Nathan Bigelow - Arkaik - Violence and Pestilence Born

I am very happy to finally announce that I have joined Arkaik as a full-time member! It is an honor to fill the shoes of Alex Bent, who has since joined with metal titans in Trivium. I have been performing with the band for some time and officially joined in December of 2017, however, announcements were delayed due to reform within the band and my personal life. My bandmates are not only a huge inspiration to me but some of my closest friends.

Arkaik has a full catalog of challenging, hard-hitting music that is a delight to play and perform. We are currently hard at work writing new music, securing new merch and planning tours. When I first toured with Arkaik in July of 2016 accompanied my band Singularity (which I am still very much a part of), I never thought that I would be joining such a tight and technical band. The music has pushed me to the limits of what I thought I could do and improved my playing in many regards. Thanks so much to all of my bandmates and friends for the support! 2019 is shaping up to be one of the best years I could have hoped for. Cheers!

Nathan’s Gear:

Nathan currently uses FootBlaster Triggers, Pearl drums and hardware, Meinl Cymbals, Vic Firth sticks, Remo drum heads, Shure headphones, Roland electronics, Vratim drum shoes, and Gator cases.

Drums:

-Pearl Vision VBX (Birch)

Sizes: 8″,10″,12″ 14″ Toms, 20″ Kick

Snare: Custom 14″x 6″ Winge Snare built and given to me by a friend

Cymbals:

Meinl 18″ Byzance Dark China

Meinl 18″ Classics Custom Dark China

Meinl 14″ Byzance Dark Hats

Meinl 14″ Byzance Medium Hats

Meinl 24″ MB20 Pure Metal Ride

Meinl 10″ Classics Custom Dark Splash

Meinl 12″ Classics Custom Trash Stack

Sabian 18″ AA Crash

Sabian 16″ AAX Ozone Crash

Heads:

Toms – Remo Emperor (Batter) Remo Ambassador (Resonant)

Snare – Remo Controlled X Coated

Kick – Remo Powerstroke 3 Coated

Pedals:

Pearl Demon Drive with Trick Detonator Beaters

Sticks:

Scorpion Percussion 5a

Electronics:

Roland TM2 Trigger Module with RT-10K Trigger

Shoes: Vratim Drum Shoes

Nathan Bigelow is touring/session drummer and educator born in Puyallup, Washington in August of 1989. From a young age, Nathan was always fascinated by the drums until he got his first drum kit at age 13. Mostly self-taught, Nathan studied intermittently under Washington based Jazz drummer, Travis Yost. He grew up jamming with his friends in bedrooms or playing drums for church worship services.

In 2008, having met a group of like-minded musicians, Nathan left his home state with nothing but a suitcase full of clothes and relocated to Arizona to form his first band, Blackened Skies, performing multiple local shows with renowned national bands and recording an EP. In 2012, the band matured and adopted a new sound, releasing a self-titled album under the new name Solar Impulse. As his reputation in the local scene grew, he was contacted by local band, Excystation – playing a slew of live shows and winning contests all the way up to the final round of the Battle for Summer Slaughter in 2014.

In the summer of 2014, Nathan was contacted by the technical symphonic metal band, Singularity, for live session work on the band’s first tour. He learned 7 songs in a matter of two weeks and successfully completed the tour, landing him a spot as the band’s full-time drummer. Together, Singularity went to venture on more tours and record an EP with Ryan “Bart” Williams (Formerly of The Black Dahlia Murder), which won The Arizona Metal Award for “Best Single/EP” of the year.

Nathan’s reputation for learning technical songs quickly and with precision has garnered him attention from other up-and-coming bands in the tech-death genre. In February of 2017, Nathan was contacted by Alterbeast (Unique Leader Records) – a technical death metal band from Sacramento – to headline an upcoming US tour. Shortly after the tour, Nathan decided to quit his job of 7 years to tour and be a full-time professional musician. He was later contacted by progressive death metal outfit, Arkaik (Unique Leader Records), learning 8 tedious and brutal tracks in just a month and then performing double sets with both Alterbeast and Arkaik each night on a full US tour.

In just 2 years, Nathan has toured in almost every state in the US as well as a majority of Canada. His hard work and tenacity have generated a buzz in the tech and death metal community. With regular social media updates from his tours and in his practice studio, he has inspired many friends and fans to take interest in his journey and follow their own dreams.

Nathan recently performed with Arkaik on last year’s Devastation on The Nation tour, supporting acts such as Aborted and Psycroptic. Immediately following last year’s Devastation tour, he performed with Alterbeast accompanying Rivers of Nihil on a Canadian headliner tour. Since 2018, Nathan has joined Arkaik as a full-time member, taking over the position for Alex Bent, who has since joined metal titans in Trivium. Nathan’s band Singularity has signed a record deal with The Artisan Era and will be releasing a new full-length album in the summer of 2019. Nathan is also filling in for Swiss metal wizards in Virvum on this year’s Tech Trek IV tour, headlined by Archspire.

Arkaik’s debut album, “Reflections Within Dissonance”, displayed a unique marriage of superior craftsmanship and a forward-thinking promise rarely seen in a band that young. Their sophomore album, “Metamorphignition” built on their progressive and adventurous predilections and aimed to transcend the boundaries of “Technical Death Metal” even as it revels in the sub-genre’s wanton brutality. The band’s founder Jared Christianson (vocals) has pooled an immensely talented core of musicians around the band in its over 10 years of progression, including emerging drum phenom Nathan Bigalow (Singularity), Canadian bass prodigy Riley Christensen, and a powerful duo of creative and technically adept guitarists, Cris Portugal (Enslave The Creation, Claymore) and Alex Haddad (Nullingroots, Dessiderium). Having toured North America with some of the biggest names in death metal including The Black Dahlia Murder, Cannibal Corpse, Goatwhore, Aborted, Exhumed and Psycroptic to name a few, they have been garnering an enthusiastic fanbase and pushing their sound forward into new conceptual and stylistic realms. As they look forward with ever-increasing determination, Arkaik continues to seek out new boundaries of extremity and creativity – and then annihilate them.