Shawn Richards – vocals and rhythm guitar at Cloning Betty (Buffalo nu metal), drummer at Under the Black (Buffalo metal/rock/alt) Don’t remember Shawn? He’s been around for decades now. You might remember him as the frontman of Buffalo hardcore/metalcore legends, Three Minutes of Hate, or perhaps as the long-running sound guy at Xtreme Wheelz in […]

Kaitlyn Fedele – Polybius (Rochester thrash/death mixed with NWOBHM), Eternal Crypt (blackened melodic death and folk metal) I played a show with Polybius back in January of 2022, and it was my first time ever seeing and hearing a keytar player in a local band (as far as I can remember anyway). That alone drew […]

Adam Drzyzga – Frostbelt Entertainment If you’re part of the Buffalo or Rochester heavy music communities, unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve been seeing the name FROSTBELT ENTERTAINMENT come up A LOT lately. We decided to get to the bottom of it by tracking down owner/operator/promoter, Adam Drzyzga, and capturing his words of […]

Ricky Leonard – drummer at Loveboxx (Buffalo metal/rock/alt) We’ve chatted with Loveboxx a few times over the past several months. They’ve been making serious waves in the Buffalo music scene, drawing a lot of attention and throwing some pretty decent shows as of late. However, as I recall, we at WRETCHED SOUND failed to give […]

This month’s STUDIO OF NERDS segment brings us to Brad from Among the Outcast, someone who has already been mentioned once in this issue (see the Robert Becker interview a few pages back), and is currently making waves both on and off stage. It’s actually really impressive how far Brad has come as both a […]

Brian Mason – guitars at CONTRARIAN (progressive death metal from Rochester, NY) If you’re fluent in Rochester local metal, and you know Brian, then you’re familiar with bands like CONTRARIAN and SULACO, but if not, you’re in for quite a ride. Brian’s progressive death metal outfit, CONTRARIAN, have established quite the name for themselves over […]

Robert Becker – drummer of BENOT BREATHING (Buffalo, NY metalcore) Robert has really been stepping up lately, not just as a drummer, but as an event coordinator, lighting and sound tech, and general advocate for the Buffalo metal scene. The older I get, it’s nicer to see new people stepping into the fold to assume […]

1. How did you come up with the name Pale Hell? Alex: Charles and Wyatt came up with the name before I joined the band, so I’m honestly not sure. It’s kind of a mystery to me. Charles: Wyatt actually originally proposed the idea for that name. He saw the phrase used on Ricky Armellino’s […]

Photo by Julia Rabkin* 1. Talk about the humble beginnings of Orodruin. How did the band first form? How long have you guys known each other, the story behind the name, etc. John: We started back around 1998. We all basically have known each-other all our lives. Nick is my cousin and Mike his best […]