Homegrown Heathens: The Return of Skeletonwitch

By Marshall Pearson, News Editor

Witnessing true passion is indeed a rare occurrence, and even in a college town filled with academics, activists and students, such intense enthusiasm is often mimicked but infrequently manifest.

Many passionate musicians can be found among Athens’ dingy bars and sterile dormitories, yet few will put in the backbreaking work required to achieve even a modicum of success.

Because few bands have the unique combination of work ethic and enthusiasm, and even fewer persevere long enough to prosper in the cut-throat music industry, Skeletonwitch is clearly in the minority, as the band’s recent and widespread success will confirm.

They have hit the world of heavy metal like a metaphoric blastbeat. After signing to independent label Prosthetic Records, Athens’ own brutalizers have gone on to tour with highly-renowned bands like Amon Amarth, Danzig, Municipal Waste and Goatwhore. They have graced the cover of metal magazines all over the world and experienced an unexpectedly high level of album sales. The average band would easily surrender to the perks of a “rock'n'roll lifestyle” and overwhelming arrogance that can come with such success. Skeletonwitch is an anomaly in the upper echelon of musicians because they temper success with humility. The band members appear to love what they do and let everything else work itself out.

Vocalist Chance Garnette, guitarists Nate Garnette and Scott Hedrick, bass player Evan Linger and drummer Derrick Nau have been playing music in Athens for more than a decade and since 2003 as Skeletonwitch. At the beginning, it was Nate Garnette, Hedrick, Nau and a bass player not currently in the band. After several unsuccessful attempts at securing a vocalist, Garnette suggested his brother Chance and the addition was a success. Once a stable group of musicians was established, the recording and touring began. In 2004, the band released At One with the Shadows. In 2005, they released a demo, and in 2006, they released the Worship the Witch EP. Following the release of their demo, the members of Skeletonwitch labored to get their unique blend of metal heard.

Drummer Derrick Nau recalls this era of self-promotion and the band’s zealously aggressive pavement pounding.

“I remember when Scott, when he was living on Mill Street, would have stacks and stacks of mailers, and he would be mailing out CDs, calling people constantly and working really hard to get shows,” said Nau.

Skeletonwitch got those shows, and many of them took place at The Union Bar and Grill. As a welcoming environment for punk and other heavy musical styles, The Union’s ownership and staff have been booking and supporting the band since its inception, allowing Skeletonwitch to perform the shows that would sharpen their musicality and expose the band to a larger audience. One of the people that helped Skeletonwitch on their road to local success was Scott Winland, The Union's booking agent, promoter and co-manager. He arranged many of the band’s early shows when other promoters would not and knows first-hand how the support of a venue can help struggling musicians.

“The Union traditionally would be more likely to book a metal band than other bars,” said Winland. “This is not so much the case now, but it was then. [Athens] has a pretty encouraging music scene, and they have always had a place to play. The music scene has always been supportive.”

Nau also believes that the setting of The Union and the musical environment in Athens gave the band the tools it needed to accomplish its goals.

“I will credit The Union and Athens with convincing us to take it a little further. We started doing pretty well here and people were excited about it. The shows were good. I mean, really good,” he said. “Through hard work we learned the ropes about what to do and what not to do.”

While playing shows locally and on self-booked tours, Skeletonwitch’s assertive networking and promotion brought label attention to the Worship the Witch EP. The band was pursued by Prosthetic Records and signed with the label in 2007. Their debut full-length on Prosthetic, entitled Beyond the Permafrost, began to garner further national attention and more prestigious tour offers. Before long, Skeletonwitch appeared on several published “Best of” lists for that year.

Their newest release, Breathing the Fire, was released on October 13, 2009 and captured the 151st spot on Billboard Magazine’s Top 200 list and the 2nd slot on the magazine’s Heatseekers chart after selling 3,500 copies in its first week. The band has continued to tour nationally and has seen sales of its album continue to climb.

The current market for metal is as oversaturated as it is for any genre, but Skeletonwitch has managed to set itself apart from the glut of bands contending for national attention. Guitarist Scott Hedrick believes that several elements go into the band’s innovative style of songwriting, performing and recording. By writing quality songs anchored by challenging musicality, Skeletonwitch has attracted fans in highly competitive industry.

“A lot of modern metal bands have overly-processed recordings. They downtune everything super low. They use Pro Tools to the Nth degree, so everything sounds so pristine and clean and sterile,” said Hendrick. “Our main emphasis is on songwriting. A lot of bands just string together riffs to showcase their technicality. The shit that moves me is great songs, great riffs and a great aesthetic.

”When reading about the overall style of Skeletonwitch, several canned terms almost always appear. Music journalists adore applying arbitrary tags to style, and will consistently peg the band as part of a “thrash metal” revival.

“We do get tired of the ‘retro thrash’ or ‘rebirth of thrash’ thing, just because there are a lot of amazing bands lumped into that category that are really killer but one dimensional,” said Hendrick. “We have more black and death metal vocals, and we have black and death metal style parts. When we get lumped into that Thrash category, it is lazy journalism. Thrash is a very big part of what we do, but there is a lot of other stuff going on there, too.”

However resistant to this description, Hedrick acknowledges his fondness for the riffs of yore. To him and the rest of the band members, throwback shredding remains a single, albeit integral, part of the band’s sound.

“We take a lot of elements from old school metal and incorporate some of the more modern things that we like and kind of meld it together,” he said. “I think it is refreshing for some people.”

While the ’Witch’s musicianship appeals to hardcore fans of technical metal, their enthusiasm for their fan base and sense of community have allowed them to reach casual fans of metal as well. In a way, the band reflects the ideals of community, accessibility and passion for music that are a large part of the Athens scene.

The band members clearly love Athens and readily acknowledge that the skills learned here, as well as the support of rabid fans in Athens, have helped propel them to commercial success.

“We didn’t even know each other until we met in Athens. The support from the fans, friends, everyone that we met there has pushed us along the way and it is our home. Every night, Chance says, ‘We are Skeletonwitch from Athens, Ohio,’ not just Ohio,” said Hendrick. “We have always had a really strong support base in Athens from friends and family that encourage us, so we definitely feel like it is home base.”

Even with all the commercial achievements of Athens’ premier metal band, the members of Skeletonwitch remain down to earth. Their success can be attributed to a deep passion for metal and for their fans. Their humility is refreshing given that the music industry is rife with gaudy prima donnas and money-hungry “artists.” Skeletonwitch is clearly above it all. In the end, the members are just guys that love metal and love making music.

“They have always been super nice guys and they have always worked really hard…[they] are really happy to do what they love to do,” said Winland.

Skeletonwitch is a work in progress, but the future of the band is likely to be filled with the success for which the band has worked diligently to attain. No matter what tour they join or how many copies their next album sells, their passion for metal and their fans will remain.

“We will just keep doing what we do, and if it escalates, cool. If it doesn’t, that’s cool too. We just love doing it,” Hedrick said.

“Nothing has changed. We still love heavy metal and are the same fucking dudes.”

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