Tetrarch: “I’m excited to push the limits of what heavy could be for Tetrarch”

Tetrarch’s rise has come through sweat, grit, and determination. Since their 2017 debut Freak, the band has slogged through the modern metal ranks with unwavering focus, steadily morphing from underground upstarts to serious contenders in the heavy music scene. Their 2021 release Unstable sharpened their identity, expanded their reach and solidified their position as one of the most exciting heavy music. Now, with their new record The Ugly Side of Me, they’ve made their most personal statement yet.

The album is a blend of nu-metal nostalgia, next-gen ambition and gut-punching honesty. Across ten tracks, frontman Josh Fore bares his soul giving an emotional, raw performance while guitarist Diamond Rowe leads the way with a performance that sets out the blueprint not just for modern metal guitarists, but for the sound and scope of the genre itself.

In our latest Cover Story, V13 sat down with Josh and Diamond to talk about their growth as a band, pouring their all into new album Ugly Side of Me, and how they feel about being heralded as the flagbearers for the new breed of heavy.

Between forming in 2007 and the new record, how do you feel you’ve evolved as a band?

“We’ve continued to evolve and find our sound over time. Freak was very experimental for us because we were a straight-up thrash band before we did that so we started doing some different types of songs, particularly the song ‘Spit’ and ‘Freak’ really opened our eyes to how we can go in these different directions.

Unstable, we found a sound and I think that The Ugly Side of Me, we took everything we learned from Unstable and combined it into something that you listen to it and you say that’s Tetrarch. I think our sound has been a natural progression over the past few years and albums. We’re excited with where we’re at.”

What was the ambition?

“You’ll get a lot of bands and they’ll say something like, ‘Oh, we would never even fathom that we would end up here and blah, blah, blah.’ That’s always a part of it but we always, from the time we started jamming in our parents’ basement, garage or whatever, we always knew this is what we wanted to do with our life. Since we started we started loving those bands that inspired us. That was always a hope and a dream.

I would say we started taking it seriously very young, more so than most kids probably do when they’re playing because we knew this was what we wanted to do. You never know. You hope and you dream and you just try to work in ways that can get you there.

We still have so many goals but hopefully, we’re on the right track.”

“I think our sound has been a natural progression over the past few years and albums. We’re excited with where we’re at.”

One of the labels that’s thrown out is that you’re revitalizing nu-metal. Going back to when bands like Lamb of God, Shadows Fall, and all those bands came out, they were labelled under the ‘New Wave of American Heavy Metal’ banner and a lot of those bands didn’t like that label, didn’t feel that they were the new wave of anything. How do you feel about leading a genre that changed heavy music?

“I think we embrace it. We don’t run away. Whatever anybody in the press wants to call us, they can call us. A lot of people do throw around that new wave of nu-metal thing and we’re not shy about it. We’re not gonna run away from it. It’s an honour because some of our favourite bands came from that time period and are still some of the biggest bands in the world. Just to even have our name thrown around with them is cool.”

What was that point where you felt you had realised this is what we’re about?

“When we were putting together Unstable, I think some way, and I’m sure every band has it, we had like this epiphany as we were writing the record, a sound, a vibe just started to come to us. We liked it and we ran with what we were doing. When we put out Unstable and we saw the reaction where people received it in the way we would want it to be received, but they also really enjoyed it, I think that gave us the confidence of knowing what we’re doing and what we love other people resonate with and love as well.

V13 Cover Story Issue #98 – Tetrarch

We’re playing music from the heart. Josh even says it on stage, he’s been saying it for a long time, we play the music that we love and we enjoy playing and we enjoy writing. We’re never out there trying to. I love the heaviest of heavy bands but we never go into writing with the intention of out-heavying a band or the intention of out-rocking a band. We write the songs that we love to write and that come out naturally for us.

In some way, Unstable, gave us the confidence that us following our own path and doing what we love is the way for us. With this record, we were able to do just that. Let’s continue to write the music that we love to write and now we have a sound that we enjoy, other people love, and we can explore within the realms of that sound that we have. We are always experimenting, but it was less experimenting as far as the sound and more like experimenting within our sound if that makes sense?”

Unstable was a huge record for Tetrarch. What did you learn from that experience and then what did you take from it going forward into the new record?

“We learned the parts of ourselves that we loved. We loved how a lot of the songs had big, heavy parts, but they also had what we hoped were big, catchy choruses. Diamond developed a unique lead guitar sound that gave her even more confidence on this album to experiment and have a heavy lead presence. We just learned little things about ourselves and things that we like, and it made it a little easier. It’s never easy, but a little easier to come up with the sound that you hear on the Ugly Side of Me.”

“It’s an honour because some of our favourite bands came from that time period and are still some of the biggest bands in the world.”

The title sounds very personal. What does it mean to you both personally?

