Cleveland's Lower 13 To Celebrate 20th Anniversary with Foundry Concert

As the local melodic groove/prog/thrash metal band Lower 13 approached its 20^th anniversary, drummer Eric Kruger says he wanted to do something to mark the occasion.

“It’s a long time, and I knew we had to commemorate this milestone and assemble the right lineup of bands to celebrate,” he says in an email. “We have always mixed different metal styles together in our music.”

He feels that Druparia, Khandria and Throbber, the bands that will share the bill with Lower 13 when it plays a 20^th anniversary party on Saturday, March 21, at the Foundry, reflect Lower 13’s diversity.

“Our brothers in Druparia were my first thought, and for those that don’t know, they are a killer blend of old school melodic death metal and thrash,” he says. “Khandria is a newer band that I’ve had my eye on for a while now, and I really dig what they’re doing — I would say proggy groove metal somewhere between Tool and Disturbed. My drummer buddy Nick [Cetrone] is in a relatively new band called Throbber, and it has been more than 10 years since he and I got to play a show together. They remind me of [the Cleveland metal act] Chimaira and a lot of the New Wave of American Heavy Metal style bands of the early 2000s.”

Kruger says the band chose to perform at the Foundry because the venue is “like home.”

“We’ve been playing there since our high school days going back to 2007 when it was still the Hi Fi club in Lakewood,” he says. “We’ve been fortunate to play many amazing shows there over time, and we knew this celebration had to be there”

The group has an EP that’s due out later this year.

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