Indiana’s Pariah is part of a new wave of metalcore bands pulling from the genre’s harsher late ’90s and early 2000s roots. Formed in late 2024 after the members’ previous projects fizzled out, the band quickly came together around a shared love for heavy, riff-driven hardcore and played their first show in April 2025. Since then, they’ve been building momentum in a thriving local scene.
“The band officially started when Drew and Brice both had bands kinda fizzle out in October/November of 2024,” guitarist Drew Minor tells No Echo. “They started working on material together and eventually just started jamming with other people until the right ones ended up in the necessary spots.”
Depending on who you talk to, the "metalcore" tag can mean a bunch of different things within today's heavy music community. “It tends to be kind of a dirty word in today’s landscape, but we are a hardcore band with metal-driven riffs…so it fits," Minor explains. He points to influences like 100 Demons, Martyr AD, Integrity, and Nails as key reference points for the band’s sound.
The group’s debut EP, Hymns for the Damned, was a fully DIY effort. “It was produced by us—mostly Brice, our guitarist—for around a year at our practice spot,” Minor says. “We decided, since it was a first release and we had the equipment available, to give it a shot. We probably went a bit overboard with tweaks and re-recordings, but we’re happy with the outcome.” Lyrically, the EP tackles heavy themes, with Minor noting that it “explores themes of alienation, belief (or lack thereof), and the search for self.”
One track, “Wretch Like Me,” was inspired by Rudyard Kipling’s poem “Boots,” a choice the band felt was especially relevant given current global conflicts. Minor says they “added music to feel necessary to have and write a song based on it…due to the current climate of the world.”
Back home, Pariah are part of a bustling underground music community. “The local scene is thriving at the moment,” Minor says. “Most of Evansville’s shows tend to sell out or sell out very quickly.” He also shouts out fellow regional acts like Weeded Out, High Strung, Deserving Consequence, Forthright, Shallow, Grow Blind, A Modest Proposal, and Cohen.
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Pariah on social media: Instagram
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