Getting To Know Second Death

As America continues to grow, more hate comes into play. Some people hate other races, others just hate everybody equally. There is even people (if I dare say it) who hate Taco Bell. But all of this hate originates from somewhere. The reason I am talking about hate is because Second Death is just one of those bands that makes you want to punch a brother in the face just for the sake of it. Formed in February of 2016, Second Death is one of the most brutal Heavy bands that Philadelphia has had enter in a while. The band currently consists of four members, bassist Clark Gargan, guitarist Christian Snow, Drummer Giovanni Casanova, and vocalist Josh Claxton. Since forming in early 2016 Second Death has released two singles, the band released “Deadweight” in April of 2016 as well as “Claim Culture” in November of 2016. Although the band has not been around for long they were formed from an older band that they had, regaining their previous fan base of over 11,000 people. With the rebranding of their name Second Death expects to release their newest record sometime next month as well as booking a few shows. First off let me tell you, these guys are definitely one of the most well put together bands I’ve seen live in a long time, between both the guitarist and bassist head banging at the same time as well as how much detail and skill their drummer has, Second Death is one of those bands that will make it far in the music industry. Although the band is on tour at the moment and busy with setting everything up with future dates for the upcoming release, they have hobbies and things that they enjoy doing as well. Of course like any nerd Second Death enjoys playing Xbox, well most of the band at least (cough cough). Outside of their life in music the likes to, you guessed it, get involved with as well as listen to other music.

When I got to see Second Death live they were on tour with a few other bands from the south, Broadmoor and Landfill. Being able to get backstage for all of their sets was a great experience and really opened my mind up to how hard it can be to actually play a set in front of lots of people. But of course there is a lot of great things about touring around and playing shows for so many people, some things that Second Death enjoys about touring are getting to meet new bands and hanging out with new people, connecting with different bands and companies along with not having to work. While second Death prepares to drop their new record soon I asked them what type of influences are on their new songs. Clark Gargan and Christian Snow replied that there’s a lot of influences from older records, as well a A Plea For Purging. While the band has some influences from older records and a Plea For Purging, Second Death does not listen to heavy music while writing their own music. They believe that it influences you into mimicking that sound, making your music not as great and original as it can be. Sadly since the rebranding of the band Second Death only has music out on physical copies and bandcamp, which the band is expecting to expand once they release their new record. Honestly it takes a lot to rebrand your name as a band, although you might keep your old social media pages and just change the name, people will have to learn about your band all over again. But that’s alright because in Second Death’s case they surely have a good following of people. This band has been around long enough, and has toured around enough to see what is wrong, and what flaws the music industry has, serious flaws in some cases. Second Death wants to go back four years, when people went to shows for the music and didn’t just come for their friends band then leave directly after. The band also believes that a band that is willing to do so much in the music scene and grind to get where they are, that the band should be noticed. Which is only fair, many bands nowadays are just formed from record labels, as well as funded through that record label just to acquire wealth for the label itself. A band such as Second death, Kaonashi, Repressed, Sabella, Bungler, Provenance and many more should be the bands that are getting out there on big tours, headlining sold out shows all over. They deserve it because these guys as well as many other bands do everything that they can just to make it by and honestly I believe they deserve much more. Also the statement that the band made included that they believe labels should be putting in as much work as bands do. Lately labels have been slacking off while bands make their own merchandise, run their own website, book their own shows, and other things that a label should be at least assisting the band in.

Second Death is a unique band of course, perhaps one of the few bands that successfully rebranded themselves and kept a good portion of their fanbase. The band believes that some things that sets them apart from other bands in the music industry are that they’re willing to work harder, at the moment they are on tour of course, which shows how far they’re willing to go to please the fans that they care about. Also, as clark Gargan said, the band only expects as much as they give. Meaning that if they’re committed to touring, releasing new music as well as doing interviews, they expect to see some growth in popularity as well as hope that a record label notices them. Speaking of pleasing their fans, Second Death absolutely loves playing in the tri-state area of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, as well as New York. In fact the band stated that the music scene in this area is the best scene out of the whole country, which could be said considering the band has toured around the US. As the interview came close to an end I asked a few more questions in hopes that it would get readers interested in actually reading these articles. I asked the band if there was a song that was personally, lyrically to them. Vocalist Josh Claxton replied with Self Portrait and Malfunction, because both songs had something to do with when he was in a dark spot. Before I wrap up this article I want to thank everybody again for reading this, and please do click the links down below to follow and listen to Second Death.

Lastly, I asked the band if they had a preferred way of contact, so if you are interested in reaching Second Death for any type of booking or interest you can find them on Facebook as well as email at Seconddeath229@gmail.com. The last remarks of Second Death were simple, “Shout out to all of the bands and people that have been supporting us since the beginning, shout out to Kaonashi, Idle Minds, Born A New, and Sabella”. With the last remarks wrapped up my interview with Second Death, perhaps somebody running a label will read this and decide to give these guys a listen. Second Death has great stage presence, all of the members are greatly talented and not mention nice. So please, give them a listen and if you like the music then perhaps see if they’ll play a show near you sometime. Discover great new bands, support local music. Music is limitless, and the creation that everyone has inside them is truly special, never be afraid to show who you you really are and express what you feel inside through music.