The metal community is the most welcoming community of music lovers out there. It doesn’t matter if you like a new or old record, it’s all something you can appreciate. If you like it, then you do and there’s no differentiation.
As a part of our series about the metal community, we had the pleasure of interviewing KRYPT.
KRYPT is a thrash metal band based out of Augusta, Georgia, USA that began on January 26th, 2019. They recorded their debut EP, titled “Enter the Krypt”, in October of 2020 and released it a few months later on January 19th, 2021. Their original bassist, Jesse Clay, unfortunately passed away unexpectedly two weeks prior to its release, January 6th, 2021. KRYPT has decided to keep going in memory of Jesse and will move forward as a band.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dive into the main focus of our interview, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your band’s backstory?
We got started as a band back in January of 2019. The original lineup consisted of Julian Chew on guitar and vocals, Mikey Rhodes on guitar, Jesse Clay on bass and Adam Dickerson on drums. Unfortunately, Jesse passed away back at the beginning of this year very unexpectedly. We decided to press forward as a band and released the EP that we were fortunately able to record with him a few months prior, releasing it in his memory. With the decision to keep going, we also auditioned and successfully recruited our newest member, Brandon Carpenter. He’s definitely a good fit and we hope everyone gives him a warm welcome.
What or who are your biggest influences? We’d love to hear the story.
Well, we all have different influences. Mikey is a really big prog kinda guy and listens to bands such as PERIPHERY, ALLEGAEON and more. On the other hand, Adam is gonna be your black metal and war metal guy; he’s super into bands like BLACK WITCHERY, EMPEROR, BEHERIT, etc. Julian is the thrash metal and hardcore punk kid of the band, who’s into EXODUS, MUNICIPAL WASTE, CRO-MAGS, and WHIPSTRIKER to name a few. Lastly, Brandon hits the doom and stoner metal aspect of the band, listening to WEEDEATER, HIGH ON FIRE and many more. We practically touch all the bases of metal, which makes us try to progress further as musicians.
None of us can achieve success without some help along the way. Was there a particular person or people who you feel gave you the most help or encouragement to get where you’re at today? Can you share a story about that?
Honestly, we are guys that just wanna play some cool metal music. We’ve definitely had help along the way but nothing that any other band doesn’t receive along the way. We will say that Adam’s wife deserves a lot of credit for having to put up with us and us destroying the hardwood floors moving gear, haha!
Can you share the funniest or most interesting mistake that has occurred to your band? What lesson or take away did you learn from that?
There is one story in particular that you guys might enjoy that’s fairly hilarious. We were playing a show back in August of 2019 and Jesse went to toss his bass in the air but the strap unknowingly came off and it flew forward and knocked a lady out, which led to her suing Jesse and the venue, haha. I guess you could say that our takeaway from that is we shouldn’t knock anymore people out, ha!
The road to success is hard and requires tremendous dedication. This question is obviously a big one, but what advice would you give to younger bands who aspire to follow in your footsteps and emulate your success?
Get a solidly middle-class/middle-aged, double-life leading, badass drummer to keep everything grounded, haha! In all seriousness, just put in the effort and have dedication towards your band. But also, dedication towards Lucifer, through whom all things are possible.
What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now?
For starters, we are working towards pressing vinyl for our recently released EP and are currently working on new material to go towards a full-length record in the future.
OK, thank you for all of that. Let’s now shift to the core focus of our interview. Can you briefly tell our readers a bit about why you are a part of the heavy metal community?
To be honest, we all just started liking metal when we were young then just became weird nerds about it. And because of that, we can’t hold down what’s considered normal relationships with people, ha.
For the benefit of our readers, can you help to define what the heavy metal community is?
In a town like ours, you can’t really say there is a metal community. However, nationwide and internationally, we are basically people who enjoy listening to metal and use that in a sort-of comradery.
How is the heavy metal community different from other communities?
The metal community is the most welcoming community of music lovers out there. It doesn’t matter if you like a new or old record, it’s all something you can appreciate. If you like it, then you do and there’s no differentiation.
Can you help explain a few reasons why the heavy metal community is so important? Can you share a story or give some examples?
It’s a place where we get to wear our bullet belts.
This question is for any of the individual band members. Would you feel comfortable sharing a story or anecdote about how being a part of the heavy metal community has helped you in your life? We would love to hear about it.
It gets us a bunch of free beer as a band, haha!
Ok. Wonderful. Here is the main question of our interview. Can you recommend five things that anyone can do to help grow and strengthen the metal community? Please share a story or example for each.
We can’t just say five things, to be completely honest. If you enjoy the music, then go to shows. If you have any interest in playing metal yourself, then start a band and make shows happen. That’s how you help the metal community.
Ok, we are nearly done. You are a band of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good for the greatest number of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.
We would say we definitely are not some highly influential band but fuck organized religion and make sure to burn some churches along the way.
What is next for your band?
As we stated before, we are looking forward to pressing out the EP as a vinyl release and are gonna continue writing new music for the full-length LP that we have planned. We are also working on getting signed to a label and have plans to tour once COVID-19 decides to fuck off.
How can our readers further follow you online?
Check out all of our social media, as well as our BandCamp to pick up merch and buy the record digitally:
https://facebook.com/kryptbandaug
You can also email us at kryptbandaug@gmail.com for any inquires.
Thank you for these excellent insights, and we greatly appreciate the time you spent with this. We wish you continued success.
Thank you guys and Hail Satan!
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