It is difficult to categorize the extreme metal that GraveDancer make. But if I were to make an attempt, I might tag them as Avant-garde Deathgrind. Whatever the appropriate label, I wholly respect these mortals for having the courage to be unique in an often rigid genre. Forming originally as a four-piece in 2016, loss of members quickly reduced the band to co-founders, vocalist and drummer Jake Michaelis, and guitar wiz, Michael J Allen ( who had already enjoyed a string of releases as a solo artist).
While two full length albums and as many singles are good displays of their power, you haven’t truly experienced GraveDancer until you’ve seen them live. In all of the years I’ve been doing this, I’ve never seen two mortals command a stage with the level of commitment these mortals have. Not one single breath is wasted on anything other than creating an experience for the audience.
Unfortunately, both of them were hotter when they were younger. Jake was skinny and had short hair. His respectable beard and particular hue of brown hair almost guarantees he would have a spectacular hairy ass (he doesn’t, I’ve seen it). And Michael just looked hot with his disheveled and misunderstood tangle of hair. Now he sports a shaved head and looks like a prison convict….which come to think of it… IS still hot and why I probably still want to do him.
Here is my interview with GraveDancer.
THE DEMISE OF GRAVEDANCER
GRAVEDANCER FINAL INTERVIEW
Before there was GraveDancer, you had a solo project did you not Michael?
Michael: : Yessir, Michael J Allen music, the brand behind the music I compose. This includes solo music as well as GraveDancer, even though GraveDancer often takes on a more collaborative effort than just me alone. At the core of myself, I am a songwriter and fan of music as a whole. I find that every genre, if done well, has a specific vibe or emotion that can create new worlds in your mind. I listen to everything and am a student of bad music as well as good. I believe the further beyond the boundaries of metal I push my songwriting, the more uniqueness I can bring to that genre. Every song that I am a part of is an experiment to see where I can push myself.
And what about you, Jake?
Jake: I started making music in high school. I wanted to play bass because all my friends played guitar or drums and immediately blew past me in talent. I went into making hip-hop music, but like everything else in life, I’ve always been the turtle to the hare. All my friends dropped music for real life. I quickly shifted to electronic music largely because I could do it on my own. From that point until I met Mike, I composed solo. Almost all of that music to this day, I have never released. I then went to college for music audio production and always practiced doing metal vocals for fun, mostly in the car – again, I never really showed people I could do it. But Mike said he wanted to join a band together and figured that vocals would be my best route. I play drums and compose electronic music still, but i keep most of my talents a secret. My musical talents and taste comes from my dad who gave me punk and death metal albums, much too young. Dead Kennedys, Brujeria, and Death were all bestowed apon me in grade school. I also had a cast of wierdos and artists who taught me to expess myself theatrically and musically.
And this eventually evolved into GraveDancer?
Michael: GraveDancer came about through a melding of friends in my life that were metal heads and also ambitious to do something. I had been releasing my solo material since I was 17. Of course I didn’t know jack shit about anything other than the sheer craft of creating and composing music, and shredding the guitar I guess. I had released what is now my last solo album called “Smooth Grooves,” which I intended to have a live band for. I met our drummer, Phil through that. I had worked with him at a cat shelter. He was a good metal head and a great drummer! Later, I disbanded that idea and decided to start up a band where I wasn’t the center. I met Jake right away at my new job, we talked for probably a year until we put the idea out in the universe, found another friend from the same job we both worked, called up Phil and started GraveDancer as a four-piece band. After a little under a year, both the bassist and the drummer had to depart due to time commitments to the band. Me and Jake, being the two sick fucks we are, decided that we could not stop this idea and had to stick with it, even if we were just a two piece. Soon we crafted what would become our first album “Parasitoidism” and the rest is history.
Jake: For me, GraveDancer started when Michael had me master some music for him. I knew from there I had to start a band with him! His guitar playing ability was spot on and I knew something special was there. I was writing lots of songs about brutal stuff that was giving me anxiety, and his frantic musicianship melded well with the themes. I hit him up over text and said I wanted to make music together. Years later, here we are with a following of dedicated deadites that grows everyday
But wouldn’t it have been easier just to replace the two departed mortals with new ones?
