The music may not sound anything like the Who — the younger generation is enthusiastically ushering brutal death metal and powerviolence into these all-ages spaces — but the DIY circuit is certainly not a teenage wasteland. Over the last few years, it's become clear that there’s a new wave of underground extremity, a melting pot of metal and hardcore, thriving outside the local limelight.
“What I’ve noticed is you have two different scenes,” says Kian Fotouhi, the 22-year-old guitarist/vocalist of Denver band Consanguinity, a leader in the current brutal-slam surge. “You have the metalhead bar scene that’s more for older people. To be honest, we haven’t tapped into that too much. We’ve been involved with this adjacent thing that’s going on that’s close with Colorado hardcore.”
Fotouhi points to the Colorado Springs independent shop What’s Left Records, which books and hosts shows, for fostering the momentum behind the movement. “We played our first show at What’s Left,” he says. “The bands that play around there were the ones I initially reached out to because I noticed the people in those bands were a lot younger, and the people at the shows were a lot younger in general. That’s what I gravitated towards.”
The cross-pollination of musicians and bands across Fort Collins, Colorado Springs, Denver and everywhere in between caught the attention of Alexis White. At just seventeen years old, the recent Sand Creek High School grad keeps his finger on the pulse of the scene and even started booking shows under the banner Blood on the Land.
“It’s a very connected scene,” he says. “I was figuring out these are attainable artists, and they’re close to my area. I thought I should explore more and see what else is around. It was just diving in that way.”
He began thinking about putting together a DIY festival of all his favorite Front Range bands — it sounded easier to have them all in one place, on one bill. So, naturally, that’s exactly what he ended up doing. “I was driving up to Denver with one of my friends, and I was joking about starting a music festival," White recalls. "Then the more I talked about it and planned it out, the more it come to fruition."
Now it's about to be in full bloom: The first-ever Blood on the Land Fest, sponsored by Pryor Custom Craft and Amore Pizza, will take place on Saturday, June 28, at D3 Arts.
The full-day lineup features Poison Cough, Mumble, Caged Grave, Vitrify, Tray of Rock, Savage Beating, Helse, Consanguinity, Rampant Defenestration, Epileptic Avulsions, Thrill Rot, Foeticide, Cologne, 10,000 Airplanes, Throw My Body to the Wolves, Mukus, Cavernous, Aleister Cowboy and Daisy. There’s also a secret set from a scene favorite that’s marking its unofficial return, White teases.
It’s a who’s who of up-and-coming acts that have been making headway within certain circles. If you’re one of those people always looking for the next new thing or like to brag about knowing more obscure bands than your friends, be there and say you saw them first. “I wanted to start a more local-focused music festival and to connect different scenes in this one space,” White shares.
Tray of Rock is another underground heavy-hitter that is ushering in the new wave of death.
Courtesy Ethan Cullis
Listening to him gush about such groups as Aleister Cowboy, Caged Grave and Tray of Rock, it’s evident that the Gen Z mover-and-shaker is well-versed and dedicated to the cause. “This guy,” White says as he holds up a CD copy of Aleister Cowboy’s latest album, Chambers of Anguish, “I have been listening to this for ages now. It’s a really good EP they did. I’ve been wanting to get something with them for ages now.”
White is rocking a Daisy crewneck. The Colorado Springs powerviolence band inspired the Blood on the Land name after he saw one of Daisy's posts promoting a show, promising “there will be blood on the floor.” The tracklist of the four-piece’s 2024 debut, Demonstration, reads like a lover in four lines, but hits like a burn book. “It’s dense-sounding. It is just, like, in your face,” White says. “They’re a violent band to see live. But in the good, fun way. It’s more like go to a show and the music is so good that people are moshing."
Consanguinity, whose name is an ode to Bloodborne, also takes pride in its ability to get people on the floor. “We’re definitely moshable. The hardcore kids will like it, and they do mosh really hard for us. But we stay true to our metal roots, and that’s primarily our focus when we’re songwriting,” says Fotouhi, the creative force behind the band. “If you’re a fan of metal, if you’re a fan of hardcore, whatever, if you like watching a pretty polished live set but also getting in the pit, I feel like we have something to offer for everyone.”
Just remember to mosh responsibly.
Fotouhi started Consanguinity — which includes bassist Zane Mertel, drummer Malcolm Bryant, guitarist Chris Vinton and vocalist Caden Szymanowski — a little over a year ago, but knew exactly what he wanted to do with the act and trained his voice to dispel one of the lowest gutturals this side of the Mississippi. Seriously, it’s dungeon-dwelling deep.
“I’ve been listening to metal for a while, but my gutturals only really have gotten good like a year ago,” he admits. “I think what it is is constantly practicing — but not even dedicated practice, literally just walking around stimming, doing it underneath my breath, everyone’s looking at you weird if they can hear you. I’ll be at work, sitting at my desk, trying to be quiet. It just comes from repeatedly doing it to where you can get it, and you can do it on the fly.”
Fotouhi, who is currently spending his summer in Dallas interning for Texas Instruments while he works towards his master’s degree in electrical engineering at University of Colorado Boulder, shows off what he can do on Consanguinity’s trio of singles so far, while Szymanowski handles the mic live. Don’t worry, his range is just as likely to induce the brown note as is his bandmate’s.
White is also behind the solo noise project 10,000 Airplanes and will be attending Colorado Mesa University in Grand Junction this August to double-major in political science and history. Blood on the Land won’t be put on the back burner, though.
“Part of the reason I’ve been able to go as far as I have in such a short amount of time is just being involved in the scene beforehand, being there and thinking, ‘What shows would I want to attend as well as my friends?’ Then going and booking those kinds of shows,” he explains.
“I have been following a good chunk of the band for some time and knowing them outside of this,” White continues. “These are artists that I really enjoy as well, as I know a bunch of other people really enjoy. So giving them an opportunity to all be connected together is what I was going for with this year’s lineup.”
He’s already looking at spots in his future college town that are open to hosting independent shows, including Copeka Coffee, and is thinking about a Colorado Springs or Denver show here or there, too. He's already learned that Interstate 70 might make that difficult, as well as other lessons about organizing your own festival. But he’s proved to be a quick study.
“It’s all about trying to put artists that may not have as much recognition beforehand into a bigger spotlight,” White concludes, “which is what I’m going to be really focusing on for next year’s festival.”
Blood on the Land Festival, 2 p.m. Saturday, June 28, D3 Arts, 3632 Morrison Road; tickets are $30-$35.
