Dan Pevide is living a life devoted to metal.
At the age of six, this Fall River native was introduced to bands like KISS, Motley Crue, Metallica and Megadeth. But before he reached high school he was a disciple of the intense sounds of death metal, a genre he describes as “brutal and extreme.”
As the vocalist for multiple death metal outfits, Pevide has played throughout America with bands such as Head Rot, Anoxia, Deathlehem, and Leukorrhea. And since 1996 he has booked metal bands to play shows throughout New England, including many of death metal’s most prominent acts.
Pevide is currently the vocalist for the bands Goreality and Deciphering the Algorithm, and since July of last year he has been booking the Metal Mondays concert series at Rasputin’s Tavern in Fairhaven, bringing in a variety of metal styles from throughout the region. The shows are free, and guests can enjoy food and drink during the evening.
This Monday, Metal Mondays will bring the bands Voices Carry Spells, Dawn of End, and Sauriel to Rasputin’s. Voices Carry Spells and Sauriel are based in New Bedford while Dawn of End is from New Hampshire.
But while Pevide is a devoted proponent of death metal, not all of the bands who he books for Metal Mondays are of that particular metal style. He also books bands that play black metal, thrash and hardcore.
According to Pevide, death metal is an acquired taste, a language all its own. For the uninitiated, the guttural vocal delivery and significantly distorted guitars may seem like an indiscernible sheen of sound, but Pevide invites people to look into it a little further.
“A lot of people don’t understand death metal until they start looking into it and get familiar with it,” he says. “They may realize that there’s a lot of talent involved in making this music. There’s a level of curiosity because it’s so odd and unusual.”
Pevide got his start as a death metal vocalist in his freshman year at Diman Vocational High School in Fall River. He signed up to be a guitar player in an afterschool music program, but since there were so many students who wanted to play guitar, Pevide opted for singing. It was a decision that would affect the trajectory of his life.
While the death metal genre is often affiliated with the demonic and the occult, Pevide claims that death metal bands sing about a wide spectrum of topics that include science fiction, hidden societies, sex, drug use and modern religion.
“A lot of people don’t understand what the singers are saying but if they know the lyrics they will start to get it.”
Next Monday’s concert will be the second gig for Voices Carry Spells with their new vocalist Justin St. Pierre. The band is in the process of recording original material.
This will be Sauriel’s second show since their recentreformation. Monday’s set will include three new songs and four cuts from their 2012 album, “Akasha.” The band splintered 11 years ago when the members pursued other life goals but regrouped in 2019.
“The chemistry was great from our first time back, it was like we didn’t miss a step,” says Sauriel vocalist Jon Helme. “We stayed friends after we broke up and getting back together was something that was always on our minds.”
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