Let the battle begin

By Catherine Amos

Published: April 24, 2008

Despite not having a space of his own for the former Culpeper Rock Academy, owner Keith MacDonald is determined to bring rock music back to Culpeper.
After months of planning, Culpeper Concerts will present Culpeper’s first Battle of the Bands competition May 3 at the American Legion Hall on Rt. 229. The battle will feature up to 12 bands, eight slots of which are already filled.

Madison County usually hosts a battle in the spring and the fall, but because there will not be a spring battle, MacDonald said he wanted to have one in Culpeper. He is still looking for judges (21 and older) and has room for four more bands to play.
The lineup so far consists of Morgue Rats, That’s What She Said, Hasten My Demise, Haven of Darkness, Sindica, 4th Degree Burn and Society’s Trash, plus an intermission performance by Revenent.
Judges will rate the bands based on appearance, lead vocals, ability as musicians, ability to play together and staying within the allotted time limit, among other categories. The bands will have 15 minutes to play, plus five minutes each to set up and break down.

“I really like to see some continuity in their style,” MacDonald said about the bands’ appearances. “Do they look the same? Do they look like a band or look like they’ve been thrown together like a ragtag team?”

The battle will be a winner-takes-all brawl instead of the Madison-style duels. The top three bands will win prizes of $100 for first place, $50 for second and $25 for third.
The CSE could only reach three of the bands for comments, so here’s a quick look at Hasten My Demise, Haven of Darkness and Morgue Rats.

Hasten My Demise
Coming to Culpeper from the Winchester/Front Royal area is Hasten My Demise, a Christian southern metal band, with influences such as Maylene and the Sons of Disaster, The Devil Wears Prada and Impending Doom.

Making up the band is Brandon Clark (21) on the guitar, Andrew Sorez (16) on the drums, Will Beeler (16) on the guitar, Kory Laing (18) on bass and backup vocals and Casey Davis (19) on vocals.

“We call it dirty southern metal,” said Clark of Hasten My Demise’s sound. “We’re Christian, so it’s not really dirty, but dirty in a southern sense.”
The band has been together for more than a year and competed in various other band battles in Sparta, Bealeton and Madison.
They also play in shows across the state. Clark said Hasten My Demise has played with some top bands in its genre, including Impending Doom, White Chapel, Becoming the Archetype and Once Nothing.

“We’re pretty much stoked,” he said about next month’s battle in Culpeper. “We’re excited to play in front of kids. We’re not really looking at it as a battle, we’re just excited to play.”
Both Davis and Clark write the band’s songs, though they have one cover that they break out once in a while. Some songs are about southern things, some are about righteousness and pureness and some are just kind of weird, Clark said.

And what can fans expect from their performance?

“A lot of head banging,” he said.

Haven of Darkness
From the small beginnings as a guitar instructor for MacDonald’s Rock Academy, Hunter O’Rourke built his band, Haven of Darkness. What began as Death Kvlt in late 2006 has eventually become Haven of Darkness, with multiple lineup changes along the way.

After realizing Death Kvlt was overplayed, O’Rourke opted for a fresh sound with fresh band mates.
Haven of Darkness’ band members include O’Rourke on guitar and vocals, J.T. Dean on bass and Josh Wolfrey on drums. All three attend Culpeper County High School.

O’Rourke described his band’s sound as power metal meets thrash. Some popular bands with similar sounds include Anthrax, Slayer, Judas Priest and Iced Earth.

The band typically plays shows hosted by Culpeper Concerts and takes its music seriously.

“Music is my life and I’d rather be living in an apartment playing my guitar,” O’Rourke said, “than living in a world of where there is all the money I could want, but never time for music.”

Morgue Rats
O’Rourke’s brother Austin plays in a band that also evolved from Death Kvlt — Morgue Rats. Austin Bennett, 15, plays guitar and Adam Stergis, 16 sings lead vocals, with Austin “Fish” O’Rourke, 13, on drums. Bennett and Stergis both played in Death Kvlt, as did Fish at one point, though not at the same time.

The three came together to form Morgue Rats a little over a year ago and they play shock rock, which they described as horror-ish rock, or “music that scares you.”

Their influences include Marilyn Manson and Wednesday 13, who they will get to open for in July.

Morgue Rats’ members are all from Culpeper and have played shows at the Rock Academy. They have participated in three or four other battles and after improving their performance in the last year, they are now planning to self-produce an album this summer.

The guys described their songs as being about death, dying, the dead, candy, murder and wonderland.

“Basically, its’ like a children’s nightmares, in a nutshell,” Bennett said.

Though the band initially played more punk music, Morgue Rats has evolved to shock rock and stays true to its preferred sound. The guys said they preferred shock rock to the black metal sound of
Death Kvlt because they could take more liberties with the songs, such as adding more drum variety and singing rather than shouting.

“This is like a job,” Stergis said of the band. “This is what we live for.”

“Without it, it would be tragic,” Fish added.

Catherine Amos can be reached at 825-0771 ext. 138 or .

Want to go?
What: Culpeper’s first Battle of the Bands

Who: Morgue Rats, That’s What She Said, Hasten My Demise, Haven of Darkness, Sindica, 4th Degree Burn and Society’s Trash, plus an intermission performance by Revenent

Where: American Legion Hall on Rt. 229

When: Saturday, May 3 from 7 to 11 p.m. All ages welcome, no smoking. Tickets are $8.

If you would like to participate as a band or a judge, call Keith at 522-0622.