One of the heaviest, grooviest, hookiest, and more casually profound records you don’t want to slip under your radar dropped recently from Massachusetts groove-core/alt metal rockers Hyeena. Guitarist/vocalist Keith Holuk (ex-Ligeia), bassist Mike Verlizzo, and drummer Julian Fernandez have dropped one of the more memorable ragers in Proxima, capable of inspiring fanbases ranging from Bane to Bury Your Dead to more melodic stuff like 36 Crazyfists and Deftones. Each song feels alive with intent, fortitude and from the heart, capture the moment live sounding urgency. “Limelight” needs to be in your ears just as much as this band deserves the limelight right now.
It was cool to discuss the record with Keith Holuk and find out more.
Morgan for GCM: I love the energy. It reminds me of Earth Crisis’ Slither a bit (an album I actually love) meets like Only Living Witness and modern heavy shit. Unafraid of melody too with honest vocal delivery, which I LOVE. Blue Collar Solitude era Kilgore or 36 Crazyfists also come to mind. Heavy groove that would punish live. How did the band come together? How did you learn to love the mosh?
Keith: I actually went and checked out Only Living Witness, very cool, I never listened to them before. Earth Crisis I know Firestorm, but I listened to Slither on Spotify, it’s super cool sounding… thanks for that comparison. 36 Crazy Fists I’ve heard of before, their singer does some interesting vocals so that is awesome for you to say too, thank you.
I appreciate the support on the vocals man. That’s mainly why I got back into the game because I wanted to see what I could do. Basically, I was in this band Hero in Error from Ireland after Ligeia and I was saving up money for tour, working in South Beach, Miami at a car wash. I hadn’t heard from them for a while so I bought a guitar and a MacBook, started writing songs, recording tunes with the laptop mic. I ended up moving back to MA to start my screen printing business and found some musicians from Craigslist to make it a complete band around 2019. I love the mosh from being in my old band Ligeia, we came from that western mass scene with the Acacia Strain, Bury Your Dead, Swear to God with those like open chord slow chugs.
GCM: Frankie from Emmure helped with your debut EP but COVID snuffed tour plans. It feels crazy how four years have crawled by since the Pandemic hit, both fast and also a laborious crawl. How does it feel to be picking up momentum again and putting your backs into this project?
KH: I love making music and writing riffs. So much changed since the pandemic, originally I was 100% about getting back into the van full-time and touring. But yeah plans changed, I met my wife, started the print shop, and then I also learned how to mix/master in the process, so I became a bit more tied down to being home these days.
GCM: There is physicality but also melody exist in these songs. Sometimes there is almost a Helmet or Gojira emphasis on forward motion, which I really did. Was this intentional or did the energy just come from you guys being excited?
KH: I’ve heard the Helmet comparison before, I definitely listened to Helmet back in the day a bit but I wouldn’t say it was intentional with the general Hyeena sound. Maybe that comes from singing and playing the guitar at the same time so it’s just me naturally going back to my 90s roots. I like Gojira, I actually used the Goijira Neural DSP plugin for guitar sounds on the album. They’re a great band, along with Mastodon too. And you’re right, it’s an energetic record, I think it’s best to listen to it while drinking coffee, seems to match the vibe well.
GCM: So you released the album all at once (like the tv show for Fallout), rather than serializing singles. How do you feel about how that went down? Sometimes it is fun when a band just suddenly drops new stuff and people can be startled and excited.
KH: Yea, I loved it and it seems like people are into it as well. For me, I like to just binge the whole season or album so I wanted to release the album like that. I really wish they’d put out more series and albums all at once, I’m loving this Dark Matter show right now, it’s pretty amazing but unfortunately they’re just releasing an episode a week. I feel like if you get peoples attention you should give them everything. Who cares if they consume it all at once and get over it, just make more. I could go on and on about this, but basically I’d rather not waste people’s time.
GCM: Massachusetts has such a based and killer punk, hardcore, and metalcore history. Tree playing again, Shadows Fall, Hope Con, shoutout to Worshipper, Sam Black Church. I am excited for the new Triple BBB Firewalker. You name it. So many good bands and shows. How does it feel to continue the heavy legacy of that part of the country and what did it mean to you growing up?
KH: Hell yea, Hope Conspiracy is a great Massachusetts band, I liked Have Heart a lot back in the day too. Shadows Fall is from Western Mass and Staind is from here too! I’m really liking this new Missing Link album, they’re a NY band but their new album is on BBB (Editor’s note: Triple B Records). I used to be a bouncer at a hardcore/metal venue in Springfield, MA called Fat Cats and I’d to see so many great bands plus also playing shows there with Ligeia. The music has always been so amazing to me and I was lucky to grow up in a place that had a scene with so many great bands.
GCM: Could a “Vampire Tornado” take a Sharknado in a weather battle? That makes me think of the Zombie Vs. Shark battle in Fulci’s Zombi 2, actually.
KH: Totally has that vibe 100%. I write down interesting song titles from time to and time. “Vampire Tornado” was one I came up with a while ago and thought it went really well with the song and lyrics. I’d like to have more song titles that stand out and make a statement in the future. But yea definitely fun vibe and not super serious. The whole album was an experimental piece for me, almost psychedelic so I suppose it goes well with that too.
GCM: “Coffee Struggle” is both a relatable title and also has some spicy ‘White Pony’ Deftones influences on the intro drums and some of the grooves. How did you decide on this one as the album closer?
KH: Deftones is amazing, and honestly we thought that song didn’t come out that good so we put it at the end 😆 . People have been telling us that they like the song so it could be just us thinking that
GCM: Lets get proletarian here and shout out some common folk. Any local eateries or bars or laundromats you wanna let people know to check out in your area?
KH: Brimfield Flea Market man, totally fun and good times! check it out sometime
Buy Proxima here:
https://hyeena.bandcamp.com/album/proxima
WORDS BY MORGAN Y. EVANS
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