Local Music Rocks: Doctrine of Ethos

As I walked into Revolutions Dance Club the atmosphere was quiet. It was the calm before the storm. Revolutions Dance Club is usually home to DJ’s, however on this night it would be the venue for a triple threat of hard hitting rock bands. The lineup included Doctrine of Ethos, The IZM and Confliction. Doctrine of Ethos opened the show with a bang.

Doctrine of Ethos is an original four-piece band out of Myrtle Beach, SC. Members include Natalie Roberts (vocals), Joe Meckley (bass), Corey Holden (drums) and Blake Graham (guitar).  The band was formed two years ago by Joe and Corey when they “got stuck living together”. Both Joe and Corey had been in and out of multiple bands, and they came up with the idea for Doctrine of Ethos together. They enlisted Natalie to sing for them at their debut show, The Hard Rock Battle of the Bands, two years ago. At first Natalie was reluctant to commit to the band, because of school, but after performing with them everything fell together and she has been with them ever since. Blake is a relatively new addition to Doctrine of Ethos. The band has been through a few guitar players and found Blake just six months ago. Blake jokingly insists that, “they can’t get rid of me”.

These guys aren’t new to the game. Natalie started singing as a little girl. She comes from a self-proclaimed “musical family”, who even worked out harmonies together. Natalie sang in churches growing up, but that experience gave her the vocal strength she would need to someday front a heavy metal band.  Blake began studying classical piano at the young age of five. He started playing guitar in high school and studied bass in college.  Blake jokes, “If I’m a genius I’m a musical genius”.  Joe began playing upright bass at the age of nine, and then switched over to electric bass. Corey has been playing percussion since the age of ten. He plays drums, marimba, vibes, steel drum and “all the cool stuff”.

Each of the members of Doctrine of Ethos are graduates of Coastal Carolina University.  This afforded Joe and Blake the opportunity to study under Steve Bailey, a renowned bass player and influential figure in the field.  All of the members have Bachelor’s degrees from Coastal Carolina.  It is clear that the members of Doctrine of Ethos are all particularly skilled musicians. Joe plays a six string bass during shows. A standard bass has only four strings. When asked how many strings his guitar has Blake quips “seven, eight, I don’t know I lose count.” Perhaps Joe explains the skillful nature of the band best when he states, “ When playing this genre of music seven string guitars, six string basses, talented operatic voices and heavy tentacle stuff is really what captures our style”.

Doctrine of Ethos collectively writes all of their songs. Sometimes one member will come up with the lyrics and they will build the song around them. Other times it will start with the instrumentals. It simply depends on the song. The band members seem to quite respect each other, and they feed off of each other’s creativity.  The band cites social change as inspiration for many of their songs.  Joe explains, “Everybody’s struggling, everybody needs something to look forward to, so we hope that music will do for them what it does for us. It gives us hope. It gives us something to look forward to.”

Doctrine of Ethos has a unique sound. The contradiction between Natalie’s voice and the hard-hitting instrumentals is intriguing.  It is surprising that her voice does not get lost in the background. There is something almost haunting about her voice as it rises over the unyielding force of bass, guitar and percussion. I particularly enjoy the song “Rise of the Machines”, which displays this fusion of soft and hard extremely well.  “Dreams”, a new single just released by the band, shows Natalie’s vocal range and even throws a bit of jazz sound into the mix.

Doctrine of Ethos cites bands such as Tool, Mudvayne, Evanescence, Dream Theater and Slipknot as influential. Their influences are apparent, but not over-powering.

I asked if there was anything else that the band felt strongly about, and Joe replied first with “we need to bring the music scene back to Myrtle Beach.” Blake adds, “There’s a lot of talent here. People need to see it.” Natalie explains, “There are a lot of original bands around town, and there were a couple of venues, but they keep closing down.” The band hopes more venues will open up to bringing in regional acts.

Doctrine of Ethos is currently working on an album, and they hope to have it finished within the month. For more information about Doctrine of Ethos, show dates, and songs, visit reverbnation.com/doctrineofethos. Also visit them on Facebook.

 

Photo Credit: Doctrine of Ethos