Stormruler, Summoning the Lich, Voidgazer, and Blackwell | 03.04.23, 8:00pm | Blueberry Hill, 6504 Delmar Blvd. | $12 |All ages
This Saturday, March 4th, four of St. Louis’ greatest metal bands will grace the stage of Blueberry Hill’s Duck Room: Stormruler, Summoning the Lich, Voidgazer, and Blackwell. The show will be a tour kickoff for both Stormruler, who are one of the supporting acts on Cannibal Corpse’s upcoming European tour, and Lich, who will be supporting Gorod on their 2023 North American tour.
Although we have profiled Stormruler, Summoning the Lich, and Blackwell previously, this will be our first time covering Voidgazer. Consisting of guitarist Austin Rakey (who uses the stage name Manny Watts), drummer Kyle Hammer, vocalist Omar Olivares, and bassist Mitch Bussone, Voidgazer has a unique style within the St. Louis metal scene. Influenced as much by classic progressive rock as they are by modern extreme metal, the band was once poetically described to me by Blackwell guitarist (and The Arts STL contributor) Jackson Mabrey as “[the band] Mastodon snorting lines of meth off of a music theory textbook.”
In advance of the upcoming Duck Room show, we spoke with Manny and Kyle of Voidgazer, who are both fond of using motorcycle metaphors to describe their very interesting music.
The Arts STL: I feel like Voidgazer has a very unique style within the larger St. Louis metal scene. How would you describe your sound?
Manny Watts: We’ve had a lot of fun ways to describe our band. One of our friends described us as “The Black Dahlia Motor,” and I also heard someone call us “bummer Van Halen” recently. I think we do have a pretty interesting thing going on. I came into the heavy metal world in kind of a backdoor way. I didn’t go through a lot of the traditional route heavy bands that most people get into first, so I think I ended up with a funny amalgamation of interests and influences.
Kyle Hammer: I feel like Voidgazer is like an old chopper that’s made out of 12 or 13 different motorcycles all welded together, chopped up, painted, and custom fitted for whatever’s going on when it strikes us. Blowing black smoke everywhere.
MW: And somehow, it keeps running!
From my perspective, many of our local metal bands are very influenced by deathcore or metalcore. How does Voidgazer differentiate itself from other more hardcore-influenced St. Louis bands?
MW: I come from more of a classic rock, “boomer rock” background, and I got into the more extreme genres, like black metal, later on. I try to take what I think are the best parts of those different genres, trim the fat, and see what I can get from that.
KH: [As a musician] I took a more traditional route through the origins of heavy metal and so on. I think Austin’s more modern approach, and the more traditional angles that I brought, we bring it together and it’s like “Ooh, that’s spicy.”
What are some of your influences, especially the “boomer rock” bands you mentioned?
MW: Jethro Tull was a huge band for me. A lot of those late ‘60s, ‘70s rock acts. Jimi Hendrix, Sabbath of course, all the classics.
KH: [in falsetto] Judas Priest, baby!
As far as what you’ve released so far, you have your debut EP, Years of Exile(2016), and the first album, The Dance of the Undesirables(2021). What was your experience recording the first album like? Are you working on anything currently?
MW: We’re not terribly far from recording what I consider to be number two. The first album was recorded at Bird Cloud Recording with Mr. Ryan Wasoba [sound engineer and owner of Bird Cloud]. He produced, engineered, mixed, and mastered it. His studio was in Edwardsville at the time, but he got a swanky new place closer to Collinsville.
How long has the current lineup for Voidgazer been playing together?
MW: Voidgazer, in its current incarnation, truly started in 2020 with the lineup that we have right now: myself, Kyle, Omar, and Mitch. We played our first couple of shows with this lineup in 2020, and in my heart of hearts I consider that the true start of Voidgazer. So we got this really tight lineup together, and then the pandemic hit and put the hard brakes on everything, of course!
What are some of the other St. Louis bands you’ve played in?
KH: My main band was originally ThorHammer. I was the OG drummer for Lightning Wolf. I was in Xaemora for a little bit; that was before Jason and Jesse [from Stormruler] were in it. I did a bunch of shows with some guys out of Moberly called Nevalra. In total I have 15 years’ worth of experience being in multiple bands.
MW: The first version of Voidgazer [that recorded Years of Exile] was actually myself and a couple of guys from a band called Kodiac. They’re a killer band, but we all kind of decided we wanted to do our own thing. A very long time ago I also played in a band called Grand Inquisitor.
For the Duck Room show on March 4th, you’ll be playing with Summoning the Lich, Stormruler, and Blackwell. Have you played with any of them before?
MW: We’ve played with Lich quite a few times—the last time was November 2021 at Pop’s. We haven’t played a lot of shows this year, at least locally. We played with Blackwell once at the former Atomic Cowboy.
KH: We haven’t played with Stormruler before—they haven’t played too many local shows. They’ve played once at Broadway Social Club, once at Delmar Hall, and I think this upcoming show is only their third one in St. Louis.
Have you played the Duck Room before?
MW: This will be the first time Voidgazer has played there. When I was a teenager, taking lessons at the old Ron Busch Guitar Studio, they did have us play recitals in the Duck Room. There’s pictures of me out there, probably 13 years old, with a big hollow body guitar with a Jack Daniels logo on it, because I thought it was hilarious. Doing the Duck Walk, probably playing some Lynyrd Skynyrd or something.
Are you going to attempt a Duck Walk at the show this Saturday?
MW: I don’t think I have the knees for it anymore! We’ll probably get Jackson [of Blackwell] to do it.
KH: We need to get Tommy Lee’s spinning Motley Crue drum set so I can do a Duck Walk with that.
Do you have any plans for future shows, after the one this Saturday?
MW: We’ve done a couple of small stints in the past—we’re working on something for the spring. It’s been really hard booking anything post-pandemic. Every town we used to have friends in, the bands are gone, the venues are closed. We’ve been trying to get shows booked in Kansas City, and even in our own state it’s been a challenge. The people that are booking shows, they were only booking the biggest of the biggest for a while, because everyone’s scrambling to recoup their losses. I think it’s going to be a little easier this year, though—we’re going to try to get out there and terrorize the Midwest a bit! | David Von Nordheim
All of Voidgazer, Stormruler, and Summoning the Lich’s releases are included on our STL Metal Megamix playlist, as are the other bands mentioned in the interview with material available for streaming. Blackwell’s demo is available for free on their Bandcamp page.
