A Thing of Beauty

TETRARCH'S DIAMOND ROWE AND JOSH FORE TAKE YOU BEHIND THE SCENES OF THE VETERAN METALERS' LATEST, THE UGLY SIDE OF ME - AND WHY DIAMOND'S MOM'S OPINIONS WEIGH SO HEAVILY WITH THE BAND

- Gregory Adams

TETRARCH'S CO-FOUNDING GUITARISTS — Diamond Rowe and Josh Fore — started making music together nearly 20 years ago when they were still middle-school kids in Atlanta. Over the years, they’ve developed a sixth-sense intuition where they’re finishing each other’s sentences and locking in sympatico through the groove-bombed, peak-numetal-inspired arrangements of the now-L.A.-based outfit’s latest and third full-length, The Ugly Side of Me.

That innate connection was key to course-correcting the record’s first single, “Live Not Fantasize,” a now-industrialized and devastatingly shredded anthem that lead guitarist Rowe was struggling with in the writing phase, at least before firing it off to Fore.

“I sent it to him, and I remember the text was like, ‘Is this bad? Is this really dadsounding?’ He was like, ‘It's not the best,’” Rowe says with a laugh, though she adds that she knew Tetrarch could remodel the track into something spectacular.

Rowe took the song back to the factory — i.e. her home-recording setup — and welded a mechanically menacing four-onthe-floor rhythm onto the demo. Rhythm player Fore helped give the song a tuneup by transforming the once relentlessly jud-hungry main riff into a dramatic, stop-start chunkiness that suggests Tetrarch want us all to hop in the back of their Dragula. It’s become one of the veteran act’s most monstrous cuts yet, and one of many reasons why their Ugly new album is a thing of beauty.

Q The first line on the record’s opener, “Anything Like Myself,” is “I’m stuck in this state of mind.” How does that speak to the experience of making your third record as Tetrarch? Were there any new ways you challenged yourselves throughout the process?