When it comes to progressive, melodic death metal in New England, a steady force that has been plying their trade since the early 2010’s is Boston-based outfit Aversed. Through a series of EPs and their Impermanent full-length they’ve garnered respect for their stellar songwriting and versatility – impressing live audiences across this territory while stretching out across other parts of the US and Canada when possible. Their latest effort Erasure of Color expands horizons once again – enough for us to reach out to guitarist Sungwoo Jeong who was happy to bring us up to date on the vocalist change that took place during the pandemic, the growth of the band, signing with M-Theory Audio, special video memories related to cold/warm weather, thoughts on the metal scene locally and internationally, plus what’s in store for the band down the line.
Dead Rhetoric: Erasure of Color is the latest studio album for Aversed. Can you bring us up to speed on how the band handled the COVID-19 pandemic period as far as moving forward from your previous Impermanent record in 2021 as well as subsequent vocalist change with Haydee leaving and Sarah becoming your new singer?
Sungwoo Jeong: A very good question. If I can explain this as simply as possible. At the peak of the pandemic, when we were all in lockdown, July of 2020 – Haydee told us personally, privately, that ‘this band isn’t for her anymore. I know that we have an album out in six months.’ She was going to stay with the band through the promo cycle, complete the music videos, etc. She wanted us to know that after the album was out, that was it for her. She did it in a very professional manner. We knew we needed to find a vocalist.
During the pandemic I was writing – I’m literally always writing, every other day. The Erasure of Color songwriting, it was always there. It never stopped or started – it just existed. When the lockdown started to be lifted, we got all together including Haydee – we got coffee together, and it was a positive thing. I asked her if she knew any singers out there, if she could help us out. She said she would reach out to some people. And coincidently a day later, I got an ad from Sarah Hartman. I had never heard of her before, but I could see that she was a singer. I kept that in the back of my mind.
In September 2020 I reached out to her, asked if she wanted to audition for this band. She actually rejected me the first time. I thought she was in on this, but I guess not. She told me it wasn’t in the cards yet. I asked her if I could ask her again in six months – she said sure. I asked her again, and she decided to give it a shot. That’s how things happened.
Dead Rhetoric: The band would release two singles in 2022 with “Every Hill a Tomb” and “Death Lullaby” – how do you feel the response was to these two songs, and were they always intended to be stand-alone singles instead of in the running to appear on the new record?
Jeong: Those are the first two songs with Sarah. Those songs came out six months after she joined – she joined in September 2021, and we released the first one “Every Hill a Tomb” in February of 2022. The goal with those two songs was to let the world as in our scene because we are a pretty small band, and still are, know that we are not slowing down. Here are two songs, and it was a sneak peak for Erasure of Color. Just to let the world know we just got a singer, our production will still continue. We announced Sarah as our vocalist six months after Impermanent came out. We didn’t want people to wait too much longer to hear material with Sarah – we were eager to release new music, even though they are stand-alone singles and DIY. We wanted to prove that we were not slowing down.
They were intended to be stand alone singles, and the response was good. They didn’t get massive promotion like a record label would give, but we still play those songs all the time. People recognize those songs to be strong, truly Aversed songs. We are not any different as a band just because we have a new singer. The Aversed DNA is still there.
Dead Rhetoric: Now that the album is hitting the streets, how did the songwriting and recording process go for this set of material? Where did you want to take Aversed stylistically that may have been different or expanded on what you’ve achieved with your sound so far?
Jeong: As I said, the songwriting for Erasure of Color has always been existent. Years before Impermanent even came out. The songwriting is primarily me, and/or Jeff. When we are in a room together, we will bang out one to three songs together. It just happens naturally. When I am alone at home, I’m always writing. The songwriting started before COVID-19, me and Jeff sharing chemistry together with the guitar and drums, songs being formed in real time in a rehearsal room. That’s how that came about.
Stylistically, there will be similarities. With Erasure, there were new tones I wanted to achieve. I wanted a lot more low guitar tones with chug. I want more headbangable riffs. Some songs may be a little simpler, some songs may be a little more complex. Some songs may be more dissonant than Impermanent. I wanted to explore territories that we haven’t touched before. A lot more low-tuned chug guitars, and a lot more atmosphere.
Dead Rhetoric: Where did the band draw from lyrically this time around? Do you consider the subject matter and delivery as important as what you create from the musical side?
