): "Last Breath Under One Thousand Stars is MOF’s defining body of work since the birth of this band. It’s everything we’ve worked for. It features aggressive breakdowns, soaring hair metal style guitar riffs, and sonically emotional vocals. We essentially attempted to write the best 4 songs we could possibly write so far in the lifespan of the group and we hope we’ve achieved that. Special shoutout to Shane Mayer for producing the EP and Alex Emert for being an A1 engineer throughout the sessions."
Future plans:
(Anthony): "Our immediate plans consist of just writing more material, getting on some awesome shows and maybe go on a short run with our home boys Auto Ignition from Buffalo, New York!"
(Zach): "Music videos, more shows, more writing, and continuously having a blast playing music with our other friends, too."
What other bands from the region should we check out?
(Anthony): "First of all, we gotta shout out our boys Auto Ignition, now I know they’re not from Erie but they’re an hour and a half away from us in Buffalo and are some of the coolest cats I’ve ever met. They make dope scene music for people who like Saves the Day.
"Secondly we have to shout out Human Animal, they have been around since I first started going to shows and I grew up knowing a lot of those guys. They make old-school skanking music for people who like Biohazard, Killing Time, and all that NYHC stuff!
"Thirdly I gotta shout out Subdue. They are easily one of the hardest bands in the Erie area, those guys practically taught me how to write an ass beating breakdown. They rock a Buried Alive, Cold as Life, and a lot of later '00s-type beatdown. I hope they plan on playing again soon. I need to cartwheel some fools."
(Zach): "ZaKrahe (FFO: Polyphia, Intervals, I Built the Sky), SHIVER (FFO: Reflections, After the Burial, Veil of Maya), Mallory Run (FFO: Knuckle Puck, The Story So Far, Tiny Moving Parts). Support all these bands. They fucking rip."
***
Last Breath Under One Thousand Stars is available now on CD via Surprise Attack Records.
Mark of Fatality on social media: Instagram
***
Tagged: mark of fatality
