Meet Ultima Weapon

An unrelenting raw force to be reckoned with Ultima Weapon is a two-piece death metal band based in NYC. The band is made up of Caveman Slam Justyn Adams on Vocals and Jared "Cave" Moran doing everything else. Together they spin tales inspired by the legendary Final Fantasy video game series wrapped in the comforting rumble of explosive guitar riffs and thunderous drums. Get to know the two in our latest interview.

A couple of self-portraits by Ultima Weapon

Would You Rather

shrink five times your actual size, or grow one hundred times your actual size? What would you do?

Justyn: I'd go with the shrinking because then I could sneak around unseen, which would be super useful.

Jared: one time my size I'm assuming now I'm a giant and I'm crushing people and fighting like king kong or something. use this for money though I wouldn't be able to do all the other stuff I enjoyed before, but the same if I shrunk 5 times. so at least I can be in the position of a living threat.

Some Questions with Ultima Weapon

If you could cover the score of any film which would it be? Why?

Justyn: I'm honestly not a huge movie buff, but I'd go with Sleepaway Camp because that film has a lot I could work with lyrically.

Jared: I actively write music inspired by films, like Event Horizon (ishimura), Martyrs (yzordderrex), so it's not a far stretch for me. if I had to compose something brand new I'd want some film along the lines of sinister, very brooding and open to interpretation on how to convey that vibe of underhanded secretive things.

Who are your favorite bands active in NYC right now?

Justyn: Gotta go with Internal Bleeding

Jared: Zombie Raiders Then there's all the classic ones but I don't ever really keep up actively who is from where and take no real pride in location just what they produce.

What are your hopes for the NY Metal Community post-COVID-19?

Justyn: Honestly I'd just love to go to shows again.

Jared: Not sure. I don't like going to shows or playing shows all that much anymore. I get far more satisfaction just tracking drums for international and national projects and recording whatever thoughts come into my head. I know that's selfish but I honestly don't care. Going my route i've had far more success.

If you could give one animal species (besides people) the ability to fly which would it be? Why?

Justyn: I pick gorillas because flying around in the arms of a winged gorilla would be amazing.

Jared: Alligators, I love alligators, and seeing a flying one would be hilarious. cause they sorta float so I want to kinda see them floating in the air for no other reason than it'd be awesome as hell to view.

Who did the artwork for your latest release “Spira”? What was the inspiration behind it?

Justyn: Jared, the other half of this project did all of our art. It's all based on the monster "Ultima Weapon" from the Final Fantasy universe.

Jared: I did it. I guess you can say I'm an artist. I sell paintings and all that mess but I hate saying I'm an artist cause of the elitist/snob vibes it gives off. I just like using my creativity to produce things be it in many different forms of stuff. hell, I was going to supply one of the self-portraits I painted instead of paint. but I lose interest. But for the second it's legit me painting Ultima Weapon but I used a paint stirrer and spray paint. no brushes. didn't overwork it. I think it took me about 10 mins.

What was the catalyst that brought Ultima Weapon together?

Justyn: Pretty much I just asked Jared to do a project with me and he agreed, so this is what came of it.

Jared: Homie was like I need a band to do vocals in and I said I got you boo. that's pretty much it. I did an ep of grind stuff he didn't know how to work with so I said I feel slammy death metal now I'll do that now. and sent him the ep and he about cummed. and he got the vocals done quickly as hell. which is better than a ton of people I work with.

What narratives do you gravitate towards in your lyrics?

Justyn: I improvise all of my vocals and don't write the lyrics ahead of time, but all of my vocals are loosely about events in Final Fantasy games.

Jared: well I didn't write these lyrics so they are all about final fantasy. I never played any of the games, that's all J's bag. when I do write lyrics for my stuff it can be anything from movies, books, video games, to the occult, gore, psychosis, and mental disorders to art forgery and shifting reality. I view lyrics almost like composing a book of poetry even though each project shifts in the narrative they can be easily strung together for how I compose my lyrics and wordplay. I'm interested in making a composition that can be approached a number of ways and it's up to the listener to decipher if they so chose and that's if I even publish them. sometimes I hide them away in the layout where you can't see them cause I'll probably drop something all-encompassing of all the lyrics I've written in the past decade and see if anyone cares or picks up where and what each is.

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

Justyn: Thanks for showing an interest in this little project, we'll have physical CDs available for our EP soon, and we'll be working on more stuff as well!

Jared: local bands are bunk, focus on the world view and reach. It's no longer conquer your local scene and then the state/country/world. You can drop a hot fucking EP and go tour overseas if you have the time and the money. Also, digital-only releases are garbage. You will not matter in the long haul people talk and pass down physical releases. Even if you just burn a CD-R and scribble your logo on it with a shitty printer spit out of your art. I have cd-rs like that are older than most readers (20+ CDs) that function perfectly and I love that I have them. esp with bands, I played with or was part of, or supported because their tunes were that awesome. Oh and don't be that douchebag that fucking spits out band invites to their band upon spamming friend requests to a bunch of local people that might possibly listen or just be active in the scene. that doesn't make your fans, likes don't mean shit. Your social media presence will not get you signed. You being fucking good and putting in the work will.