Nihilitia Talks Stoner Glam and a Serial Killer They Created

"I had my friend Bob with me just in case he turned out to be a creep," Sara Hussain of Nihilitia told Noisecreep about the first time she met Brad Sheppard, the man who became the percussion behind Nihilitia's sludgy yet soaring sound on their debut album 'Nihilist Militia', which comes out today via Keya Records.

"I had just finished law school and knew the time was right to be in a band again," Sara reflected. So an ad was placed on Craigslist stating, "Have Practice Space. Need Drummer, Guitarist for Armageddon." And with that Brad answered and soon his friend Chris Thomas joined in on the guitar adding a shaking effect of harmonies and echoes that are normally reserved as intersecting waves in 80s songs, not coupled with fuzzed out stoner bass lines-but it works and this is the root of Nihilitia's self-described term "Stoner Glam" for the their unique sound.

In Stoner Glam the guitars take long trips into outer regions which is one of the many elements that separates Nihilitia from the army of stoner bands playing the same recycled Black Sabbath riff. "The differences, however," as Chris technically explains what makes their sound different, "lie in the bass and guitar mix-up. The bass often takes the part of the driving riff, previously voiced by the guitar, and couples it with high-pitched melodic phrasing and effects. Instead of the guitar keeping a persistent thuddy mess going, it jumps on a different melody train with the bass as the steady conductor."

Many of the lyrics on 'Nihilist Militia' have deeply trenched in meanings and stories going but when you dig into the song a serious meaning isn't the crux of the song-it's a good laugh. Take the song 'Lebanese Butcher' which Sara says, "was originally inspired by a real place in Virginia called, what else, Lebanese Butcher. It's a combo eatery and, yep, butcher shop." The band used to stop in the shop to pick up snacks and ended up becoming enchanted by a person working there with eyebrows thick that crossed over his whole forehead. This man behind the counter became a man of myth for the band. "We concocted these scenarios of how that dude dishes out vengeance with his cleaver and then serves up the meat in the restaurant," Sara says.

Eventually this mythical dealer of revenge the band created got more life breathed into him when Sara remembered an old comic book from Mexico called 'Nota Roja'. "In the comic book, another thick-eye browed butcher discovers his wife is cheating on him and planning to kill him, so he offs the woman and her lover." One thing that is fun for Sara is how she relives and enjoys the story the band created every time she sings the song, "Just imagining this guy as the song moves... those big bushy eyebrows." Sarah laughs just picturing the waving mustache above the eyes.