Jeong: Absolutely. There’s a lot more mourning on this album. A lot more subjects about losing a loved one: both romantically, friendships, death. In any sense of the word, loss. The lyrics I would describe as gothic – a lot of things that you would expect from gothic metal. How lyrics tend to come about, Jeff writes most of the lyrics, although Jeff and Sarah write things together. Jeff is a great metal lyricist. He likes talking about death a lot, he likes talking about suffering. It’s very metal.
Dead Rhetoric: Now Jeff also drums with Allegaeon. How are things with him sharing duties in both bands – have there been any conflicts to resolve with scheduling?
Jeong: Jeff has a pretty type A, alpha personality when it comes to time management. He’s addicted to staying busy. With that, he’s really good at managing time. He works a full-time job, he’s in a Metal Blade band, he’s in Aversed and occasional side projects here and there. Allegaeon, there has never once been a time conflict between the two bands. Obviously they are a lot busier band that Aversed is, but they are not a band that tours 250 shows a year. They do one or two major tours a year. There’s a lot of flexibility within that for the Aversed sphere. I’m a big fan of Allegaeon, so I have zero qualms if he has to prioritize things to their schedule. To me, that’s expected. We just try to work around that, and it has not been an issue in the slightest yet.
Dead Rhetoric: Tell us about the video shoots for “Cross to Bear” and “Lucid Decapitation”? What memories do you have surrounding the work behind those videos, do you enjoy the visual medium to use as a promotional vehicle to express more of the personalities of the band?
Jeong: I love music videos. I love watching other bands music videos, so I’m a fan first and foremost. For “Cross to Bear” I just remember we spent two twelve-hour days shooting that in November 2023. It was really cold. There are a lot of hours shooting scenes, but what I remember the most is the indoor scenes were shot in Sarah’s basement in Rhode Island. It’s extremely cold down there in November, so we bought this 70-inch fish tank. And we put a GoPro camera looking up view. We had to dunk Sarah’s face inside this cold fish tank for many minutes at a time to get the angle of her getting drowned by people. The next day we went to a lake, and Sarah brought a black dress. She had to pretend she was drowning in this lake for at least ten minutes. Those minutes probably felt like milliseconds to her. It was very cold – and I am glad I wasn’t the star of the show, as I like being warm (laughs). It was brutal and exhausting, but we are super patient.
For “Lucid Decapitation”, it was the polar opposite. We shot that in August 2023 at a warehouse in Nashville, Tennessee. That day was even worse, we woke up and had to fix our car while the music video was happening. We dropped off the band to the warehouse, dropped off the car at an auto shop, then we had to take an Uber back to the music video shoot. We then realized this place is 95 degrees and we didn’t bring any water with us – we are such dumbasses (laughs). We spent the next six hours being chronically dehydrated, shooting us doing the music video, but the good thing – we sweat a lot and that sweat shows in the music video. All in the name of metal!
Dead Rhetoric: How did Marco Barbieri and M-Theory Audio become interested in signing Aversed? How do you feel about being on this label given his knowledge and experience in the industry for decades?
Jeong: Marco – what a legend! The short story in how he got involved, when we played in March 2023 in Rochester, NY, some radio show, underground college radio guy, he came out and he is friends with Marco. He thought we were one of the best bands ever – this label might be interested in you. Shoot me an email and I’ll forward it to M-Theory. We did that just, and when our album was done we had our EPK ready for labels. We sent Marco the email, he was interested immediately. He gave us the terms, we amended some terms, and we had a number of Zoom meetings with Marco to gauge a feel for each other. Starting to build a relationship – he made it very clear to us that he’s a fan of music, first and foremost. He sees himself more in that way than as a business partner. He wanted to really help out the band. To me it was a no-brainer to work with him.
Months after we signed the contract, I made it out to Las Vegas. Got a beer with Marco and Scott Coonan of M-Theory, and it was an awesome time. We talked about Nevermore, we talked about our favorite bands that he’s signed, we were fanning over music and drinking a beer. My opinion about working with M-Theory – they really care about helping bands grow. They only sign bands that they are a fan of themselves. He’s a really nice, gentle person.
Dead Rhetoric: You’ve done a number of mini tours over the past few years to expand the following of Aversed beyond the New England area. What do you believe you’ve learned most about the musicians on the road, as well as possibly key takeaways from others that have helped the band become an even stronger act live compared to what people hear and experience on record?
Jeong: Unfortunately, when we do these mini runs outside of New England, we’ve only travelled alone. So far, we haven’t toured with many other bands before. The only thing I can compare things to is the local bands we play with; we’ve played opening for a national tour for local shows and national shows before. Those shows I try to learn the most from – when we played with Twilight Force back in March or Unto Others back in December, those shows I really liked. I’m trying to learn like a sponge. I want to see how these household name bands conduct themselves. How they walk, how they communicate with the staff, the venue, the tour manager, all of that. I really try to learn their punctuality, professionalism, how they prepare before their set, down to how their stage layout is. I try to observe all of those things.
