Meet Anicon

It’s been a hot minute since we featured some metal, let alone black metal — to make up for this, I give you one of New York’s finest: the darkest of dark, the mightiest of basses, the heaviest of war drums (yeah, war drums), the riff-iest of riffs and the most tenacious hissing I’ve heard to date.

No ifs, ands, or buts about it…Anicon is a visceral force to be reckoned with. 

Their most recent release Entropy Mantra is doles out equal parts of integrity, intensity and emotion, further solidifying their place within the metal scene. Below, we dig deep to see what makes these guys tick. These artists / musicians (there’s a painter in the mix!) reveal their favorite NYC acts, some excellent party tricks, and an appreciation for shag carpet.

Hit play, make it l-o-u-d, and read along…  

Self-portrait by, Anicon

Would you rather

only be able to communicate with Morse code or whale noises?

Whale noises, no question.  I guess they're kind of similar with all the clicking but whales make all those different tones, too.  Plus whales are actually capable of making sounds that pulse in such a way it could kill you.  So that's kind of like an added bonus power that could come in handy.

Some Questions With Anicon

Did you go through any musical phases in high school? Has it in any way shaped what you are making now?

I started finding my own music pretty young and started going to shows in junior high, so by the time I got to high school I was kind of already on the trajectory I'm on now. I found thrash really early and then went through a bit of like, grunge, classic rock, punk, crust, grind, and then mid to late high school got introduced to more extreme metal. I played in my first punk band when I was 14 or 15 so I see a pretty direct line through all of that to where I am now both as a listener and a maker.

How do you translate your sound to a live performance?

I guess one of the great things about playing metal, at least the way we do, is that there isn't a lot of post-production necessary to get it to sound right. Not too much smoke and mirrors. We'll do a little layering of guitars or vocals on a recording to make the effects sound right or to make it sound big enough, but we play at such high volumes live that there aren't really too many 'impossible' moments on an album to recreate in the live setting. I run some pedals in my effects loop and as long as there's some decent delay and reverb on the vocal mic it'll probably sound about the way it's supposed to. Sometimes there're some liberties taken in the vocals or some improvisation with the voicing of chords or new harmonies or something, but I'd rather it sound fresh and compelling than accurate to a recording. A recording is just one chance you had to play the stuff at a point in time, if it changes a little after that maybe it'll be for the better. If not they probably won't notice/remember/care anyway.

Are you self taught or did you take lessons / study music?

Haha, I studied clarinet for like 4 years in elementary and junior high. I think I was able to read and play Hot Crossed Buns when my little brother was doing the same thing some years later, but otherwise it didn't stick. I grew up going to church and learned to sing there, though I'm not sure how much of that translates to what I do now. I tried playing guitar and bass when I was in junior high and high school but it wasn't until I was in my twenties that I started playing more seriously. A few years ago I took some lessons from Kevin Hufnagel here in New York to learn some fundamentals that I never really picked up along the way and that was really helpful... I've been thinking I should go back to him now that I'm a little further along. I've probably learned the most about guitar from Nolan and Alex (Anicon) and I've learned a ton about being a musician from my various bandmates. I think it makes sense that so many people make music in New York because you don't have to have a place to keep it once it's finished. You don't end up with a bunch of songs laying around like you do paintings or sculpture or whatever.

Who created the artwork for your 2018 album “Entropy Mantra”?

Oh, that was me. I went to school for painting in Boston and moved down to New York in pursuit of an art career once I finished. It didn't work out the way I'd anticipated but I still make stuff from time to time. Entropy Mantra was a pretty personal album and we tried to keep all aspects of production to ourselves, so it was just a logical necessity as much as anything else. I was kind of trying to channel Stephen Gammell whose work in Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark really had an impact on me at a young age. The image is based on a scene from Planet Earth II where this community in Ethiopia feed wild Hyenas by hand. It's pretty intense. I'm talking to a couple of bands now about doing art for them which is something I'd be excited about doing more of. Hit me up if you're looking.

If you could only play one instrument for the rest of your life what would it be? Why?

