Meet Kryst

Rochester seems to be a hot bed of death metal. Loads of thrashing and bashing and smashing is happening in this lakeside city. Maybe it’s all that cold wind and water. Get’s ya thinking about life and death and what not. Coming straight out of this moody and moshy city is Kryst, whose two most recent demos will have you thrashing with the best of ‘em. 

Below, we chat with this ripping quartet all things segways, all the blood in the current scene, and debate the best medium for your musical listening experience.

Jump on in and check it out. 

A scene from a hit sitcom A Mad-Lib by, Kryst

(Amy enters through the front with A BAR OF SOAP (WITH SOMEONE’S HAIR ON IT), and flops  BEHIND THE WATERS PIPES IN THE BOILER ROOM OF AN ABANDONED PENCIL FACTORY, and heaves a SWOLLEN sigh of exhaustion.
Jenny comes out of the SAUNA.)

JENNY: Hi! Did you have a MOIST day?

AMY: a HUMPY exhausting day. You're home early.

JENNY: Had to change my CUMMERBUND before we go out.

AMY: Go out? Wild DUNG BEETLES couldn't drag me out. I'm really SENSUAL.

JENNY: We're meeting SLYMENSTRA for a quick SHUNTING. She's bringing ALLEGHENY  to CONVULSE you.

AMY: No more of WHOOPI GOLDBURGER’S MISSING EYE BROWS..for me. Never again!

JENNY: But he's HUMPY your type... made out of DVDS OF SISTER ACT 2 and DUMPY handsome.

AMY: Oh well, one more A POSTAL WORKER can't hurt me.

Would You Rather

Would you rather be carried everywhere you go by a giant person, or be confined to a segway. Why?

Kevin: Interesting, I'd say segway so I wouldn't have to put that burden on someone


Travis: Can I be carried be someone on the segue?

Some questions with Kryst

What was the last concert you attended that inspired you?

Kevin: Seeing Iron Maiden and Rush when they were active is always a great time. Seeing Razor and Bolt Thrower in Toronto 2015 was pretty killer.

Travis: To sound egocentric, the last one we played, every show Kryst plays gives me the rush to want to play better and meet people! It’s a completely different feeling of course than seeing bands you don’t play with.  

How would you describe the metal scene in Rochester?

Kevin: The metal scene seems to be growing a lot in the last few years, with attendance to local shows and the number of new bands emerging here as well. The scene never really died here, you always see the die-hard regulars out.

Travis: Cool! I love seeing the old blood mix with the new blood and seeing that blood have bands of their own!

What is your guilty pleasure artist/album/song?

Kevin: In terms of music that aren't considered metal I enjoy Neil Young and the Allman Brothers, but I don't feel guilty about it.            

Travis: Personally, I don't believe in Guilty Pleasures, you should never feel guilty if it brings you harmless joy, but for the things that go against the Heavy Metal wheelhouse, I'd have to unabashedly admit that Oingo Boingo is my favorite band, I have a crush on Lizzo and Kiss' disco era is highly underrated.

How would you describe your creative process as a group?

Kevin: We like to come up with the riffs first, piece them together and rework or write new riffs around it and work on placement. We usually do this with drums too as we piece it together and then we do lyrics last.

Travis: Exactly what Kevin said, we feed off of our ideas extremely well.

Are you better at thumb wrestles or staring contests?

Kevin: I prefer to wrestle peoples eyeballs with my thumbs

Travis: Are you coming on to me?

What medium do you prefer: digital, CDs, or tapes/cassettes?

Kevin: Personally I just believe in physical media in general over downloading, no matter what format. I collect records as well as CDs and cassettes. We put our demo out on cassette because it's cheap and easy to do being an independent artist at the moment            

Travis: I'm somewhat of a physical media advocate so I like taking the extra time to put on a record and having to flip it over. It makes me appreciate the music more to have to put forth some sort of physical effort in the digital age. I just get a kick out of it. Besides that, I'll listen to any music on any format, I tend to adapt to my circumstance, so like my car has a cd player, so I'll either make CDs or buy them for cheap for the road.

What is your favorite song you ever wrote and why?

Kevin: I love most of the tunes we've written, but two that stand out to me the most are Descension and Lacerator especially playing them live. We have a new song we're finishing writing now and will most likely be on our next release that is also one of my favorites, so keep a lookout for that!

Travis: There is a song from our very early days that we agree isn't strong enough to continue playing that I am very sentimental towards because of where the lyrics personally came from. That song is on our first release. In terms of our more current songs, I love playing the riffs in On The Kross, I feel like the world is about to change when we play it.

What is one thing you would like to change about the music industry?

Kevin: Personally I don't play music for the money, but I think the same argument has been made for years now that too much money is at the top of the corporate record companies pyramid and not enough goes to the artist. They wouldn't exist without the artist anyway. There's a lot of smaller metal labels now that are much better at treating artists they sign like people and not money makers which is great.

Travis: Absolutely what Kevin said. 

Do you usually show people your music before it is finished to get feedback? Who do you show it to?

Kevin: Typically we don't. We write what we like and are inspired by and try not to do too much of one thing i.e. being strictly death or thrash metal. Collectively we love a lot of the older metal groups and try to emulate that sound/writing process without copying it, and try to write and cram in as many catchy riffs and interesting changes as we can into one song. Tough to do with so many bands out there today but we've gotten a lot of positive feedback from our two releases and our recent shows we've played here locally in Rochester.

Travis: I'd sometimes get so excited I'd interrupt a family gathering with an idea of ours recorded on my phone. But now I feel more secure in showing more than telling. By playing live and having releases, I let our work speak for itself.

What has been your most memorable live performance to date?

Kevin: Opening for Deceased and Mortuary

Travis: Our most recent show because I remember it most, heheh!

Do you have a favorite quote? What is it?

Kevin: "Don't sweat the petty things, and don't pet the sweaty things."

Travis: "I did it my way." It's on Lucio Fulci's tombstone. 

You've recently released your second demo -- what are you currently working on?

Kevin: We are always working on something even when we are fine-tuning other songs. We often have half a song written while working out the details on the previous newer one. Sometimes we get a bit ahead of ourselves with writing but to me, that's a good thing. Better to be overwhelmed with ideas than to be stuck in a rut creatively and being unable to create new songs.

Travis: You'll see. 

If you had to get a full back tattoo right now what would it be?

Kevin: I don't think I would

Travis: I'd get a tattoo on the back of a t-shirt of this interview.

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

Kevin: Thanks to everyone who has supported us so far and to everyone who has bought our demo either on cassette from us or from our Bandcamp page! There's plenty more to come.

Travis: See you in the future!