The co-founders of Ninth Realm — drummer Joey Burke and guitarist Liam McMahon — say their band’s dramatic thrash metal originates in a surprisingly quiet place. But thematically? You can’t make this stuff up. “We met at the University of Maryland in a medieval history class,” says McMahon. “Very on brand for Ninth Realm. We were both wearing metal shirts and sat next to each other.”
After class, the duo began writing songs and recruiting bandmates from area metal and hardcore punk circles, aggressively mixing styles and traditions, eventually deciding on their sound by deciding whom it was for. “Ninth Realm is a band for hardcore kids who are into Iron Maiden or Manowar,” Burke says. “I want to bring the aesthetic and style of traditional heavy metal to the Maryland hardcore scene” — the same way that “Iron Age, Eternal Champion or even Power Trip did in Texas.”
Accordingly, Ninth Realm’s searing new album, “A Fate Unbroken,” sounds poised and sure-footed, even if band members are still figuring out where they stand in the region’s heavy music ecosystem. “Crossover isn’t a new idea, we’re not reinventing the wheel, but it’s funny how often we ask ourselves where we fit,” says guitarist Charles House. “We’ll play a few metal shows and be like, ‘Maybe we’re more of a hardcore band.’ Then we’ll play a few hardcore shows and be like, ‘Oh, we’re definitely a [expletive] metal band!’”
Thematically, things aren’t as ambiguous. Along with his blood-and-thunder drumming, Burke serves as Ninth Realm’s lyricist and conceptualist, describing the group as an extension of a fantasy universe he plans to flesh out in novels and comics set in a fictional world called Tythorin (Burke and House originally met through mutual connections at Big Planet Comics on U Street NW). “Obviously, writing an epic fantasy novel takes forever, and I’m not there with the skill level,” says Burke. For now, “writing lyrics for Ninth Realm is a way to express this story I want to tell.”
Is the band’s sound a type of world, too? A space between hardcore and metal? Or, more fundamentally, a zone between reality and fantasy? “Just as a person playing the music, I feel like escapism is a [necessary] part of my life,” House says. “It’s a weird time to be alive, so being honest and expressing yourself feels good. But it feels good to be in this fantasy band, too.”
