Photos by: Andrew Bastion
Hitting the scene with 2018’s The Interstice, Brand of Sacrifice have been a staple of extreme deathcore. Mixing elements of progressive metal with electronics and synths, the band has created a rather unique sound that many of trying to recreate. Brand of Sacrifice started as a side project from the band The Afterimage and has grown in popularity due to itsheavy breakdowns, and technical riffs. The band released God Hand in 2019 to much acclaim seating them as one of the gotobands for the deathcore genre. Brand of Sacrifice is currently out on The Melancholy Winter Tour with Shadow of Intent, Signs of the Swarm and Inferi going throughout the month of January. I was able to sit down with vocalist Kyle Anderson to learn more about this metal juggernaut that is Brand of Sacrifice.
GA: can you tell me a little about the band and its history?
KA: The band started out as a side project, my main band at the time was The Afterimage. Brand of Sacrifice was started just for fun. We wanted to put out a stupid heavy ep just to have a good time, and maybe put out the one record and that would be it. I decided I wanted to make it a themed album based off my favorite manga called Berserk. The album ended up gaining some headway, and here we are today touring as Brand of Sacrifice instead of The Afterimage. It is crazy for me, because I never thought that would happen, and how things came about.
GA: The band made waves with the release of The Intersticein 2018, and followed up with 2019’s God Hand, how has the latest album been received by fans?
KA: It has been crazy; I honestly didn’t know what to expect. I knew people enjoyed our first EP, so we had to put out a well thought out album. I didn’t know how the reception would be. The reaction has been incredible, each time we tour the fans go crazier and crazier. I am really thankful and humbled by it all. It has been a wild ride.
GA: When coming up with new material what is your process?
KA: Currently our other guitarist (Michael Leo Valeri) is out on tour with the band, he will be with us when we go to Europe though. Leo and I have always written music together, we have worked together since 2013. We were both in The Afterimageand he wrote a lot of that material. Over all this time we have meshed well as a collaborative writing group. So, Leo writes most of the instrumentation, and he also mixes and masters the recordings. I will do all the vocals and lyrics myself, while putting my input on the instrumental side of things.
GA: This is the kickoff date for The Melancholy Winter Tour, what’s it like for you to kick off a tour and how do you prepare?
KA: To prepare, we generally like to jam a week before hitting the road. The first day of tour is always a little hectic, because you are getting in all your merchandise orders and trying to get used to being on tour again, since we have been home for awhile and used to relaxing. As soon as tour gets going it is a great time. I am having a great time now, just got to get over the initial set up moments. Everyone has been very nice and welcoming. Signs of the Swarm are some of our best friends. They took us out on their first headlining tour, which was our first ever tour. We are really happy to be out on tour with them again this soon.
GA: There has been a resurgence of heavy death metal/death core over the last few years, what do you think are some ways BoS stands out from the other bands in the genre?
KA: I think it is because we have a background in progressive metalcore; we have a slightly different approach to this style of music. Leo started in technical death metal originally, he was in a band called Ascariasis, their record had maybe two breakdowns on the whole record and the rest of it was all speedy shred riffs. Then he joined a band called The Northern, which was somewhat shreddy when he joined them, then he joined The Afterimage. So, he didn’t really come from deathcore, but I think it offers a unique perspective to our music. Brand of Sacrifice likes to incorporate electronics and synths, which is slightly different from our peers; especially when we mix those elements with the more slam styled riffs.
GA: With 2019 just passing, what were some albums from last year that were stand outs to you?
KA: For 2019, I will have to say Issues – Beautiful Oblivion, was one of my favorite albums of last year; the new Cattle Decapitation – Death Atlas album as well. I really like the new I, Prevail album Trauma. I also like to listen to a lot of poppy metalcore as well. I try to keep up to date on the deathcore stuff, Vital Deprivation (Signs of the Swarm), and Melancholy (Shadow of Intent) and the new Rings of Saturn record are all awesome too. There was a ton of good albums that came out last year for deathcore, my two favorites though are the I, Prevail, and Issues records.
GA: Being a vocalist are you self-taught, or did you take lessons?
KA: I started off watching The Zen of Screaming videos by Melissa Cross, to try and develop a foundation. Then I watched a few of Phil Bozeman’s (Whitechapel) videos on YouTube. I started to practice on my own and tried to uncover techniques myself, then went from there. I had a good foundation thanks to those two.
GA: Do you have any preshow rituals, or warm up routines you like to do before hitting the stage?
KA: I like to make sure I have had something small to eat before performing. I try not to eat heavy, because then I feel bloated and gassy onstage which no one wants to go through. I also recommend lot of water, sometimes I will have some throat coating tea. I sometimes will also go through doing some E’s and O’s to warming up with growls and high screams. I used to get extensive warming up with the Melissa Cross exercises but found that this does the trick to where I haven’t had any issues. I also want to make sure I get plenty of vitamin C, I am starting to get sick already which is not good.
GA: What is next for the band after this tour?
KA: We will be going to Europe with Rings of Saturn, Enterprise Earth, and Traitors. That is going to happen about 3 weeks after this tour ends, we will be flying out to Germany to kick off that tour. After that tour ends, we are trying to get something locked in for another project called Earthshatter. It is a new project; our first EP just came out on Monday (1/13/2020). It is kind of like Knocked Loose, and Varials mixed with Issues, and more poppy metalcore stuff. It is really heavyand grungy on the hardcore metalcore side, but it’s got soaring melodies.
GA: If someone wanted to follow the band where can they keep up with you on social media, and if they wanted to support the band buy purchasing merch where is your online store located?
KA: If you go to Brandofsacrifice.com, you will find all of our socials as well as our merch store. We have our own merch store which is operated by the band itself. All of the money goes back to the band from your purchases. We also have an Indiemerchstore and a European merch store we work with. There are different items available through each store, but we do operate our own, so please go directly through that one.
GA: Anything else you would like to add?
KA: I want to say thankyou for having me, and I can’t wait to see more friendly faces at the shows. Come and say what’s up.
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