Rings of Saturn (band)

Rings of Saturn is an American deathcore band from the Bay Area, California. The band was formed in 2009 and was originally just a studio project. However, after gaining a wide popularity and signing to Unique Leader Records, the band formed a full line-up and became a full-time touring band. Rings of Saturn's music features a highly technical style, heavily influenced by themes of alien life and outer space. They have released four full-length albums, with their third, Lugal Ki En, released in 2014 and peaking at 126 on the American Billboard 200 chart.^[2]

History

Rings of Saturn was formed in 2009 in high school only as a studio recording project with Lucas Mann on guitars, bass, and keyboards, Peter Pawlak on vocals, and Brent Silletto on drums. The band posted a track titled "Abducted" online and quickly gained listeners. The band recorded their debut album, Embryonic Anomaly, with Bob Swanson at Mayhemnness Studios in Sacramento, CA.^[3] The album was self-released by the band on May 25, 2010. Four months after releasing Embryonic Anomaly, the band signed to Unique Leader Records.^[4] In the months following the band's signing, Joel Omans was added as a second guitarist and the band graduated high school which led to their embarking on tours.^[5] Embryonic Anomaly was re-released through Unique Leader on March 1, 2011,^[6] and their two following albums would later also be released through the label. In December 2011, Brent Silletto and Peter Pawlak both left the band on their own decisions, mainly to seek out a different lifestyle.

Rings of Saturn, which at this point only included Lucas Mann and Joel Omans, toured with many different touring members before forming a line-up which added Ian Bearer, Sean Martinez and Ian Baker on vocals, bass, and drums respectively. This line-up recorded their second album, Dingir, with the same producer from Embryonic Anomaly.^[7] The album was originally scheduled to be released on November 20, 2012, but due to legal issues, the album release was pushed back to February 5, 2013. In response to the legal push and a pre-production version of the album leaking on the internet, the vocalist, Ian Bearer, uploaded the finished album on his YouTube channel and put up the entire album for download via Total Deathcore.^[8] Ian Baker and Sean Martinez parted ways with the band shortly after the official release of Dingir, the band later took part in The Summer Slaughter Tour of 2013 adding Jesse Beahler for drums until the end of the tour.

Rings of Saturn went into recording their 3rd studio album in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, having Aaron Kitcher of Infant Annihilator and Black Tongue to fill in all drums arrangements as a special guest on the album. Aaron Stechauner later joined as a full-time member for drums after the album was finished. On July 1, 2014, the band released the cover art and track list to their new album Lugal Ki En which was released on October 14, 2014. They also released their first music video for "Senseless Massacre" directed by Alex T Reinhard. The band toured the United States, Canada, and for the first time Mexico shortly after but no new songs were played from the newly released album. On December 9, 2014, Joel Omans announced his departure from the band, stating on his personal Facebook that he left because Lucas Mann became "a hack of a musician" and "hindered the band from playing new songs from Lugal Ki En" during its album release tour.^[9][10] Two weeks later, on December 26, Miles Dimitri Baker was announced as their new second guitarist.

On April 2, 2015, Rings of Saturn released a live guitar play-through featuring Lucas Mann and Miles Dimitri Baker performing the song "Godless Times" from the album Lugal Ki En, in response to the allegations.^[11] Three months later, on August 28, the band released the single "Seized and Devoured 2.0", a re-recorded track off of their first album Embryonic Anomaly featuring Ian Bearer's vocals.^[12] Shortly after, the band began touring in North America, with a set-list that consisted of mainly Lugal Ki En songs being played for the first time live.^[13] Later that year, On December 25, the band released a collaboration single titled "Souls Of This Mortality" with its very own side project band "Interloper."^[14] Rings Of Saturn then began its first tour in Europe in early 2016,^[15] followed by a North American tour supporting Thy Art Is Murder.^[16] On May 17, 2016, the band announced that they signed to Nuclear Blast Records.^[17]

On July 31, 2016, Rings of Saturn announced that they had finished writing their next album, Ultu Ulla (Time Immemorial), and it was released on July 28, 2017.^[18][19] On June 2, 2017, the band released their second music video for the song "Inadequate".^[20] On July 7, 2017, the band released a lyric video for the second single off Ultu Ulla, "Parallel Shift".

Musical style

Rings of Saturn performs a subgenre of extreme metal known as deathcore,^[21] which fuses elements of metalcore and death metal. The style of deathcore that the band plays is influenced by technical death metal and is characterized by very fast and technical sweep-picking with an added harmony effect, fast tempos, ambient elements, and lyrics that deal with space invasion and extraterrestrial life. The band has jokingly self-classified their genre as "aliencore".

Members

Timeline

Discography

Studio albums

• Embryonic Anomaly (2010)
• Dingir (2012)
• Lugal Ki En (2014)
• Ultu Ulla (2017)

References