Arizona band Weapon Of Pride have crafted a thrilling old-school sound that fuses elements of thrash, stoner rock and heavy metal and they describe as “unique, venturous and acquired.”
The Phoenix three-piece began as a Black Sabbath cover band that vocalist and bassist Ryan Arnold started for fun nearly eight years ago. But the project stepped up a notch when Ryan’s brother Logan (guitars) joined up and the pair started writing riffs together. They were recently joined by friend and coworker Adam Duplack on drums, which helped them put the final touches to their second album Beneath The Surface, which was released last week.
On the sound the band has honed over the last few years, Ryan told us: “I’d say we are a blend of stoner, thrash and classic heavy metal. We blend heavy and downtuned guitar riffs with higher vocals, odd time signatures and varying tempos- almost similar to more obscure works like Black Sabbath’s album Technical Ecstasy. I believe we are a good fit for fans of The Sword, Red Fang, and Fu Manchu.
“Our lyrics are very intentional, yet not always transparent – allowing the listener to interpret them however they choose. We’re interested in history and half of the record was written about different historical events. The other half might be a processing of emotions, struggles or other personal past experiences.”
As mentioned, Weapon Of Pride just released their new album Beneath The Surface. It begins in style with the building intro to Axeman, which drops into engaging high-pitched vocals and chugging guitars feeding into a really fun chorus. A second chorus gives way to a delicious guitar solo and builds up to a final blast of the enjoyable chorus.
If you like heavy old-school riffing, you’ll love the sound of Priestess and Carni, which features a surprise trumpet appearance that works surprisingly well. That’s followed by the most recent single release, Wrath, which opens up with a big drum roll and chunky guitars supporting engaging vocals that feed into a chorus of contrasting high-pitched and gruff vocals. After the second chorus, chunky guitars bridge into a wonderful sweeping guitar solo by Kelley Juett of Mothership.
On Wrath, Ryan told us: “The reception has been very good! We’ve been playing it live for the last few weeks at our shows, before it was even released, and received comments from many people that it has become one of their favorites. We leaned on our community to band together and create this song and promotional for it with us, so a lot of love and time went into it. From writing the song and having Kelley do parts of the solo and vocals, to Michael Beck of SoundVision recording and producing it with us, we knew it was a good song to offer as a single ahead of this new record.
“Then, we wanted to take it a step even further and create an amazing music video for it. We recruited Gavin Donnelly of Soundphoria (who has done all of our amazing music videos) and had our friend Kristoff Kjelby join us as the actor for a medieval-style shoot that I believe has only fortified the unique and cool direction we’ve decided to take as a band.” Check it out in the video here:
The album is packed with more great thrashy goodness, including the moody and intense Siren and its first single release Shredder. Awaken features a fun driving riff and drums before a catchy chorus flies into a wild solo and it goes out on a high with the lively Into The Storm.
On the album as a whole, Ryan told us: “We’ve been working on Beneath the Surface and its supporting material for the last year, so we are beyond excited to see it all come out and share it with the public. The album is unique, adventurous, and maybe acquired taste in some places – to stay true to our previously mentioned band description.
“We had no script or agenda while writing this. We committed to what we thought sounded cool and what was fun to play. From weird time signatures to unlikely collaborations, we just wanted to have fun with it. With all of that being said, it is a high-quality record. We recruited the best to work with us and help take our thoughts and make them a reality in the most professional way.
“There’s touches of thrash, stoner, and classic heavy metal on this record. All our members listen to different stuff, so you take our ideas and throw them into a melting pot that creates our very own thing. I like to reflect on producer Rick Rubin’s words for bands like System of a Down. They weren’t trying to fit a specific mold – but rather did their own thing, for them, and the emotion carried through and was later loved by others.”
The Weapon Of Pride sound has been heavily inspired by a range of rock and metal influences. As Ryan explains: “Black Sabbath will always be the band that I believe laid the foundations for us. While every band in the genre points to these guys, their work really was what taught us our instruments and how to express ourselves with our own ideas. Geezer Butler’s riffs taught me to play the bass and they taught us to love riff-making over some of the pop progressions we had heard all over the radio growing up.
“Later down the road, we adopted other inspirations. When Logan joined, he had a much greater love for thrash music. I love southern and groove metal, sludge, stoner and progressive. Adam added a third and unique dynamic with his added influence inspired by garage rock and other more alternative sources. Nowadays, we take pride in the inability to define our sound and not fit in one particular box.”
And on what inspires them to write music, he added: “Personally, I am influenced to write songs tied to historical events or people. Sometimes we write songs about the processing of deep emotions and sometimes even traumatic events we’ve experienced. All relatively negative things, but they’re used as an opportunity for awareness and the ability for us to process, express, and move forward.”
Beneath The Surface is out now through WormHoleDeath records. But there’s plenty more to come from Weapon Of Pride, who’ll be back in the studio early next year and will be out on tour to play the new album live in May.
And Ryan added: “We’d like everyone to know how excited we are to share all this hard work with the public and we appreciate everyone that will give it a listen. We also want to state that none of this would be possible without the amazing team of support we’ve had from the very beginning of the album process. From friends and family that supported us when we were still green, to Michael Beck of Soundvision, Gavin Donnelly of Soundphoria, the WormHoleDeath record label, and all the others along the way… thank you!”
You can follow Weapon Of Pride on Facebook and Instagram, and check out their music on Spotify, Apple Music and YouTube. And check out more new bands through their label WormHoleDeath.
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