Atom Smash: “Smashing You Right in the Face”

Long live grunge rock. It’s nice to see bands aren’t yet forgetting the best movement in rock and roll since the 1960s. Atom Smash, a five piece band from South Florida is a true throwback to the brilliance of the early ‘90s. The band, led by lead vocalist Sergio Sanchez, is modern grunge at its best, combining all the great elements of the era along with a few surprises. Describing the sound of the band, Sanchez says, “Our sound is modern grunge. It’s straight forward rock ‘n’ roll with some electro thrown in for good measure. When I was around ten, my older brother started jamming a lot of Nirvana and Soundgarden and that definitely paved the way for me musically.”

The group formed in 2006 when producer Paul Trust first discovered Sanchez. The relationship was immediately productive as the two dove right into songwriting together. The rest of the band then began to come together, the first addition being guitarist Alex “Z” Zilinski who Sanchez found through an online classified ad. Sanchez sent Z a few songs and he quickly reciprocated with some demos of the songs with Z’s own twist added to them. Sanchez was blown away by what he heard and wanted to meet Zilinski but the only thing standing in the way was Z then living in Austria. Zilinski decided to visit Sanchez in South Florida and what started as a two week vacation turned into a permanent residence. The other three members joined in less dramatic fashion over the last three years with second guitarist Luke Rice rounding out the lineup in spring, 2010.

Just prior to Rice joining, Atom Smash had been working with Trust on material for their debut EP Sacrifice. With a proper release complete the group was now ready to go out on tour for which they began in early 2009. During this time the band played with several prominent bands including Saliva, Tantric and Halestorm and Atom Smash fairly quickly was building a strong fan base.

It was then time to write a debut full-length record after signing a major label record deal with Jive Records. Jive became interested after producer David Bendeth encouraged AS to shop the tracks “Do Her Wrong” and “Erase Those Days” to various labels. The debut LP is called Love is in the Missile and was just released at the end of August. The eleven tracks were co-produced by Bendeth and Trust who both inspired the band to really focus on its songwriting. Love is in the Missile’s first single “Do Her Wrong” has become a modern rock radio hit and has helped make Atom Smash one of the most popular new bands in North America.

Make sure to check the band out currently on tour in the U.S. Expect to see them on the road for most of the next year as more and more people find out about this rising band. If you’re looking for something that might remind you of better days of rock ‘n’ roll then give Atom Smash a good listen.

Check out the song: “Do Her Wrong”