I mean, I guess it would be guitar. I already know how to play it and I like it and you can do all kinds of stuff with them, you've got electric, acoustic, pedal steel, etc. You can play one in a metal band or you can play one at the beach. There's still plenty to learn so it's not like I'm in danger of topping out or anything. Plus it's not like you can get a pointy trombone or run a trumpet through a 5150.

Who are your favorite musical acts active in NYC right now?

That's a hard one... the other day I drew up a graph of four or five drummers I know here and traced all the connections between members and wound up with like 50 people and I don't know how many bands... I'd leave someone out if I started listing bands. I'm going to redirect a little and say that new bands I think are pretty cool are Bog Body and Morbid Sphere. Oh and Skullshitter are my boys and a ripping band. I like Reel Orchestrette a lot, they do live scores to films maybe sort of in the vein of Godspeed! You Black Emperor...it's a cool way to experience music and really adds an emotional richness to the films. Geoff Gersh is one of the pair and he's really into improvisational music that often has a bit of a metal edge to it, I'm always really impressed when I see him play. He has another project called Black Lodge, too. I don't know, I always feel like there are too many bands to keep up with here and then when you try and put a show together you don't have any options for who to book. I've honestly been taking a bit of a break from watching music, I kind of need to reset and get back to a place where I can appreciate it again.

Do you have a party trick?

I used to like to get too drunk but I haven't been practicing that one so I'm not as good at it as I used to be. Sometimes I'll remember some weird story from back home and amuse people with a real Lynchian yarn about the Northwest. I can also juggle.

What are your most important values as musicians?

I have values as a person and the music I make is an extension of that. Some rules might be no stopping on stage, no shorts on stage, always all the way every time, and when your set is over get off the stage (and take your gear with you).

Did you ever get grounded growing up? If so why?

Yeah once for coming home drunk from a punk show. I think my favorite things about high school other than going to shows were graffiti, hallucinogens, and blowing things up, so, I'm not really sure how it only happened the one time.

Do you drive? Are you a good driver?

Yes I do and yes I am. I don't own a car here but when I lived out west I had this awesome 1 ton Chevy van. It was black with blue shag carpeting all over the interior and had a pretty killer sound system in it... total 80s conversion style. I bought it from a family man that told me stories about how they used to blow lines of meth and work for days at a time chopping up vans and tricking them out. It had a 400 small block under the hood that we shelled in northern California and I had to pay a wrecker $50 to take it in Mt Shasta. That was like 15 years ago and I haven't owned a car since but I ride a motorcycle here in the city and that's pretty sick.

What is the scariest dream you can remember?

When I was a kid I started having dreams that would come true and I still have them once in a while. I remember one really specifically about sitting at my desk in 6th grade, the image of it, and then it happened a day or two later... not very exciting but I remember it really clearly and while I was having it I knew that it was different than a more typical dream. The scariest dream I ever had was 8 years ago and was really horrifically violent. There was a spiral slide covered in blood in a classroom and it was really dark. There was kind of the idea of people but I couldn't get them to stay in focus when I looked at them and the one in charge was trying to get me to help with something. There was a sense of urgency and it felt like we were trying to get away from something that was happening in the next room but were stuck. While I was in it I had the same feeling I did in the one about the desk, like it had more weight than a usual dream and I woke up feeling sick and like I'd done something wrong, really intense anxiety. I was feeling really fucked up about it walking around Bushwick the next day trying to clear my head when I got a call that a friend of mine back home had killed himself during the night. Thinking about that dream is still really upsetting. The Trenchgrinder song 'Waking Terror' was written about that experience but was kind of made to fit the aesthetic of the band so the dream was more of a jumping-off point than anything else. It's hard to verbalize a feeling like that and having such varied and potentially extreme avenues of expression is something I really love about playing the music that we do.

If the sky wasn't blue what color would u want it to be?

I guess red, it makes people's skin look better. Everyone would just look a little bit sexier, so that'd be cool. They probably wouldn't make it long in that kind of atmosphere but I guess we'd cross that bridge when we got to it.

Any final comments? (This is your electronic soapbox for one last answer.)

We're working on new Anicon stuff and we're working on new Ruin Lust stuff, between the two there's some pretty exciting stuff coming up. So I don't know, be on the lookout? Also, thank you to everyone that helped us recover after being robbed on tour, it did and does mean a lot.