It’s a little unfair, these guys getting 2021 before us, but we’ll still feature them as Band of the Day because their music’s pretty bloody great…
Simple things first – where are you guys from?
We are from Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
How did you meet?
The original members of Escarion met through a previous band they formed called Vintage Ruin. After the band split in 2016, Johnny Arhondis (Guitar, Vocals), Jonathan McGivern (Drums) & Rhys McKenzie (Bass, Backing Vocals) formed Escarion. We then welcomed our second guitarist Tommy Lewko (Previously from Omegacron and Tyrant’s Blood) about a year later. In 2019, our original drummer left the band and we found his replacement, Tim Bottams (From Wulfenite).
How long have you been playing as a band?
Since August 2016 so just over 3 years.
Before you get sick of being asked… where does the band name come from?
Not sick at all of answering this one. But you can actually find the word ‘Escarion’ in the Oxford dictionary. An Escarion is a love child of a Bear from space and Hydra from the depths of the Yarra River with a fatal scream.
What are your influences?
Death, Behemoth, Trivium, Mayhem, Darkthrone, Megadeth, Iron Maiden, Mgla, Revocation, Rivers of Nihil, Rush, Black Sabbath, Opeth, Judas Priest.
If you like what we do, consider joining us on Patreon for as little as £1 per month!
Describe your music. What makes you unique?
We are melodic-progressive-post-apocalyptic-experimental-blackened-death-jazz and we’re here to make you dance like it’s the 1920’s. The 30’s were too dark of a time, man.
Do you have any particular lyrical themes?
For this album we tackle all the seven deadly sins. For each song we made it our concept to make each sin seem like they are part of human nature as opposed to just casting them down as ‘evil’. As you might probably assume some sins are harder to defend than others, but we do bring them as close as we can to what we set out in our concept.
What’s your live show like? How many shows have you played?
Our live shows are awesome. We take great pride in working towards the best possible shindig with the best music possible to dance (mosh) to. We’ve definitely in the double digits in terms of shows.
What’s the wildest thing you’ve seen or done at a live show?
Big Day out was one the biggest music festivals in Australia. One of our band members went in 2011 when the Red Hot Chili Peppers & the Killers headlined. After seeing the Killers, the band member in question attempted to get a good spot to see the Chili Peppers but failed miserably as a massive tent was in the way. Whilst sulking at this fact, he was in the fantastic company of inebriated intellectuals behind him. This particular group had a problem. One of them was busting to go and relieve himself, but realised he might not see his friends again after if he went to a cubicle. However, one of his friends came up with a solution, he had finished his big can of V (energy drink) and offered his friend to pee in it. The friend loved this solution and took the can to relieve himself. I would say about 75% of it went into the can and the other 25% of the pee ricocheted off the can and onto our band member’s leg. He was wearing shorts at the time.
What kit do you use / guitars do you play / etc.?
Bass: Fender, Maton & Ibanez BTB675 Six String. Peavey 450 Tour Series Amp Head & 4×12 Cab
Guitars: EVH iii Amp Heads, Marshal Cab, Gibson, Jackson, Ibanez, Solar Guitars
Drums: DW Performance with an extra 16″ Ludwig Centennial floor tom.
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What, if anything, are you plugging/promoting at the moment?
Our album Pillars of the Faith will be out on the 29th of January 2021. We are also promoting the release of our most current single “Greed” which is available on all of our streaming sites which will be available below.
What are your plans for the next 6 months or so?
To promote our album to the best of our ability and to play any gigs that come our way. We also plan to kick-start a website with some new merchandise.
If you were second on a three-band bill, which band would you love to be supporting and which band would you choose to open for you? A chance to plug someone you’ve toured with, or a mate’s band we’ve not heard of before!
A dream band we would love to open for is Rivers of Nihil. And a band that we would love to go on before us would be Shredder.
