Shine Black Light, the second album from Los Angeles’ ART OF SHOCK takes a massive step beyond the thrashing intensities already synonymous with the speed-limit-shattering quartet from Dark Angeles. From the album’s churning opener, “2020 Volt”, there’s no mistaking the tension and aggression festering at the heart of ART OF SHOCK’s latest. “[Shine Black Light] was an album that came out of extreme times,” says vocalist and guitarist Art Geezar. “The lockdown felt like the end of the world for us. Like many other bands at the time, we felt crushed. It was a frustrating time, but we also found some good in it.”
Shine Black Light, the second album from Los Angeles’ ART OF SHOCK takes a massive step beyond the thrashing intensities already synonymous with the speed-limit-shattering quartet from Dark Angeles. From the album’s churning opener, “2020 Volt”, there’s no mistaking the tension and aggression festering at the heart of ART OF SHOCK’s latest. “[Shine Black Light] was an album that came out of extreme times,” says vocalist and guitarist Art Geezar. “The lockdown felt like the end of the world for us. Like many other bands at the time, we felt crushed. It was a frustrating time, but we also found some good in it.”
While specter of Covid 19 and the world shutdown cast a long shadow for many bands, for ART OF SHOCK, it was especially brutal. The band’s debut album, Dark Angeles had just been released with a full North American tour supporting Brazilian metal legends Sepultura scheduled for March 2020. “It was both frustrating and heartbreaking to have all of that cut short,” says ART OF SHOCK co-founder and drummer, Adrian Geezar. “But we weren’t going to let that stop us.” Instead of being creatively stymied ART OF SHOCK spent the next year in their North Hollywood rehearsal space honing their writing skills and painstakingly crafting the songs that would become Shine Black Light.
When it came time to select a producer, ART OF SHOCK weren’t afraid to step outside their own comfort zone. They tapped fellow San Fernando Valley native Taylor Young. Known largely as a band member of boundary-bursting hardcore acts, Twitching Tongues and God’s Hate, as well as the man behind the boards for the likes of Drain or Suicide Silence, Taylor was hardly an obvious choice for the band. “Taylor is mostly known for much more brutal, noisy records,” says Adrian., Young wasn’t afraid to push ART OF SHOCK over the six weeks the band took to make the album. “Coming from hardcore, Taylor is not as mechanical as most metal producers in how he hears things,” adds Art. “It’s not about editing and perfection with him. It’s more about vibe and violence and the intensity and honesty of the recording.”
With that, ART OF SHOCK 2023 is a much more lethal proposition now than the band that made Dark Angeles in 2019. They’ve grown miles past the band whose hard-luck story began several years ago in Mexico City. It was there that brothers Art and Adrian grew up, inspired by classic thrash and metal bands that became the fuel for their earliest musical endeavors. Their early ambitions and push to get out of their native country brought them to Los Angeles, where a scrappy lineup of ART OF SHOCK began to make a dent playing in Hollywood. “It’s one of the three places you know to go to, to play live music,” says Adrian. “Plus, it was closer and cheaper than New York or London!” Being perennial outsiders, the Geezars didn’t give a shit about playing the “cool” spots in town. The made friends and played to whomever would have em. As members drifted in and out of the band, ART OF SHOCK found their sound – growing harder and faster, and then, much faster.
ART OF SHOCK’s sheer determination pushed the band not only to multiple Southern California stages but also an unexpected slot of the Vans Warped Tour. Firing off a blind email to Warped founder Kevin Lyman, AOS earned a slot on the Ernie Ball stage in exchange for manning the grill at each post-show Warped barbecue. “It was the best way for us to not lose money!” laughs Adrian. “We didn’t realize we were going to be feed hundreds of people each night. It was hard but it was worth it. We were the weirdo band on the tour anyways – this metal band that was there for pop punk, emo and screamo. But somehow, we ended up selling 3000 CDs!”
These days, ART OF SHOCK (rounded out by lead guitarist Nick Ertel and bassist Brice Snider) isn’t slinging burgers for stage-time. Sharing bills over the years with the likes of Trivium, Hirax and Sacred Reich had only strengthened the band’s live presence, but it was on the road where ART OF SHOCK has become a machine. Now, months before the release of Shine Black Light, the band has already completed two high-profile support slots: the rescheduled Sepultura jaunt in late 2022 and a Southwest and Californian run with machete-wielding death squad, Brujeria in March 2023. “We learned a lot on those tours,” says Art. “We got better as a band, we won over new fans, but we also learned a lot about touring and being on the road. Watching Sepultura or Crowbar every night humbled us and made us hungrier.” The grueling weeks on the road with Sepultura in 2022 pushed the ART OF SHOCK to step up its studio-game and tighten up songs like “The Spark” or “Devoid” before recording with Taylor in the fall of that year.
Wrapped in a sleeve by the legendary metal cover artist, Travis Smith (Opeth, Nevermore), Shine Black Light is full of twists, turns and unexpected moments from ART OF SHOCK. The track, “Drag Me to Hell” is one of the album’s standout moments with its near-ballad-like wash of melody and menace. “That was the song that made Taylor want to produce the album,” states Arturo. “It’s very representative of where the album is lyrically – it’s a lot more personal, a lot more about the human condition. ‘Drag Me to Hell’ is about domestic abuse, which for years was a very delicate subject that most people were afraid to touch. When we were growing up, metal didn’t really deal with these subjects.” The track “Death Stays Silent” with its Megadeth-like speed and sense of melody also tackles an uncomfortable subject – America’s epidemic of gun violence. “What sort of isolation pushes you to do that?” asks Art. “What is this horrible mental place that makes you want to kill yourself or kill somebody else? We see that every day and it’s almost become normal to hear about a mass shooting almost every day.”
Shine Black Light is an album borne out of chaos and frustration that’s become the start of a new chapter for ART OF SHOCK. Their fuck-all attitude is finally paying off. “We’ve become the band that we always dreamed about being,” says Art. “Through successes and disappointments, we’ve never given up or let anything stop us. It wasn’t easy but it’s been worth it – and it feels like things are just beginning.”
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