Pound your brain
Eroded Pride
I think “pummeling” might be a good word here—as in, Eroded Pride plays a pummeling brand of industrial metal, very much in the vein of Ministry. The music is cluttered and claustrophobic, with metal guitar riffing and meticulously programmed drum machine tracks augmented by keyboards, movie samples and singer-bassist Jimmie Jones’ aggressive post-hardcore vocals. But the repetitive, groove-oriented metallic pummel is the key feature.
The band is influenced by techno dance rhythms and sounds as well as the seemingly dominant metal sound. They are primarily a guitar-driven band, but the samples and keyboards—Korg and Yamaha—provide dance sounds, moody atmospherics and occasional moments of comic relief.
“We sound completely different than anybody else around Reno,” says guitarist Juan Flores, and while this may be true, their sonic assault is clearly indebted to their influences: Ministry, Rammstein, White Zombie—not that this is a problem because every band, whether they admit to it or not, is indebted to their influences. Eroded Pride is a local group attempting to build on the legacy of their forerunners, which should be exciting for industrial music fans.
Erosion Factory, in addition to being the name of the band’s newly completed CD, is the name of the home studio where they recorded and mixed it. Recording was a painstaking process that helped the band develop the songs. The technological limitations and difficulties of working at home helped the band hone their sound—especially when a mixing problem forced the band to rerecord whole songs.
“As we worked on the album, we got more critical and harder on each other,” says Flores. Jones would aggravate the other band members with his constant retooling of songs. Keyboardist Khristine Hansen Jones helped husband Jimmie develop his vocal style.
Songs on the CD include “Early Warning,” a song with lyrics about terrorism that were written pre-9/11, and “Transcending Lunacy,” a song that attempts to simulate the feeling of madness through the use of different vocal tracks and samples from films such as Seven and Sleepy Hollow.
Film dialogue samples are actually a key part of many of the band’s songs. Other sampled films include Dune, The Matrix, Gladiator and Full Metal Jacket. When I ask about the legal clearance of some of those samples, all three band members laugh nervously.
“Well, the legal sample time limit is, I think, five seconds,” says Jimmie, “and there are a few samples on here that are maybe … pushing that limit.”
Other songs on Erosion Factory include “The Grave I Made,” a song with a surprisingly singsongy chorus, and “Watcha Need.”
“That’s a song about a stalker,” Jimmie explains.
“You should have told him that was how we met,” Khristine chimes in, demonstrating the band’s good humor about their negative-edged music. The band members’ enthusiasm about their music is hard to ignore—they get animated discussing it and positively stoked hearing it, rocking out and singing along unself-consciously.
“The CD is just a snapshot of where we were a month ago,” says Jimmie.
Everyone should get a chance to see their sonic pummel live on one of their three upcoming show dates. Next year, Eroded Pride is planning a West Coast tour.