When a band calls Indiana home, it's already got hurdles to climb. With a state best known for car racing and corn stalks as its stomping grounds, Year Of Desolation is one of those bands that just has to let their music do the talking. No fashion, no dancing in the pit, and no singing, just playing music that's unabashedly metal, and can win fans over night after night on technicality and sheer musicianship alone.
After forming in the hot, sticky Indiana summer of 2001, guitarist John Hehman and vocalist Chad Zimmerman set out to create a band that would trump all their previous time as members rotating through bands in the local Indianapolis scene. Now, years later with scores of live experience, a full-length record (2004's Your Blood, My Vendetta), and an unquenchable thirst to breath life into a scene overcrowded with bands only ripping off bands who were, in turn, already ripping off At The Gates, Year Of Desolation's mission is to re-inspire a whole slew of concertgoers who no longer have anyone original or innovate to inspire them. In a scene where paths are continually re-trodden, and real metal music has taken a backseat to fashion shows and pit dancing at concerts, Year Of Desolation is here to prove that real metal hasn't died, it's only waiting in the shallows for the right time to strike. And if the band has any say in it, now is as good a time as any.
Where most modern metal bands pull inspiration from the mid- to late-90s death metal bands and hardcore crews alike, Year Of Desolation goes against the grain. Drawing equally from modern masters Slayer and Sepultura, and the classic works of Iron Maiden and Sabbath, as well as modern day European neo-classical metal, Year of Desolation also, quite shamelessly, draws inspiration from the timeless melodies on classic records from Boston and Journey, creating a sound that's refreshingly old-school, yet brutal enough to stand alongside Dismember and Carcass and melodic enough to stand up to In Flames.
"Our goal as a band is to make music people can move to, relate to, fuck to, fight to, bake cookies to, whatever," guitarist John Hehman says. "We're not some ego maniacs who think we're the shit. We still go to shows, we still hang out, we just want to have a good time and ultimately make some fuckin' metal."
Metal, after all, is what it's all about for Year Of Desolation. Melodic inspirations aside, as long as the songs are thrashingly heavy, fast, and uncompromising, this band doesn't need to fall back on conventional verse-chorus-verse-chorus song construction or gimmicky flavor of the week styles to appeal to the metalhead inside us all. Instead, the band sticks to their guns, and plays music they want to hear, music that's fast, heavy, brutal, and still melodic enough to contain memorable riffs and leads, creating songs that stand apart from each other. With the January 2007 release of Year Of Desolation's Prosthetic debut, a self-titled effort, that's exactly the combination that will help replace faith in modern metal music without gimmicks.
"Teaming up with Prosthetic will be a good investment for both band and label," Hehman continues. "We've got plenty to offer and so do they. When the self-titled album drops, everyone's going to know that real metal isn't dead. That's what their goal is, and that's exactly what our goal is too."
