Local Spotlight: Missoula’s New Melodic Metal Band to Release Debut EP at Top Hat
New to the Missoula music scene, self described “heavy melodic” metal band Fate’s Fortune will release their debut EP “Fate’s Fortune I: A Different Light” on July 13th at the Top Hat with a special opening performance ahead of local Rage Against the Machine tribute band Guerilla Radio.
Logjam had the pleasure of learning a bit more about the up and comers as they prepare for the big night.
Origins
Earlier this year, seasoned Missoula musician, Josh Rhines (Ghost Peppers) began talking with friend and bassist Dan Molgaard about creating music using an extended range of guitars and basses i.e. 7 and 8 string guitars, 5 string basses, etc. Soon after, they contacted friend and vocalist Brooke Olivia and the beginnings of Fate’s Fortune were born. Rhines began writing songs and they started to record material in his home-based Sound West Studios. Their friend Drew Barker helped play drums for the first group of songs as a session musician, and later in the spring we found Josh Chai, who joined up with us and is now drumming full time. Inspired by a mix of Muse, Heart, Evanescence, Black Sabbath, Perifphery, and Metallica, the band’s sound is defined by powerful female vocals, plentiful riffs, dynamic rhythms, and engaging guitar leads.
Recording
For recording, Rhines would work with Drew and Josh to create the right drum track to record over demo guitar tracks and a click track. Then, Rhines would come back through and record his real guitar takes, typically layering 4-6 rhythm tracks and adding however many lead/solo tracks as was appropriate. Next, Dan would come into the studio to write and record bass. At this point, they’d have a solid sounding instrumental track, which Brooke would use to write and record her vocals to.
A Word From Guitarist Josh Rhines
“When all put together, the songs are powerful – heavy and interesting musically, with emotive engaging vocals and purposeful guitar leads. The guitar work and writing on this EP is among the best work I’ve done. I’m very proud and excited about it. While not the most traditional approach to writing songs, our studio based songwriting and recording has worked out well for us. We have 25+ songs written and recorded instrumentally, and 10 with vocals. We will be releasing these songs (and writing/recording more) over a series of EPs. We decided to take this approach for a few reasons.
The first being the creative freedom and efficiency it gives us in working on a smaller group of songs. It can take a while to finish 10-12 rock/metal songs, many of them being longer and more complicated arrangements. With a smaller group of songs, we can focus on making them the best they can be. The second reason for the EP series is that we feel it makes more sense with the current climate of musical consumption. We can consistently release music 2-3 times a year, rather than release one album every 1-2 years, which we are hoping will help us gain momentum and fans by staying on their radar and staying musically interesting. ”
Event details for Guerilla Radio with Fate’s Fortune can be found here.