Photo by Adrienne J. Romero / SOC Images.
Amidst the blinding lights of Union City is a studio tucked away on 44th street. While it blends in with the block and many won’t bat an eye, for Graypath band, this is their sanctuary.
And Bryan, who later introduced himself as the vocalist, let us into their sanctuary. The hallways were narrow with beats pounding against the other closed doors; after darting my head towards the noise he smiles, “Yeah, other bands practice here.”
We would’ve easily gotten lost in what felt like a maze, but Bryan was at home. Surrounded by stacked amps and other equipment was the rest of the crew: Danny on drums, Mike on guitar and Pedro on the bass—all Hudson County locals. Already in their stations, they were practicing for their upcoming Jersey shows in September and October, but also especially their Friday, Nov. 1 show in Teaneck with “banger-trucking” local bands (they all laughed after saying this).
Right before they kicked off the practice in a compact room that fit us six, they handed us headphones and insisted we wear them because “it gets pretty f–king loud.”
Graypath is a West New York metalcore and deathcore band, but Bryan told Slice of Culture that they’re tapping into their own sound right now, which sets them apart in Jersey’s “tight-knit” metal scene.
“It’s just really fun to play that kind of sound for [the] homies and fans,” Bryan said in a Zoom interview.
“[Metal] is the overall blanket term [for our sound],” Mike added. “But it is, I would say, very aggressive [and] heavy, but with hints of melodies and stuff like that, we try to keep it fresh and exciting.”
If you dig a little deeper, you’ll find inspiration from metal bands like Northlane, Invent Animate, Soulkeeper, Slip Knot, Killswitch Engage and Whitechapel.
And the band members’ individual tastes soon meshed when they gradually came together about two years ago.
It started with a simple, “Yo, send me something” that Danny asked of Mike back around 2017. They’ve known each other for about 10 years and used to live right around the corner from one another. Mike wrote music as Danny would help put something together to jam to. This fizzled during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, but it started back up a couple of years after with a “Hey, are you still writing?”
Then they wanted to expand.
Danny found Bryan at another studio where Bryan said he was just “screaming in the mic” and that seemed to resonate with Danny from across the hallway. He told Bryan, “You should come jam with me and my buddy Mike at our studio.”
And after those jams, Bryan was dubbed the vocalist and Pedro filled in for bassist.
“I was like, yeah, these dudes are cool. They’re f–king about it,” Mike said. “And then we just stuck with them ever since. And they’ve been great additions. There’s no one else I’d rather share bandwidth with because they’re all great dudes and they’re really good at what they do.
“So I’m like, hell yeah.”
Synergy: it means working together to create something greater than you could do alone. That’s a word Bryan used to describe the feeling at their shows, and it’s also a word one could describe their rehearsal in their Union City studio.
Between quick breaks and sips of cold water, each song they played—including from their debut EP “ABYSM”—vibrated the room with the cumulation of Bryan’s vocals; Danny’s chops; and Mike and Pedro’s heavy, yet warm sounds. Even through the headphones they insisted we wear, we felt immersed in the music.
“It can be exhausting to rehearse our songs, [but] the best part of playing the music live will always be the audience,” Bryan said.
“… You just get to see them and their reaction to the music that you’re playing, and you feed off of that energy and it makes you wanna perform better. And through being able to perform better, they also just love even more the sound that you’re giving off to them, you know? It’s synergy.”
Graypath debuted their sound in their EP just last month on Oct. 10, which could be described as dark, punchy and calm yet aggressive, according to Bryan and Mike.
At the end of the day, Graypath’s passion is metal, their community and Hudson County, New Jersey.
Earlier when asked about the Jersey scene Mike said, “It’s a different kind of beat.”
Graypath will be hitting the stage again tonight, Friday, Nov. 1 for their costumes-encouraged Halloween show at 170 W. Englewood Avenue in Teaneck, NJ. It’s $15 at the door and starts at 7:30 p.m.
