DRAIN Live 2019 - PHOTO CREDIT: Sam Jameson

DRAIN are a rising Santa Cruz, California-based band that play a very specific style of Punk/Hardcore; fittingly described within a recent press release as "Metal-tinged, moshy, Crossover-style Hardcore that's, also, incredibly entertaining." DRAIN's current line-up consists of frontman Sam "Sammy" Ciaramitaro, guitarist Cody Chavez, bassist Justin Rhode, and drummer Tim "Timmy" Flegal, who have previously played with Gulch and Hands of God. Honestly, the best way I can think to describe DRAIN's sound is if you were to combine the fresh, feverish nature of Henry Rollins-era Black Flag mashed with the frantic, guitar-heavy Thrash stylings of early Anthrax or Metallica. It appears as though DRAIN formed around 2015 and over the past few years, have been garnering quite the reputation for their insanely fun, hyperactive live shows. Now, following a string of demos, EP's, and live recordings, DRAIN are gearing up to let loose their full-length debut, CALIFORNIA CURSED, on Revelation Records. We've already been treated to a few brain-melting tasters from the album, by way of "Army of One" and "California Cursed" from Promo 2018, as well as recent pummeling 58-second lead-off single, "Sick One."


For their appearance on Axe to Grind last year, DRAIN played "live" renditions of the three aforementioned tracks, along with an as-yet-unreleased composition from CALIFORNIA CURSED entitled "Bad Faith," as well as "Don't Believe The Hype" (no, not a Public Enemy cover!) from their 2017 EP, Time Enough At Last. Just yesterday, DRAIN returned to premiere a band spankin' new track, "Hyper Vigilance," from CALIFORNIA CURSED, via DECIBEL Magazine. "Hyper Vigilance" clocks in at just over two minutes, a bit longer than "Sick One," and even boasts a feature from CALIFORNIA CURSED producer, engineer, and fellow musician Taylor Young. Concerning the creation of CALIFORNIA CURSED, Ciaramitaro explains, "with writing CALIFORNIA CURSED, we kept it very organic and just got into a room together and tossed ideas around until we had songs that we felt were catchy, full of big riffs, and had no filler." DRAIN's next live dates include April 3-4 at United Blood Fest in Richmond, Virginia with Converge, Cold World, Vein, Judiciary & more and April 24-26 at Wild Rose Fest in Calgary, Alberta, Canada with Knocked Loose, Never Ending Game, Regional Justice Center & more. DRAIN's CALIFORNIA CURSED is now available for pre-order on "ocean" blue, exclusive pink, and super-exclusive in-store only green vinyl, via Revelation Records/REVHQ.