For 16 years, heavy metal band Fister has brought its own brand of doom metal to fans internationally and in St. Louis. The band's latest album, “Graceless,” was released last month under vocalist and bassist Kenny Snarzyk’s record label Possession Press. Snarzyk told St. Louis on the Air that he and his bandmates, guitarist and vocalist Marcus Newstead and drummer Kirk Gatterer, create music for themselves first — which in turn, brings fans to their work.
“I think it’s easier to do in [doom metal] because you don’t have any disillusion you’re going to do the Super Bowl Halftime Show,” he said. “There’s a certain freedom in that, where it’s like, ‘OK, we’re going to just do what we want to anyways. If enough people like it, great.’ It’s always going to be a cult following-type situation.”
Snarzyk said that many longtime Fister supporters became fans by way of music blogs of the late aughts and 2010s, as well as a makeshift residency at the now-closed music venue Fubar in Midtown.
“Those blog pages were pretty big. People would share albums, and we were on some of the bigger ones on accident,” he said. “We also practiced in the basement of Fubar at the time. We were just the band that was in the basement, and we’d be asked, ‘You want to open that show?’ I’m like, ‘Sure. We don’t even have to drive anywhere.’”
Music fans who aren’t as hip to heavy metal and all its subgenres may miss the lyricism and storytelling in Fister’s work. Snarzyk said the song “The Abrogation of All” is a continuation of a thread the band has followed since its 2012 album “Violence.”
“[‘Violence’] was in five parts, and each section was a different focus on the violence of mankind. The beginning is the forced extinction of the Neanderthal. By Part 5, it’s essentially a massive asteroid hitting the planet, scattering us back into the heavens,” he said. “After that EP, here and there we would release another song that was an ongoing continuation of that [theme]. [‘The Abrogation of All’] is the last continuation of that, and we’re like … ‘What if there is some force completely nullifying any law of nature whatsoever?’”
Snarzyk believes that “Graceless” is one of the band’s best albums and that hearing it performed live gives audiences a different appreciation for their music.
“Live, it’s loud. I feel like it’s got a different feel to it. I think that a lot of bands are like that. I might not have necessarily dug a certain band’s album, and then I saw them live, and I’m like, ‘Oh, I get it,’” he said.
Snarzyk added that the metal scene looks different than what general audiences may expect.
“People that don’t pay attention [may] picture concert footage from the '80s, where it was a bunch of cavemen. I feel like there’s some friendly cavemen now, [and] it’s a very welcoming atmosphere these days,” he said. “The music is very loud and abrasive, but everybody’s got a smile on their face — in the audience at least.”
For more with Fister’s Kenny Snarzyk, including his and his bandmates love of language and a crash course on heavy metal, listen to St. Louis on the Air on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube or click the play button below.
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What: Rwake, Fister and Cloud Machine
When: 7 p.m. Nov. 13
Where: Red Flag, 3040 Locust St., St. Louis, MO 63103
“St. Louis on the Air” brings you the stories of St. Louis and the people who live, work and create in our region. The show is produced by Miya Norfleet, Emily Woodbury, Danny Wicentowski, Elaine Cha and Alex Heuer. Darrious Varner is our production assistant. The audio engineer is Aaron Doerr.
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