Michael: Jake and I are always completely open to collaboration and are both easy to write music with. But when it comes to GraveDancer, we wouldn’t want the sound to change other than getting more refined and extreme. We both understand the vision we want to put forward as GraveDancer and we both get caught up with writing more and more music. We are always more than content to add more people to GraveDancer. But we also have no fear finding out who we are at our roots and finding others that understand the vision and want to help represent it.
So the four-piece was creatively effective?
Michael: As a four-piece, we constructed the bones of our song “No More Room In Hell”, which is a song that has remained in damn near every setlist we’ve ever performed live. As a three-piece (guitar, vocals and drums) we wrote the heart of “Heretical Assimilation” which is a song I do not think we’ve gone without playing live. It is a staple of our live performance and one of what me and Jake would consider our best song. In my eyes, I saw great potential in the songs and direction the band was going. These songs became my babies and I don’t think I would’ve ever tossed them in the trash and forgotten about them or given up on the project.
The challenge of transitioning to a duo must have been formidable?
Michael: If I’m being honest, after we lost our drummer, I thought worst case scenario Jake would follow with everyone and this would end up being another solo EP. But Jake stuck through, we worked together and saw each other every day. He gave me inspiration to keep writing and I don’t think I would’ve written the songs I did without him on the first album. I was always striving to write music that we both would enjoy. I remember realizing that drive to finish the very first GraveDancer album. We had a vision and we didn’t want to compromise it. I remember thinking that we would just finish the album and then find the musicians to learn these songs later. But we just kept pushing on, the two of us, and I don’t think we ever stopped. There was always a good 2/3 songs sitting in the vault that were waiting to be released.
Jake: I got us hooked up with gigs through Swinging Noose Productions, a bond we both cherish to this day! And we learned to play, just the two of us, always hoping that someone would want to come along and learn our stuff so we could be taken seriously as a real band.
Michael,: Our second album, Jake took more of a composition start on. He wrote all the drums to which I wrote guitar and bass on top of. “Cult Of The Red Goddess” was us being content with the fact that we may always be a two piece. Jake stepped up on that album and sculpted the overall energy through the drum riffs he came up with. This also shaped how we will most likely write our albums in the future. It’s a fun process. I still tend to throw in a song or two that I’ve composed myself musically.
Jake: There are obviously a lot of disadvantages to being a two piece. But for now, we enjoy the advantages.
How do you make this work live from a technical end?
Jake: Its a game of trial and error. lots of work on the front end has to be done to make it work. We have a live set that we play to, which are drums, rhythm, bass, and samples. All these elements have been mixed individually to make the sound we want to achieve. We then have those tracks run through a soundcard to a PA system. We also rely on in-ear monitor systems. We may be two, but it does help to have very talented people behind the scenes helping us a long the way. Shout out to Hugh McDougal for helping us tighten our sound continuously.
Michael: On the guitar end of things, I’m usually rocking my Ibanez iron label 8 string, officially named “The Iron Nightmare” thanks to Vinnie from Spacecorpse, I think that name fits its aura nicely. On the amp end I’m rocking an Orange CR120 through an Orange 2×12 Jim Root PPC212 cabinet. The sound you hear from my guitar live comes from the mic’d up cabinet, which I feel gives it a good live presence.
There is an orchestral ,almost experimental element to a lot of your music.where does that come from?
Michael: I would say that both me and Jake bond on the experimental sound. We both have some pretty obscure musical interests that overlap. I would say the big one is agoraphobic nosebleed. We both have a soft spot for experimental, grind and noise music.
The orchestral element comes from our first album. At the time I was getting my bachelors. We did a lot of studying classical music and composing our own pieces for film and tv. At the time it was something that seemed like a natural transition to add to GraveDancer. I’ve always loved orchestral moments in metal music. Makes it sound larger than life. This is one element we hope to always have in some form or another, on the albums we put out. I LOVE writing orchestral pieces. You can convey so much emotion through classical instrumentation.
