​Demifiend to haunt KRFF show

Nine band lineup at The Aquarium

Local radio listeners are likely to be familiar with 95.9 Radio Free Fargo, a station devoted to serving the Fargo-Moorhead area and run completely by volunteers.

The station plays a little bit of everything. It’s possible to tune in at different times of the day and hear everything from underground bands to R&B to alternative rock, as well as talk shows and news of local interest.

Of course, every Thursday at 8 PM there is “Locals on the 8”, the block that plays music from all local acts.

On Friday, May 26, “Locals on the 8” will be sponsoring a concert at the Aquarium. The show, at a very reasonable ticket price, will not only help keep the show on the air and create publicity for burgeoning local acts, but boasts an impressive nine band lineup: The Knotties, Grazing, Brutalur, Sons of Mars, Jantzonia, Wild Amphora, Go Murphy, Demifiend, and Barnaby Jones.

Recently I had the opportunity to sit down with two members of the recently formed Demifiend, their rhythm guitarist Shaun Fox and Zep Elstad on bass and vocals. Also in the band are Drew S on lead guitar and Mitch Martin on drums.

Demifiend are currently the only black metal act in town. Black metal as a genre got its start in Norway in the late 80s and early 90s and has since spread to worldwide prominence in the metal community.

Unfortunately, it has also attracted a degree of controversy due to the actions of a small number of musicians at the start of the scene, such as the Norway church burnings, though these are not representative of the genre as a whole.

It’s hard to pigeonhole the subject matter and even the playing style of black metal, as it can vary widely from band to band. One band’s lyrics might deal with subjects of Satanism, another may have lyrics based around pagan mythology, and yet another may have lyrics inspired by fantasy literature, and the play styles can run the gamut from dark ambience to lightning-fast shredding to a sound that courts regional folk music.

About the only things you’ll see shared between two black metal bands are a dark atmosphere, uncanny “corpse paint” on their faces, and lots of spikes and studs on their clothing.

It’s this variety that drew Shaun Fox to this particular subgenre of heavy metal. “Black metal is all I’ve been able to write,” said Fox. “It seems with any other genre they tell you, ‘Oh, you have to tune down the guitars, you have to play this way.’ We do what we want,” he continued. Zep Elstad handles the lyrical content, often creating interesting twists on things in his own life. “He takes those and twists them into tales of Satanism and awesomeness,” said Fox.

Currently, Demifiend is the only black metal act in the Fargo-Moorhead area, but there have been others in the past.

Shaun and Zep have been in other projects as well. They explained that the metal scene in Fargo is very cyclical. There will be lulls, and then the next thing you know there are a whole new crop of incredibly talented metal acts. “Someone will pop up and snatch the crown,” said Elstad.

The band made their debut last November during a show at the Aquarium (which I actually had the pleasure of attending) that also featured local metallers Gorgatron. The upcoming “Locals on the 8” concert will be their third performance.

However, having the shows this sporadically works just fine for the members of Demifiend. “We’re keeping it small,” said Elstad. He expressed fear of falling into the “curse of Fargo.”

“You end up playing the same set every week at a bunch of different venues, and eventually people decide they can just skip out because they can catch you later or get tired of you.”

Having shows only periodically means that expectation for a new performance is always high and people are more likely to attend. On top of that, Fox said that playing in a band while working full-time is essentially like having a second job, and having a family as well can make for quite a full plate.

Currently, the only way to listen to Demifiend’s music outside of their concerts is on Youtube and through their Facebook page. If you’re interested in t-shirts, you’ll need to give them a shout out on their Facebook page, too.

Currently they haven’t had their big break with a record label despite their talent. “We’ve had labels sniffing around,” said Fox. Unfortunately, a number of them seemed to want to take the band for a proverbial ride, making a buck out of their music but leaving them high and dry.

Elstad said, “You start asking certain questions, like ‘What’s our cut?’, and people stop asking questions.” One can only hope that a more scrupulous music producer will approach them in the future, but in the meantime they are humble enough to just drum up a local fan base and bring in new listeners.

I can certainly vouch for the fact that these guys put on a hell of a show, and along with Brutalur they will be one of the heaviest acts of the evening. If you want to have your face melted by some incredible music and support local bands, including the up-and-coming Demifiend all at once, make sure you have your Friday evening free. Everyone will be ready to rock and roll when you get there.

IF YOU GO 

Locals on the 8 Fest 

Friday, May 26, 6:30pm-1am 

The Aquarium, 226 Broadway, Fargo $8, proceeds to keep KRRF open