Anyone who has ever played in a band knows how tough it is to keep a steady lineup, but the guys in Becoming A.D. know it all too well. "Drummer Brecht Nuyts used to play in a band called Lost and Seen with our bass player, Vanya Frantsevitch. The three of us joined forces and started looking for a singer and a second guitar player, as the plan initially was for me to just play the guitar," guitarist/vocalist Daan Proost of the Belgian crossover thrash combo tells No Echo via email.
"Laurent Huys and Lawrence Hegge (ex-Pulse, Broken Teeth!), joined us on vocals and guitars respectively. During COVID, Laurent moved to Australia and Lawrence quit too, so it was just the three of us. We tried a couple of formations and a few people joined for a few shows, but eventually we got tired of trying out different lineups and decided to find a second guitar player and continue as a 4-piece with me doing both guitar and vocals. It felt a bit awkward at first, admittedly. However, with every show it felt more and more natural and after a while we decided to keep playing as a four-piece."
Daan offered up the following when asked about Becoming A.D.'s influences:
"We're definitely influenced by crossover-style bands like Power Trip, Lowest Creature, and Dead Heat. However, we wanted to combine this with heavy hardcore parts or metalcore riffs and are also influenced by bands like Twitching Tongues, Incendiary, Jesus Piece, and a great many other bands."
All of that aforementioned lineup turmoil was worth it as the quartet version of Becoming A.D. proves on their recently released EP Shedding Skin proves:
"We felt like the struggles with our lineup, being forced to change our name (Becoming to Becoming A.D.), and of course COVID, definitely halted our 'momentum' quite a bit," said Daan.
"Since I was also going to be doing vocals moving forward, we felt we really needed to reinvent our sound and write songs that really reflect our new-found dynamic. The result is Shedding Skin and I have to say we're beyond proud of the way these songs turned out. It's a big change since our debut EP [2020's Thy Will Be Done] for sure, but we feel like we carved out what we feel Becoming A.D. is supposed to sound like."
Daan and his Becoming A.D. bandmates are looking forward to a busy 2024. "We've got a lot of cool things coming this year like a trip to the UK, a Germany weekender and a little EU trip with our friends in Minus Youth from Germany. We're doing a weekender with our friends in Surge of Fury as well."
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Becoming A.D. on social media: Instagram
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2024 New Hardcore Playlist
Tagged: becoming a.d.
