After the death of Kourcklas, who died in a motorcycle accident, the band retooled its lineup for its second album, Break ‘Em.
“Our second album was more robust on the rock ‘n’ roll and saturated with guitar solos,” says Vazquez in a recent conference call with guitarist Tommy Farkas. “We found a singer who has a lighter approach with his vocals, but he can also do the screaming and gained [guitarist] Tommy [Farkas] as well, who was Marc’s best friend. Now, we’re ten years older, and we write more complex, more methodical compositions at this point. It’s really cool. We have a different sound, though it’s still rock. It slows down and creates more anticipation.”
The new lineup has been focused on a four EP series. It delivered the first EP, A Love Once Lost, in 2021. Forgotten Tales and Turmoil followed. Heartache, the final EP in the series, comes out next month. Each EP has five tracks.
“We initially thought we would release all four of them within a year,” says Vazquez. “We were writing our butts off. By the time we had five songs well-rehearsed and into the studio and recorded, a year had passed. It was a year-after-year process. We would write the five best songs and detail them out the best they could and then put them on the record. We wanted more material, but you can’t rush art.”
The group came up with the concept of the framework and sketched out the way that the EPs would follow one another.
“One EP would sound heavier, and one would sound lighter,” says Farkas. “We wanted the music to fit with the artwork. We didn’t know what songs would fill those slots. We knew we wanted four EPs, and we just went to the drawing board.”
The combined title of all the EPs suggest the concept.
“It’s Forgotten Tales of Heartache and Turmoil and Loved Ones Lost,” says Vazquez. “It’s a big umbrella-type of concept. You think about the times of the past and the glory days and the people you used to know and how life has carried you to a new place of nostalgia. You can just look back at the things you’ve learned and the people you connected with it.”
Local tattoo artist Damian James provided the graphics for the releases and for the associated merch.
“He’s a phenomenal artist,” says Farkas. “We sent him a list of words and things that interested us. We put down that [drummer] DJ [Smith] likes to play chess, so there is a big chess piece in the middle when you put all four of the quadrants together. We like girls, so there are females are on there. He ran with it from there. We didn’t give him too much direction, and he did a phenomenal job.
Drug lord Pablo Escobar’s infamous ultimatum, “plata o’ plomo,” inspired the new EP’s first single, the grunge-y “Silver or Lead.”
“I was watching the Netflix show Narcos and that scene with Pablo Escobar came up where he says ‘silver or lead,’” says Farkas. “[Singer] Mikey [Patton] and Dennis [Smith] were in the control room. They just ran with it. It was a seed that was planted. Mikey wrote some cool lyrics around it.”
One highlight in the band’s career came two summers ago when the group performed at Inkcarceration, the annual metal festival held at the Ohio State Reformatory in Mansfield. The band will perform at the festival again this year when it returns to the historic location.
“The sound on that stage is amazing,” says Farkas when asked about the experience. “They had it set up really well. We were playing in the shadow of Shawshank Prison, and the whole vibe of it was pretty spectacular. We played with [the hard rock act] Highly Suspect, and Megadeth played that weekend too. To have your name on that bill is pretty damn cool. Each year is stylistically a little different. We fit the bill this year, and we’re super pumped about this.”
In addition, the group won the Cleveland Music Awards a second time this past year, and the band also just finished three songs that didn’t make the EPs. Those will be released before the year’s end.
“Right when we got done with the fourth EP, we just kept writing and recorded three new songs locally at Mercinary Studios with our friend Noah [Buchanon],” says Farkas. “We just laid down the vocals last night, and the songs sound phenomenal.”
Last year, the group played an acoustic show at Brothers Lounge, and it’ll continue the tradition this year and perform on Aug. 29 at the club.
“We play unplugged versions of the songs and give them a different spin,” says Farkas. “It’s a really great show.” 
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This article appears in Cleveland SCENE 06/05/25 Best of Cleveland.
