Chained Saint, Thrash Metal High Schoolers Grabbing the Torch

For any genre of music to survive and thrive, young people need to be the ones at the forefront to take the torch. Few bands feel as perfectly ready for that role as front-runners than South Florida thrash metal quartet Chained Saint.

Each of the four members have known each other through school and in 2022 decided they would go for it, forming the band as it’s known today. Their tenacity and focus on honing their songwriting has resulted in catching the metal world at large’s attention with their breakout track “Animosity.”

In just a month, it has racked up hundreds of thousands of streams, a triumph for any band’s first single, let alone a new thrash band in 2024. It was the right opening salvo for their full-length debut record Blindside, which was released at the tail end of August on Patriark Records.

Their energy caught the attention of Alice In Chains‘ William DuVall, who produced the record. Instead of giving the band a major label-sounding overly produced polish, DuVall helped capture the band as they are, meaning a group of kids who want to shred out hard-as-hell riffs in their garage. Tracks such as “Corrupt to the Core” help build a bridge from thrash’s ’80s golden age to now, as each member has the chops to keep up with any band of adults from back then.

Chained Saint sitting in group photo

Viviana Garcia

Most apparently is guitarist Ethan Kahn, who shreds out extremely punishing and impressive riffs, able to pull off a solo with confidence and ease. Singer Sean Sterling commands a massive presence on the mic, bassist Sebastian De Avila knocks out some serious grooves and drummer Cameron Cottrell seriously beats the absolute hell out of his kit.

When we met with the band, they had just gotten out of class for the day. Behind Kahn were posters of massive metal classics, such as Death’s The Sound of Perserverence and Black Sabbath‘s Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, while De Avila rocked a Mindforce shirt and Cottrell a $uicideboy$ shirt, all small clues as to the many wide influences and styles that help inform the band’s approach to crafting metal.

So of course, we started with school.

Chained Saint, “Animosity”

So, clear up something for me. In my mind, as someone who’s older, I assume that heavy metal is kind of on an island for young people, let alone thrash metal. Is that your experience as an actual high schooler?

Ethan Kahn: I’d actually say there’s a really good amount of people our age that do enjoy this music, especially thrash metal. Most people can get into metal and it doesn’t feel like an island or like it’s stranded away from other genres. I met these guys through that love of music, so that’s cool.

That’s good to hear. Do you remember a specific first record that you heard that got you into metal?

Cam Cottrell: Yes. Ride the Lightning.

Ethan: I was more of a Master of Puppets guy, but Ride the Lightning was one of those albums that totally launched me to where I’m at now. What about you, Sebastian?

Sebastian: Oh, I would say Ride the Lightning as well. It’s the first metal album I listened to front to back.

It’s hard to go wrong with that. You recorded Blindside with William DuVall. Talk to me about where your head was at while recording it.

Ethan: We really just wanted to get the purest version of us that we can get, so we weren’t too focused on little, little tiny things like where I’m going to put the mic on the amp. We went through the process, but we just wanted listeners to get to know us, like when we’re in the garage practicing. I think it came out that way.

Buda Mendes, Getty Images

What were some of the things William brought to the table that resonated? Was there any specific advice you took?

Ethan: He definitely had advice. If he had an idea, he’d tell us and he’d guide us with knowing what can make a song better and things like that. I don’t think there’s a single EMG pickup on the record which most people wouldn’t guess. I played the whole thing with Gibsons and some German brand guitar and he was like, “Trust me, this will give you a full, big sound” and I love it now.

Sean, how did you feel once you heard the final mixes?

Sean Sterling: I was feeling pretty solid. I was listening to it less from a singer’s perspective and more from like a producer’s perspective. I sat down and closed my eyes and just let it soak in because you know it’s a critical listen. After we send it off, it’s being mastered and they’re not tampering with the mixes. I think that William and Tom Tapley (engineer) got it straight on point. They hit the nail right on the head. So I’m happy with it.

As a guitarist, how do you know when a riff is good?

