Half A Band

In a way, American metalcore bruisers The Acacia Strain have been half a band for about half the time they've been a band. It started in 2006, when founding guitarist Daniel Daponde stepped out of the band. From that point on, the band would head out on the road with one guitarist, or they'd get hired guns to come along and fill the second guitar spot.

It was fine, the shows were good, but this is metalcore, damn it, there's gotta be those twin guitars. That's something drummer Kevin Boutot noticed when the band released their barn-burning sixth record, Death Is The Only Mortal, back in 2012.

“When the record first came out, we still only had one touring guitarist so it was hard to make the songs sound full.”

Then lead guitarist Daniel “DL” Laskiewicz got booted, and some of the band's hired guns went off to do their own thing. Enter Devin Shidaker and Richard Gomez, alums of Oceano and Molotov Solution, respectively. “Once we added Devin and Richie into the mix, everything was full again with two guitar players. They helped make these songs sound amazing live night after night. They bring the drive and motivation that was needed in this band. Having so many new fill-ins all the time was exhausting. Always having to teach new people the songs all the time and worrying about possible mistakes live was a lot to handle. Luckily, everyone that has ever filled in for us has been more than amazing and helped us through some tough times.

“Since we were without two guitar players, we went ahead and thought hard about who we should ask to join the ranks, but as full-time members. After going over possible names for a while, we decided on asking Devin and Richie and everything has been working great ever since.”

Despite all the line-up turmoil, Kevin says none of it has made lose focus on what they wanted to do. “Nothing has slowed us down one bit. Everything has been so awesome with Devin and Richie. Everything from touring to the writing process is a breath of fresh air. They both are really good at playing the old material tight and how it should be and they bring lots of amazing, new, fresh ideas [to the band]. Along with them came a new chapter of The Acacia Strain that we all think the fans are going to love.”

Talking about a new chapter – since 2002, The Acacia Strain have been excellent at releasing an album every two years. So can we expect to hear a new full-length this year? “It's funny you ask because we are almost done tracking our new record with Will Putney at the Machine Shop in New Jersey. Everything is going really smooth right now. The only thing left to be done is vocals and some guitar leads. There isn't much more that I can really tell you. You can expect a [American] summer release though for sure.”