Photo by Viviana Garcia
Audio By Carbonatix
The four local musicians who make up Chained Saint follow a long tradition of teenagers drawn in by the high speed, loud volume, and dark, angsty lyrics of heavy metal.
“We first met in music school when I was 13,” now-17-year-old guitarist Ethan Kahn tells New Times over Zoom.
After years of bonding over a love of Metallica and Slayer, the quartet comprised of Kahn, singer Sean Sterling, drummer Cameron Cottrell, and bassist Sebastian De Avila started playing in Kahn’s family’s garage in Parkland in 2022. “We’d play covers of the big four thrash bands. I’d jammed with a lot of people, but with these three, I connected,” Kahn remembers.
Kahn was in algebra class when he came up with the name Chained Saint. “We had a placeholder name that was pretty bad. Then, I came up with a list of 15 names. Chained Saint stuck out for everyone.” What was the bad placeholder name? “Bangtail,” Kahn says, still somewhat embarrassed.
What is now a twice-a-week ritual, band practice started as an everyday thing. Kahn’s father was quickly intrigued by the sounds pouring out of his home garage. He recorded a video of Chained Saint playing and sent it to his old friend, William DuVall, the vocalist and guitarist of Alice in Chains. “He was like, ‘Should I tell my kid to cut his hair and play sports instead?'” Kahn shares, but DuVall was similarly impressed and invited the band to Atlanta, where he could produce their debut album, Blindside. “We recorded at his studio every day for four weeks,” Kahn says. “He taught us to make a wall of sound rather than just relying on tricks.”
Cottrell was also moved by the recording experience, adding, “Working with William in the studio was a great learning experience. I learned to pull back the tempo of most of the songs in the studio with him. It gave me different perspectives on playing and songwriting.”
Bookers both in and out of town have enjoyed Blindside enough that Chained Saint has some pretty prestigious gigs lined up. Over the holidays, they’ll fly to Los Angeles to play at Whisky a Go Go. In May, they’ll drive up to Daytona Beach to perform as part of Rockville, the music festival that features big names like Korn and Green Day.
Before that, Chained Saints is set to headline a show a bit closer to home at the Arion Event Center in Pompano Beach on Friday, December 27. “Seeing everyone support each other is great,” bassist De Avida says. “We always want to get people moshing at our shows. We’ll go to a local show, see what works for other bands, and keep that in mind for our writing process.”
Sterling, who is now studying music at the University of Miami, concurs, “Down here, we’ve been around Latin music and all these random genres. I love showing our videos and getting feedback from other musicians. It pushes my creative brain.”
Though Blindside just came out in August, Chained Saint is already working on new songs for an EP. “We’re trying to bring metal to the masses,” Sterling says. “It’s interesting to compare how we’re changing. It’s definitely a much more hardcore approach. The three songs we have finished are pretty tough.”
The band is aiming high, with members saying the goal is to play stadiums and Super Bowl halftime shows. For now, they can be content listening to their music while they play video games. Their song “Animosity” can be heard in the wrestling game WWE 2K24. Body slams aren’t too far off from moshing, after all.
Chained Saint. With Revelations, Exigent, and Bubba. 7 p.m. Friday, December 27, at Arion Event Center, 2900 W. Sample Rd., Unit 500, Pompano Beach; instagram.com/arionevent. Tickets cost $10 via checkout.square.site.