The violin is also an instrument I used to play when I was younger and still hold near and dear to my heart. I am thankful for the advancements in MIDI technology that allow us to add orchestral instruments to our music. I hope that some day we are able to compose a piece to be played by real orchestral musicians on one of our albums.
Gravedancer has a connection to wrestling. Tell me about that.
Michael: Both me and Jake spent our childhoods watching the greatest era of professional wrestling. It is etched into our minds the bodily sacrifices that those superstars put out for our entertainment. Right around the time when GraveDancer first started coming together, I was attending school for my bachelors in music production at Full Sail University. For those that don’t know, Full Sail is known in the wrestling community for WWE’s NXT. During my time at full sail I got the chance to create entrance music for one of my favorite wrestlers Aleister Black. Of course my music was not selected, although it still lives on my YouTube channel, it did cause a resurgence for the love of wrestling in my life. I was a huge WWE fan up until my favorite wrestler growing up, Chris Benoit, committed his tragic murder suicide on his family. This caused me to turn away from wrestling.
When did it resume?
Michael: After my time in college I began watching various wrestling promotions such as CZW, Lucha Underground and AEW. My love for wrestling was awakened again. I began turning on wrestling at my studio when me and Jake would record Cult Of The Red Goddess. It was great inspiration for that album and set the pace for the future I didn’t think was possible.
Jake: Soon me and Mike began working together printing t shirts. I would put on IWTV where we would watch tons of different, mostly deathmatch wrestling promotions and documentaries. Mike started learning more and more about independent wrestling companies and found out about the longest running Colorado wrestling promotion Primos Premier Pro Wrestling.
Michael: September 18 2021, I bought ring side tickets for me and Jake for the annual Primos Slave To The Deathmatch tournament which would change our lives and many others. I don’t want to get into too much detail about it here, but we would witness some of the bravest, fearless, most ruthless underground fighters at this show, who weren’t afraid to put their bodies on the line to create a spectacle.
Jake: After that night, we would seek to get involved more and more in the scene. We played multiple Primos shows, talked our shit and shed our blood. We even became camera men for Primos and a couple other promotions in Colorado, to which Mike is still involved with today.
Most impressive, mortals.
Michael: I began pro wrestling training at the Primos Butcher Shop under the training of tons of great talent such as #iamtheprovider, Red Viper, Chango Bronson and Duff Doyle to name a few. I am constantly learning how to be a better performer and overall person each and every week through my year and a half with Primos. And I give a big shoutout to Joe McDougal and Joe Vernola for constantly giving me opportunities to be involved and live out a childhood dream I never thought possible. Keep on the lookout for the annual Slave To The Deathmatch tournament in september! I hear tickets go on sale soon, you do not want to miss that one. I know we won’t! And be on the lookout for the tag team “The Cult Awaits You” rocking a theme song created by us. When you have GraveDancer behind you, you can conquer the world! And these guys are just a taste of the incredible young talent that Primos has brewing right now!
How does your love of wrestling translate into Grave Dancer?
Michael: As a band, we seek to find that same energy. That “I don’t know if I’m going to make it out of this alive” energy everytime we walk on stage. We understand the impermanence of life and how quickly it can get taken away from any of us indiscriminately. We want to leave this earth with something left behind for the next generation to define extreme and take what we did one step further. I think we both have a suicidal nature about us that we want to give everything to our performances, whether that’s from our own blood and broken bones or through special guest appearances from our supernatural friends Godzilla and Cthulhu. We create memorable moments on stage and keep the fans guessing what’s going to happen. We want you to know that when you spend money for our art, we give you 100%.
You are planning on new album this year. Tell me what you have in store for the mortals that like you.
Michael: It’s gonna be filthy, and disgusting. The highs will be higher and the lows will be lower. The overall goal is to show how much we’ve grown as a two piece and show how comfortable we are in our own skin. A lot of these songs we’ve teased live with the shows we’ve played this year. We have Hahn audio that’s gonna be recording and producing the album to make that disgusting slop sound like a delicious dessert
Special thanks to Maggie, Glenn, Maxx Smith, Bryce Mizrahy and Grisly Evan