Michael Arcane - Holden - Sparks Between Teeth

About drummer, Michael Arcane: It’s been over 13 years since Sick Drummer first did a feature on me (with Dead Syndicate), and over 8 years since they were kind of enough to help me announce my last extreme metal album release (Ikkadian). I’m beyond honored that they’re still willing to give the time of day to an old fart like me. I’ve come a long way since those early days, but extreme drumming has come so much farther, in part because of the exposure SD gives to extreme metal drummers. Kids today are doing things we didn’t think were possible back then, both in speed and complexity. My own quest for speed peaked 8 years ago with Ikkadian, and these days I’m leaving the ‘extreme’ part of metal in the capable hands of today’s amazing drummers. I’ve gradually shifted my focus to more doom/post-metal which is reflected in my new band, Holden.

It’s been a really cool experience to completely change my approach to playing, while still maintaining a link to extreme metal drumming sensibilities to bring something a little different to a band like this. These days it is about trying to say more by doing less, knowing when to take a back seat to the music and when to bring the drums out to the front. I am constantly trying to elevate the song by using what the genre demands, but still drawing from my own personal influences like Ken Owen, Sean Reinert, Gene Hoglan, and Derek Roddy. Playing music with a lot more space in it has also let me focus on developing a ‘sound’ of my own. Plus, recording 100% acoustic has given me the chance to show off my really amazing DW kit. It’s made me refocus on my technique, not as a tool to become faster or more precise, but as a means to coax a specific sound from striking the drum and capturing that energy and those dynamics in a recording. I’ll always love a sick blast, but getting older and slowing down has opened up some very fun and exciting avenues to me too.

I hope you enjoy this play-through, and you’ll give our album “Ursa Minor” a spin when it comes out May 8th.

Michael’s Gear:

DW Custom Collectors Drums (Twisted Olive Exotic Wood)

Axis Pedals with Agnus beaters

Vic Firth Metal Nylon Tip sticks

Meinl, Bosphorous and Sabian cymbals

Footblaster triggers

Westone in-ear monitors

Holden Are:

Palmer Sturman – guitar/vocals

Sam Berson – bass

Michael Arcane – drums

There’s something in the waters of Richmond, Virginia. There’s no other way to explain the plethora of talented acts that emerge from one of the oldest cities in the US. The latest to spring up out of nowhere are Holden – named after the mysterious Judge Holden from Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian – whose début Ursa Minor lands as a bold statement of ill-intent.

On the surface, Holden’s sound could be categorized as post-metal fused with doom but there is so much more to unearth. The potent trio of Palmer Sturman on guitar/vocals, Sam Berson on bass, and Michael Arcane on drums comes firing on all cylinders, right from the opening of “After the Fact” which thrusts a head-nodding groove right in your path. That is one of many assets of the record – Holden really know how to ride and manipulate a groove. Nowhere is this clearer than on the album’s centerpiece “However Small, However Hidden”, a fifteen-minute room shaker that devastates in their select live performances, yet also possesses many little twists and turns to hold one’s attention for repeat listens.

Aside from the sheer heaviness there is also plenty of melody. Sturman knows his way around a haunting note such as in the latter half of “Sparks Between Teeth”; after the band is done laying down the aural representation of wrestling an alligator Sturman delivers a haunting mix of sick shrieks and plaintive singing with handy assistance from Berson’s rumbling bass. Another exceptional highlight is on the sinister “Emperor of Maladies” (a reference to cancer), where the song’s crescendo comes barreling through riding atop Arcane’s ferocious drumming.

In summary – take the atmospheric touch of ISIS, crossed with the prog freneticism of Blood Mountain- era Mastodon, mixed with the bludgeoning heaviness of Conan and High on Fire, apply the band’s own experiences and squeeze it through the pressure of a year’s solid hard work. The result is Ursa Minor, an enthralling diamond of a listen, and album number two is already in the works. Holden are uncompromising in their vision, be-holden to absolutely no-one, and they are just getting started.