The members of Achilles Heel met at Middle Tennessee State University and from attending hardcore shows, moving to Nashville after forming the band. "Our first show was in March of 2020, about a week before absolutely everything shut down for COVID," vocalist Nick Cummings explains. "But we all stuck together and worked on new stuff until we finally got to today."
Sticking together, Achilles Heel would go on to release Entombed in Screaming Flesh, their debut EP, earlier this summer. "Most of the initial writing for this EP was done during the 2020 lockdowns, I had been fired from my job so I really didn't have anything to do besides sit down with a guitar and work some stuff out. We finally got in the studio to record all of these in January of last year, so it's been a long time coming in getting these songs released."
While there a certainly metallic hardcore parts throughout the EP, No Echo let Nick explain the Achilles Heel sound himself. "We've joked around a lot that we should just call it 'riff-core.' We have so many different influences that we all draw from, J (our guitarist) has a lot of Misery Signals influence in their writing, meanwhile I draw from Lamb of God a lot when I'm working out guitar parts.
"But then there are parts on this new EP where I can directly point to a band like END and say, 'this is absolutely what influenced this section.' Some of our friends have said we sound like Throwdown and Shattered Realm, lots of the old-school Trustkill stuff, others go more death metal with Gatecreeper and Creeping Death. At the end of the day, we really don't care who we get compared to. We just enjoy riffing."
As Nick and the rest of Achilles Heel continue writing and demoing material for a full-length album, the band seems to be in the right place to get things happening. "Nashville has such a sick scene. Y'all have to check out our friends in Moru who just dropped a new album. Lethal Method has some new stuff coming that you'll want to keep an eye out for, same with Dogpile.
"And I want to shout out Hanging Moon. They've broken up, but their farewell show was where I met J, so this band probably wouldn't exist without them. And shoutout Waste, it was their last show too. And might as well throw Chamber in the list since that was their first show, but I'm sure y'all already know them."
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Achilles Heel on social media: Instagram
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