I want Aversed to become a household name band at some point. I would like to be a national and international band, and I try to follow in the footsteps of other bands I’ve witnessed in my life.
Dead Rhetoric: Where do you see Aversed at this point in your career? Are you hopeful to make the band more of a lifelong career thing, or do you as musicians understand that you need to balance out work/careers, families, and expectations against your musical desires in the modern world?
Jeong: I’m fully happy accepting the fact that Aversed will probably never become a source of income. I think I can speak for all five of us in the band. With that said, with how I see the band, I want to keep performing quality shows and tours. We currently play seasonally. We plan one little tour in March and one little tour in November/December. I’m completely happy with that. I would love to expand on that. I’d love to be a part of the summer European festival rosters. I would like to have one tour in North America, one tour in Asia. I would love to be at a point where even if we don’t do this full, full-time – I would like to stretch the name of Aversed across the globe as much as possible. Within feasibility.
Dead Rhetoric: Being a part of the metal scene, what are your thoughts on the state of the industry on a local level as well as national / international level?
Jeong: The scene on a local as well as national/international basis, it’s become so exciting. There are so many great bands right now. Bands sometimes that I’ve never even heard of until the day of, and wow this band has a huge following. I go to one to two shows a week, so I try to stay optimistic about the scene. There are so many great bands, some bands I see killing it these days are like Kruelty from Japan, Escuela Grind and Brat are a big deal. Xoth from the west. Metal is as big as ever. You see these small bands now selling out 150-200 cap venues on a Monday, Abominator just did that. Especially the extreme metal side, death metal, grind, deathcore, slam – they have become really popular. Aversed is not that band yet, but I try to be excited about it. It’s keeping things exciting. One could argue there is an oversaturation of great bands, but I’m happy with where things are at.
I would like to see melodic death metal become more popular. I would like to see clean singing in extreme metal become the thing. That would be great. I’m just a fan of music, first and foremost. I’m a spectator, I’m a fan, I’m a concertgoer. We’ll see what happens.
Dead Rhetoric: Were there any apprehensions on Sarah’s part replacing Haydee as the singer of this band? Do you think she’s been accepted by the fans of Aversed at this point?
Jeong: Her transition was quite seamless. She has her similarities with Haydee, but she definitely has her differences. When she sings the Haydee material, I don’t think no one would ever think that it doesn’t sound like Aversed. The perfect analogy is like Howard Jones to Jesse Leach of Killswitch Engage. No one was upset about that. I think that’s how people feel about Sarah. Our reception with her has been sky high. There are some people that consider her the best part of Aversed – I wouldn’t disagree with that. The band is as strong as ever because of Sarah.
Dead Rhetoric: How has a failure, or apparent failure, set you up for later success? Or do you have a favorite failure of yours, and how did you end up pushing through?
Jeong: Our failures as Aversed. I was just talking about this the other night. Our failures have been about not being strategic when it comes to performing shows. May in 2017, we played a show in Lowell, Massachusetts and there were three paid people on a summer Friday night. Obviously, that was demoralizing, but the lesson that we learned is, why did we accept this show? We just accepted any other show that came our way. We’ve become definitely selective about what we play, when we play, and how we play. In 2024, we only played eight shows. That was unfortunate, but all of the eight shows were quality shows. I would rather take that over forty lackluster shows. We want to be revered. We want to stray away from the local band phenomenon. We want to conduct ourselves with professionalism.
Dead Rhetoric: Where do you see your personal growth as a musician from when you started Aversed to where you are today?
Jeong: The way I would answer this is – when I write music, first and foremost I want to please myself. Sounds a little narcissistic. I want my songwriting for myself to become as compelling as possible. I’m a fan of my own music. I want the songs to move me – that’s why I am doing it. The fact that I am achieving this is evident by the fact that I’m twenty times more excited about the album after Erasure of Color. I’m not saying I’ve grown out of that album – but we are already done with the album after that. We keep on going, I’m just excited.
Dead Rhetoric: What’s on the agenda for anything related to Aversed over the next twelve months?
Jeong: For Aversed, you can expect a tour to happen in July or August. A summer tour to support the album. That’s all I can speak on for the Aversed side – as well as another music video. Allegaeon will be touring with Warbringer, Summoning the Lich, and Skeletal Remains in March/April. That’s not to be missed.