Pair doom/occult sounds with the folky, but haunting, voice of a female lead, and you have local metal band Petrichor.
Pair doom/occult sounds with the folky, but haunting, voice of a female lead, and you have local metal band Petrichor.
The four-piece may be fairly new to the RVA music scene, but they sound as if they’ve been honing their solid rock sound for decades.
Petrichor just released their five-track self-titled EP in July which is an entrancing, multi-layered debut showcasing the band’s dark, metal vibe mixed with the sweet traditional folk sounds of lead vocalist Tess Fisher.
The band, who only came together officially last year, started recording the short EP in November 2015.
“Tess writes a lot of songs on her guitar and banjo,” said drummer Harrison Christy. “She had a lot of awesome melodies and she would sit in a room and show us and we would geek out and arrange the songs and make ‘em heavy.”
After a few failed attempts to put a band together, Fisher and Christy, who are also a couple, decided to start their own group in the fall of 2014.
They added Eric Claytor, who is a childhood friend of Christy’s, to play on bass.
“Eric and I were talking about starting a metal band, and just for shits and giggles, I played some of the songs she {Tess} had already recorded, and Eric was all about hopping on board on this,” Christy said.
The trio started interpreting some of the songs Fisher had written and ultimately rounded out the lineup with guitarist Jon Ramsey, member of RVA’s rock and roll group Exit the Beast, becoming Petrichor officially in March of last year.
Petrichor recorded their debut album in Fredericksburg in Christy’s brother’s basement studio, The Gossip Factory.
“The only time we were all available was Thanksgiving weekend,” he said. “We got together and knocked the songs out in two days.”
They went back in March to lay some vocals down and mixed and mastered the record before putting it out July 5th.
The music is a collaborative effort with this tight-knit laid back group, but its Fisher who writes all of the songs.
“She’ll come to us with a banjo and figure out the placement and we’ll figure out the rhythm and write around that,” said Christy.
And while she leads this metal group with such confidence and powerful, unwavering vocals, her inspiration stems from a source which may come as a surprise to some who have heard their sound.
“When I go to write, I love punk and metal, but mainly with my solo stuff and my own it was to write more of the folky stuff, I really love traditional Appalachian music,” she said. “I listen to old country singers…”
Townes Van Zandt, Guy Clark, and Steve Earle specifically for anyone who’s wondering. And her writing comes from a very personal place, which shines through in this debut EP, especially on the track, “Useless” which I had the pleasure of seeing them before live at their practice spot on Valley Road.
“Everything that I’ve written for the most part for a long time, {I} just used my writing as a way to get through things or to process things- almost like a diary,” she said. “It could be anything from a funeral I watched when I was living in a house in Church Hill at 18, to just stuff growing up now.”
Those folky roots Fisher brings to the band blends nicely with Petrichor’s sound. Their take on metal is hard to pigeonhole into one particular subgenre which is what I think makes them stand out among the sea of metal already here in Richmond.
“We use a lot of different styles of rock and metal,” said Claytor. “I think its hard rock at its core.”
On the track “Tragic” it ends with this sort of math rock feel and the aforementioned “Useless” falls more into the black metal category.
It’s a good introduction to our band. Its got a little bit of everything, It does get heavy, but it focuses on her (Tess) it’s a really moving crushing song, it’s really emotional,” said Christy speaking on the song “Useless.”
Christy credits the group’s diverse musical tastes, from Fisher’s folk interests, to Ramsey’s reggae and punk rock influences, to the group’s dynamic, unique sound.
“I think that’s why it turns out as well as it does, were all really passionate and pretty diverse,” he said.
Petrichor held an album release show when their album dropped this summer and have been using benefit and house shows to build theur name up around town.
“We’re earning our rights, the benefit show brought out a lot of people,” Christy said. “Since the release the online response, it’s been pretty incredible.”
You can catch Petrichor on Aug. 17 at Strange Matter with King Buffalo and Book of Wyrms and playing at GWARbar this Sun. Aug. 21 for GWARBQ’s The Morning After Chill and Brunch. The band will also play a show Sept. 25 at Temple of the Cosmic Mothership in Southside.