“Ugly Side of Me was the name of one of the songs and we felt it represented the album as a whole. Everybody has something about themselves or the situation they’re in that they’re not happy with or they don’t like, or they wish they could change but, the album as a whole, it’s about embracing those sides of yourself and not being afraid to face them.

Everybody has something that they maybe don’t love about themselves or that other people might not love about them or situations. It could be something so small as I wish I could lose these 10 pounds or something big like a personality flaw or a relationship or something like that. What I do think is interesting is everybody has something like that but, whereas they can be looked at as a negative thing, sometimes they’re things that make us the most special or the most unique or they’re things that make us even though sometimes we want to change them or get rid of them.

It’s a cool title because it can apply to anyone and you can look at it from a lot of different ways, but everybody has what they would consider an ugly side. It’s like we’re all just trying to figure our way through life and get through those obstacles that we have and do the best we can.

That’s what the record is about. Trying to do the best you can with what you got and continue to move always forward.”

When fans connect with your music and the messages, what do you hope they get out of the songs?

“First and foremost we hope people just enjoy listening to it. We hope that we made an album that people want to listen to and spend enough time with to learn the lyrics and to see how it can relate to what they’re going through or to have an outlet. Even a song like ‘Erase’, where sometimes you just wanna scream. Maybe nothing’s wrong, but you just need to let out a big yell. I hope people can listen to the album and, if they relate to their life, then that’s an added bonus.”

What does it feel like when fans connect to songs, and lyrics?

“It’s cool. I remember when we first got a taste of that on like our very first tours when we were young and people would come up to us and say, ‘Oh, this song, I’m going through this…’ and it was so bizarre because you see that this does affect and help people. I remember our first dose of that when we were young and we were just starting to get new fans and hearing people say that, and now to this day, it’s still really special to hear that.

You know that what you’re doing is for enjoyment, it’s for entertainment. We want people to come to our shows and go crazy and have a great time but it also has a deeper meaning than that to some people too and that’s cool to know that they can listen to our music and it gets them through good times and it gets them through bad times too. We feel like we’re doing something positive as well.

I don’t think our fans also know how much they do for us too. Just giving us the opportunity to be here and do this does more for us than we could ever express. It’s nice to know that I feel like we’re returning the favour for them too.”

What’s it like bearing your soul in front of a crowd?

“That’s the best feeling. When me and Diamond first met and started playing together, that was the dream of getting in front of people and playing. To this day that’s our favourite part of being in a band. It’s a cool energy transfer between us and the crowd.

I don’t have moments necessarily. I’m more in that moment with that crowd feeling it. It’s not about us at that moment. We’re all in this room together and we’re all having a great time together, and we’re all just feeling this energy together. It’s the best part of playing music, honestly.”

Tetrarch ‘The Ugly Side of Me’ Album Artwork

Diamond you made your debut vocally on the new record. How did that come about and why was now the right time to step up?

“I’ve always done back some backups live on stage and, on the last record, I did a couple of harmonies or just some ad-lib stuff here and there, textural stuff but never anything upfront. Josh brought up the idea of me maybe trying to sing this chorus or try to sing this verse, but I’m very through and through a guitar player.

Singing is also different. You’re very self-conscious about that too at times, especially when you first start. I go back to Unstable a lot with this because I think having that album cycle of Unstable and how good it did for us and how we came into our own, I think helped.

When we got to this record and it was brought up again, I think at this point I had the confidence to say okay. I wasn’t nervous about it or anything like that. We had a couple of songs where this could be cool and I had a cool dynamic. Let’s see what happens. There was no hesitation or anything and all I can attribute that to is feeling more confident as an artist at this point.

We tried it out on a couple of songs and it just added a cool dynamic and a cool element that we’ve never done before. It just gives people something different when they’re listening. It came out cool and we just decided to keep it. It was the right timing.”

“We’re all in this room together and we’re all having a great time together, and we’re all just feeling this energy together. It’s the best part of playing music, honestly.”

You talked about experimenting with the sound and finding your sound. In conjunction with Diamond doing more vocals and you being labelled as spearheading the new breed of metal, where do you see this going?

“You’re always gonna get something that is honest. Something heavy. Something catchy. That’s what we go for. I imagine, as time goes on, and we continue to keep writing and putting out music, you’ll just hear Tetrarch continue to just become… our hope is to just be very instantly recognizable and I think that just will keep developing with time.

I’m excited to push the limits even more. I think we’ve established what heavy is for Tetrarch, but I’m excited to push the limits of what heavy could be for Tetrarch. Our heavy and pushing the limits of our heavy in our songwriting. I’m really excited to continue to see the boundaries that we can push with our songwriting, and expand that dynamic range as we continue to put out music but, at the same time, doing it in a way that is recognizable to who Tetrarch are.”