Skeletonwitch, Athens’ well-known black metal band, will soon be packing up its gear and leaving for its first European excursion to showcase face-melting guitars and thrashing vocals.
The band started five years ago, stemming from a love of metal that started with bands like Iron Maiden and Slayer.“I got the albums Metal Health by Quiet Riot and Twisted Sister’s Stay Hungry and from then on out, I figured that’s what I wanted to do for a living,” said lead singer Chance Garnette.
Skeletonwitch was formed when Garnette’s brother, Nate Garnette, met Scott Hedrick in 2003. Both are now guitarists for the band and share a love of metal.
“Nate played in a band that broke up and he had a demo tape of songs, and I ended up meeting him,” Hedrick said. “We both loved metal and hanging out, and he couldn’t find anyone else to play, and I showed up with my guitar and a case of beer and we started playing.”
Once Hedrick and Nate started to play together, the rest of the band fell into place with Chance as singer, Derrick Nau on drums and Eric Harris on bass.
After honing their talent in Athens, the band’s members released their first EP, Worship The Witch, in 2005. The band sent this release to many record labels and went on its first small tour before being picked up by Prosthetic Records, a metal label that has also signed Lamb Of God, All That Remains and Through the Eyes of the Dead.
“The label puts our stuff out all over Europe and the U.S. and in stores like Best Buy — major distributors,” Hedrick said.Once signed to Prosthetic in early 2007, the band wrote and recorded its first full-length album, Beyond The Permafrost, which was released in October and sold out after one day at Haffa’s record store in Athens. After gaining experience playing and writing, the band said its album benefited from their EP experience.
“Nate is the main songwriter. We don’t really write stuff together,” Hedrick said. “Nate will record stuff on a four-track with a drum machine, and Eric and I will do the same thing with different parts and riffs. It’s kind of like tape trading, but Nate will show up with an entire song sometimes and we’ll pitch in and throw in some dynamics.”
Once the music is complete, Chance comes in to write the lyrics for all the songs. He said that with more experience, he has been able to make his words clearer without having to sing or sacrifice his raw, screaming vocals.
With the release of an EP and a LP, the band has had the opportunity to tour across the country with bands like The Red Chord, Arsis and Dying Fetus.
It was apparent that the members were becoming experts at being on the road this winter when driving to a show in a snowstorm.
“Nate was driving us to the show and Job For A Cowboy, a younger band on the tour, whizzes by us on the highway,”
Hedrick said. “So I mentioned to Nate that maybe we should speed up too. But he said no, we were wise to drive slowly … 10 more miles down the road, Job For A Cowboy wrecks their van … and we helped fix it.” Hedrick said.
Band members intend to take that experience on their European tour. The band will be performing with Hate Eternal, Cephalic Carnage and Deadborn.
Skeletonwitch will begin the tour early next month in Germany.
“I don’t know what to look forward to in Europe, but I want to French kiss a French girl,” Nau said.
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