WARFORGED

Tech/Extreme Prog Metal • United States

From Progarchives.com, the ultimate progressive rock music website

Tour & shows updates
Press & news updates
Forum discussions
Videos (Youtube)
Buy music
Discography
Reviews
Official website

Warforged biography
WARFORGED is a progressive blackened technical death metal band based in Chicago, Illinois, which was formed in 2012.

Keyboard player/vocalist Adrian PEREZ and drummer Jason NITTS had been jamming together whilst playing in different bands since circa 2010. Adrian then joined another technical death metal band called ENFOLD DARKNESS for a couple of tours between late 2011 and mid 2012, and shortly afterwards he and Jason decided to launch WARFORGED as a new band.

Other band members briefly came and went, including Don SUNGKAPAN on guitar, which led to a slight shift of influences and the altering of their ultimate aspirations, but the first official incarnation of WARFORGED was established in August of 2012 with the intentions of playing music that was fresh, mature and original. That line up was Adrian PEREZ (vocals, keyboards), Mark RUSSELL (bass, vocals), Jason NITTS (drums), Christian BERGER (guitar, vocals) and Richard STANCATO (guitar, vocals).

The band members cited quite an eclectic array of influences, from the more usual metal-related ones such as OPETH, CYNIC, DEVIN TOWNSEND, NECROPHAGIST, OBSCURA etc, to artists associated with other genres of music such as ROGER WATERS, RADIOHEAD, NINE INCH NAILS, AN AUTUMN FOR CRIPPLED CHILDREN, and ALCEST. Looking at that list of references alone, it certainly suggested the beginnings of a fresh, new formula.

Shortly after the band was launched in August 2012, they released a demo CD containing just two tracks: 'The Hyperbolic Time Chamber' and 'Lich King, with 'The Hyperbolic Time Chamber' also being released as a single. However, it wasn't until January 2014 that the band released its debut four-track EP titled 'Essence of the Land', with Christian BERGER and Mark RUSSELL having been replaced on guitar and bass by Paul ALUCULESEI and Alex DAMSKE.

This was essentially a 14-minute ghost story set in the turgid swamps of old-time America, and featured several guest musicians including a guitar solo on one track by Brody UTTLEY of the fellow technical death metal upstarts RIVERS OF NIHIL.

The 'Essence of the Land' EP was self-financed and recorded but the band hooked up with the Total Deathcore label to take care of its distribution. WARFORGED had originally been penciled in to be a part of a split with a few other artists that Total Deathcore were due to be distributing for, but due to the band member changes and other difficulties that they had run into earlier in 2...WARFORGED is a progressive blackened technical death metal band based in Chicago, Illinois, which was formed in 2012.

Keyboard player/vocalist Adrian PEREZ and drummer Jason NITTS had been jamming together whilst playing in different bands since circa 2010. Adrian then joined another technical death metal band called ENFOLD DARKNESS for a couple of tours between late 2011 and mid 2012, and shortly afterwards he and Jason decided to launch WARFORGED as a new band.

Other band members briefly came and went, including Don SUNGKAPAN on guitar, which led to a slight shift of influences and the altering of their ultimate aspirations, but the first official incarnation of WARFORGED was established in August of 2012 with the intentions of playing music that was fresh, mature and original. That line up was Adrian PEREZ (vocals, keyboards), Mark RUSSELL (bass, vocals), Jason NITTS (drums), Christian BERGER (guitar, vocals) and Richard STANCATO (guitar, vocals).

The band members cited quite an eclectic array of influences, from the more usual metal-related ones such as OPETH, CYNIC, DEVIN TOWNSEND, NECROPHAGIST, OBSCURA etc, to artists associated with other genres of music such as ROGER WATERS, RADIOHEAD, NINE INCH NAILS, AN AUTUMN FOR CRIPPLED CHILDREN, and ALCEST. Looking at that list of references alone, it certainly suggested the beginnings of a fresh, new formula.

Shortly after the band was launched in August 2012, they released a demo CD containing just two tracks: 'The Hyperbolic Time Chamber' and 'Lich King, with 'The Hyperbolic Time Chamber' also being released as a single. However, it wasn't until January 2014 that the band released its debut four-track EP titled 'Essence of the Land', with Christian BERGER and Mark RUSSELL having been replaced on guitar and bass by Paul ALUCULESEI and Alex DAMSKE.

This was essentially a 14-minute ghost story set in the turgid swamps of old-time America, and featured several guest musicians including a guitar solo on one track by Brody UTTLEY of the fellow technical death metal upstarts RIVERS OF NIHIL.

The 'Essence of the Land' EP was self-financed and recorded but the band hooked up with the Total Deathcore label to take care of its distribution. WARFORGED had originally been penciled in to be a part of a split with a few other artists that Total Deathcore were due to be distributing for, but due to the band member changes and other difficulties that they had run into earlier in 2013, this never happened. However, Total Deathcore were more than happy to distribute the EP once matters within the band had stabilized again.

A single track called 'Two Demons' was released in 2015, with Jace KIBURZ having replaced Richard STANCATO on guitar, but this was followed by a four year silence, during which Max DAMSKE replaced Paul ALUCULESEI on guitar. WARFORGED embarked on a 14-date West Coast Summer Tour in 2018 accompanied by the Denver, Colorado technical/progressive death metal band APOTHEON, with various other local bands supporting them along the way.

Then, in 2019, they finally released their debut full-length release 'I: Voice', which they said would continue sequentially from where the band's earlier work had left off. The result of that stated intent turned out to be a 73-minute, thematically-linked opus consisting of nine tracks. Although the album consisted of nine songs with each song having its own personality, they all flowed together to create a consistent whole.

Another aspect of the band's mission statement was their intention of fusing contributions from well-respected musicians hailing from all over the metal spectrum into the music which was to become the new album, whilst further elaborating on the vibes and textures from the band's previous EP 'Essence of the Land'. That earlier EP had actually been a ghost story from a book read by the main character of the new album 'I: Voice', hence the link between the two records.

The list of guest musicians was indeed impressive, with the majority of them contributing extra vocals and guitar parts, and many of them coming from other bands under the wing of The Artisan Era record label to whom WARFORGED had now been signed. The unpredictable song structures, menacing guitar work, eerie acoustic textures, walls of intense dissonance, and pounding drums that the resulting music contained certainly created a credible sonic representation of the godless, forbidden forest of horrors upon which it was thematically based, and the album was released by The Artisan Era on May 10, 2019.

Vocalist/keyboard player and founding member Adrian PEREZ left the band in 2020, being replaced on vocals by Tim O'BRIAN, formerly the vocalist of the deathcore band I KILLED EVERYONE, and WARFORGED released their second full-length album 'The Grove | Sundial' via The Artisan Era in September 2022, once again with the aid of some guest vocalists. This album turned out to be a much shorter and more concise album than its predecessor, and at times a good deal more aggressive.

WARFORGED claim to craft progressive blackened death metal that should appeal to fans of PORTAL, OPETH, SLICE THE CAKE and LANTL�S. Through the years they have opened for bands such as THE BLACK DALIAH MURDER, DYING FETUS, THE FACELESS, BEYOND CREATION, DECAPITATED, HATE ETERNAL, NE OBLIVISCARIS, DECREPIT BIRTH and many others. The band are currently, as of October 2024, putting the finishing touches to studio album number three.read more