Ethan: [Laughs] … I might have used this analogy once before. I know the riff is good when… [Laughs] oh man, I see Sebi laughing already. He knows. I know the riff is good when Sebi really messes with it. When he’s going crazy in the garage, I know that riff is good because it’s got to be a heavy hitter to get the reaction.

Sebastian: [Laughs] That’s true. That’s true… I’m not very animated typically, but if a riff is really good…

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What’s Ethan’s best riff?

Sebastian: That’s pretty funny. I would say the best riff that he’s written, it’s not on the record, it’s on one of the newer songs we have.

Ethan: If you had to pick one off the record, what would it be?

Sebastian: Hmm… I would say “Free Reign.” That riff is very cool. I remember when we were writing it, it was very creative for me because there’s like a lot of like tempo switches all over the place. But I would say that one’s like very good, especially in the intro everything cuts out and it’s just his guitar and there’s this weird gallop thing, I remember hearing it for the first time like, Yeah, that’s sick.” So yeah, I would say that.

Chained Saint, “Free Reign”

Sean, what were you most proud of and what lessons did you learn?

Sean: I was most proud of being able to track vocals for eight songs in seven days. I am most proud of myself to get in lock in and get it done. I’m also learning, especially recording to tape, that it’s okay to strip down the amount of tracks you use.

With tape, it forced me to sing better because because William gave me the rundown that you have two tracks max to double if you would like, so we’re going to have to get these two tracks to be perfect ones and then we’re going to have to comp it down to one.

So hearing that kind of forced me to get a good performance out. The biggest lesson I learned was to put limits. It makes you better.

What players are you guys looking up to in terms of inspiration?

Ethan: I’ve had multiple ones as I’ve gotten older and kind of progressed. I had a couple of years where my only goal was to be like John Petrucci or just any member of Dream Theater.

Sebastian: Same as Ethan — it’s changed a lot. Lately I’ve been really into Eric English from Kublai Khan.

Cameron: I would say my top three on drums… No. 1 is definitely Dave Grohl. No. 2 is Igor Cavalera and three is Lars [Ulrich]. Honestly, a lot of people like to give him hate, but man, those songs on the early records are amazing.

In terms of live shows, have there been any shows you’ve seen that have felt particularly inspiring or impactful?

Cameron: Yeah, I saw Tool this year in January. It was probably the best show I’ve seen and I’ve seen them three times but this just hit different. It was really good.

Ethan: I don’t think it’d be my favorite one, but I was at that same show and now Tool is a band for me that I just need to see live [every time]. They’re probably my favorite band live. In terms of something more fun, we all went to Orlando and saw Drain. It was super sick.

Sebastian: Yeah. I went to this year’s LDB Fest in Kentucky, it’s a hardcore fest and I’d say that one for sure. It was really fun and impactful.

It feels like metal and hardcore are in a nice place right now where both kind of feed off of each other. Drain especially. It’s insane how just stoked he is onstage.

Ethan: Yeah, that’s who he is 90 percent of the time. My favorite thing is just watching him run across the stage.

So, you’ve got the record out, what’s the next move for the band?

Ethan: Definitely going full steam ahead with the shows and, if we could, do a tour to get this album off the ground. And then maybe getting back in the studio because we have some new songs that we really want to get tracked, so that’ll be somewhere in the future.

To cap things off, for each of you: what are your five desert island albums?

Ethan: Man that’s hard. I’d definitely put Tool’s Lateralus, and Alice In Chains’ Dirt because that’s such a top-to-bottom good record. Would also put the Casiopea self-titled, Mirror Might Steal Your Charm by The Garden, and Blood Sugar Sex Magick by Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Sebastian: Right now it would be Sepultura‘s Chaos A.D., Death’s Human, Trapped Under Ice’s Big Kiss Goodnight, Dying Fetus‘ Reign Supreme and Hatebreed‘s Satisfaction Is the Death of Desire.

Cameron: I’d also go Alice In Chains’ Dirt, and Sublime‘s 40oz to Freedom. I’d also put on Soft Parade by The Doors, Soundgarden‘s Badmotorfinger, and Tool’s Lateralus cause it’s such a long album.