Today we’re happy to bring you a full album stream of the new self-titled album from Vegas hardcore band Presagers.
While not the band’s first release, it does feel like the culmination of everything they’ve worked for since coming together 3 years ago. “The band formed in 2012” explains Presagers bassist Justin Fornof. “Dustin (the original vocalist), Derrick, our old guitarist and myself resurrected an old band I had been in called Suffer the Loss. In the process of re-creating the lineup and re-learning old songs for our reunion show we realized we still wanted to do this as a serious project. We added AJ on vocals later that year and changed the name to Presagers in January of 2013. Suffer the Loss still exists, but it’s kind of its own entity now.”
Moving on from a recreation of Suffer the Loss meant coming up with a striking name that set themselves apart, something they didn’t initially all agree on. According to Fornoff: “The name was actually the product of a really long and tedious search for available band names. We wanted to find something unique, dark and only one word in length. Believe it or not, I really wanted to name the band Diviner, but the rest of the guys didn’t like it.”
Heavy music fans from the turn of the millennium will likely be drawn to Presagers due to their current influences. “Our major musical influences have shifted over time” explains Fornoff. “However, when Jeff and I sat down and really started fleshing this record out our biggest influences for the sound were Martyr AD, All Out War, Eighteen Visions, Disembodied. We all really love late 90s/early 00s metallic hardcore and metalcore, but we didn’t want to make some carbon copy of that.”
Presagers recently hooked up with Lockdown Records and with this album, became the label’s first release. “We’re really excited about it. I think our very first interaction with Lockdown came when we did a weekend tour with No Altars and Beg For Life last summer. We played at a venue called The Studio in Phoenix, Arizona that they book shows at. Our guitarist Jeff, who joined the band a couple months after that show, is good friends with them and he made sure they heard the rough recordings of the new tracks. It all worked itself out from there.”
For this self-titled release, the band made their way out to Van Nuys, CA to record with Taylor Young at The Pit Studios, a studio that has seen bands like Twitching Tongues and Rotting Out come through. “Recording with Taylor Young is amazing!” exclaims Fornoff. “If you’re in a hardcore band or even just a metal band in general, he should be number one on the list of guys to record your record. He offers a ton of subtle nuances that you can’t get from recording with other people. There are a couple choice moments on the new record that Taylor suggested we try and they just worked. I think it’s safe to say without him, this record sounds considerably different.”
The studio was at the top of the band’s list to record at after a previous encounter with Taylor. “We were, and still are, huge fans. I first met Taylor when his previous band Ruckus played at Eastside Joe’s in 2009 while I was in Suffer the Loss. When Presagers decided that we were going to really take the band seriously, there wasn’t a more qualified person that I could think of to record us. He’s written and recorded some of my favorite records of the past 5-10 years.”
Presagers found themselves back at Eastside Joe’s last night for their tour kickoff. What keeps them coming back to the makeshift venue? “The place is an institution for punk and hardcore in Vegas” says Fornoff. “Every local hardcore band of the past decade has played there and we can all attest to how truly unique of an experience it is. If you have yet to catch a show there, it should definitely be a priority.”
Presagers is available now via the group’s Bandcamp site and also physically from the band on their current tour.
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