AERITH is the up and coming Melodic Death Metal band the world doesn’t deserve and all fans of the genre should be watching right now. Equipped with Aborted drummer Ken Bedene, vocalist Aaron Green, and bassist Frank Bedene – they’re a highly talented and well connected band that brings out all the stops. EVERY track has a prominent feature from across the metal scene and it has already amounted in so much greatness when, in reality, they’re only getting started!
To date, they’ve launched 2 EPs and they’re currently gearing up to release an all new single featuring Scott Carstairs and Antonio Palermo of Fallujah! Prepare yourselves for the release of that on 7/10. Better yet – just prepare yourselves in general because there will be more where that came from!
In the meantime, we’ve kept up tradition and conducted a new and nerdy interview with the band’s vocalist Aaron Green. You can read it over here and enjoy some of the band’s previous music across this page:
First of all, have you been safe with everything going on right now?
Aaron – Yes, we are safe and have been doing well. Thank you for asking. We have been fortunate during the pandemic that it hasn’t reached the area in our county. It has been VERY minimal in our area of positive Covid-19 cases. So we are very thankful for that and just been doing our part by staying at home, continuing to stay healthy and safe and trying to counter the “insanity” of the paranoia and boredom that came with the stay at home order by staying creative and writing the new material and recording. Thank you for asking, and we hope you and your followers have also stayed safe and are doing well.
Let’s take it back to a better time… It’s the year 1999 and you just walked into a Blockbuster… What are we renting?
Aaron – Oh man! Good question! Probably a PS1 game of some kind or a movie I had seen a million times more than likely haha. I would rent Resident evil 2 and 3 a lot and smash through them before they were due back, or I would get games like FF7, FF8 or FF9 or Legends of Dragoon a lot.
Back on topic… What is next on the plate for AERITH!?
Aaron – Well by the time this interview comes out our new single “For the Fallen” should be released or close to it! After this single we have a few more singles we are getting done and prepared to be released. We have been working very hard on the new material and all that’s left to do on a few of them are just bass and drums. After that’s done, we will be sending them off to get mixed and mastered! They all have AMAZING guest spots that we know will blow everyone away!
What can fans expect musically from the NEW SINGLE?
Aaron – Everyone can expect a lot of melodic death metal nostalgia from our influences, some new elements we added and things you can still expect to hear from before in our past material. Ken really put out all the stops on this one, the guy is just a genius at writing those melodic death metal riffs, dual harmonies and huge chorus sections that just give you that nostalgic feel of old In Flames! We hope everyone enjoys it and find it worthy of their ear-holes. You can also expect two AWESOME guest spots from our friends Scott Carstairs and Antonio Palermo of Fallujah who were kind enough to lend us their talents and be a part of the track! We also went back to our very good friend Mendel bij de Leij who mixed and mastered our release from last year “The Cosmic Winds”. Also I would like to announce, the new single will be released on July/10/20 available on all streaming platforms and over at our bandcamp!
You had mentioned a particular theme to this track when we were talking earlier… Can you expand on that?
Aaron – Yeah, absolutely! So, since the launch of the project back in 2018 following the release of our first self-titled EP, one question always kept coming up the past two years from many of our fans. We would see it in the comments of our Facebook page, our direct messages, in youtube comments and on shared post of the project through media sites. The question was “Are you guys going to at any point do anything Final Fantasy 7 themed?” At this point, everyone knows the projects name “Aerith” is based on, and is a tribute to the character from Final Fantasy 7 and was also named in tribute to the Game. With the release of the Final Fantasy 7 Remake that was looming around the corner, I decided to play the original PS1 version of Final Fantasy 7 to get reacquainted again with the story and character’s to get ready and amped-up for the Remakes release since it wasn’t out yet by that time. While replaying the game we were working on the new single and when it came time to writing lyrics for the track I was in the midst of the 2nd act (Disc 2) of FF7, and I just got really, really inspired by the story again, going through memories as a kid playing it, playing it with Ken and staying up late when I shouldn’t on a school night wanting to get as far as I could because I wanted to get further in the story! So, during the writing the lyrics I started writing about my own interpretation of the love and connection between Aerith and Zack who are two characters that die tragically in the story of Final Fantasy 7. The further into the game I got the lyrics became more of a inspiration from my interpretation of the love and connection between these two characters and then after the completion of the lyrics it felt like a tribute to them as well. So, I ended up naming the track “For the Fallen” since the lyrical theme was coming out that way. So this in many ways it is a tribute to those characters, the projects namesake, a tribute to the game and celebration to the Remakes release and to the fans who requested us to do something Final Fantasy 7 themed. It was also a small part of me having fun as well and “nerding out”. So, this one is to our fans of the project and to those who love Metal and Final Fantasy 7! Cheers to you all, hope you guys like what we came up with!
You had also mentioned a new shirt design to go with – can you expand on that?
Aaron – Sure! Well Ken and myself really wanted to go for something simple yet wanted something made it apparent what the design was representing and who, who being again the two characters Zack and Aerith. I came across a artist named Chris Gerber on instagram based in Australia. His instagram page is “blvckxsun” he is an amazing guy to work with. I told him about my idea of the theme and how I thought we could approach it with his style and was all in with the Final Fantasy 7 references and he did a fantastic job, I highly recommend going and checking him out if you have a band or business and are in need of some artwork. So in the design there is the Buster Sword that once belonged to Zack that in his final moments he passed on to Cloud to be his loving legacy. Then their is the flower that Aerith gave to Cloud in the slums after blowing up the first reactor in the beginning of the game and also is the type of flower that she grows in her garden at the church in the slums of Midgar where she meets both Zack and Cloud. Then there is the White Materia under the Buster Sword and Flower that also belonged to Aerith. The White Materia was used to speak directly with the Planet and once the Planet receives the message, the Materia glows green. It is used to summon the “Ultimate White Magic”, Holy, which summons the full power of the Planet to protect the continuation and harmony of life. So it felt fitting to have these 3 things in the design to represent those characters and the parts those items play in the story. We did not want the design to be to detailed, we felt something simple would work well for the single’s cover art that could also be a t-shirt design. We hope everyone likes it! We got a limited run of 30 shirts each for all sizes up to XXL-2, limited run of 30 12×12″ posters of the design on Aurora White Art Paper which can be signed upon request if wanted. Also, with any purchase of a shirt you will get a free sticker and download of the New single, we will have a “Ultimate Bundle” available we are working on at the moment.
Given your namesake, the FINAL FANTASY VII REMAKE is out! Thoughts?
Aaron – I got 8 words “Absolutely Fantastic, breathtaking and was worth the wait!!” 10/10 rating from me! It was so amazing and done beautifully from the graphics, gameplay to the soundtrack and story in my opinion. The battle system took a minute to get used to but once I got used to it, I was immersed in every moment of the game. I was in pure bliss playing it! There was so many moments of Nostalgia that came back to me from when I was a kid playing it the MANY times I have and with the new story elements they put in it felt also new and refreshing almost as if you were playing it for the first time! So, for a long time fan of that game am VERY satisfied and every single anticipation and expectation for me was met! I can’t wait for part 2! I think the one thing that was weird for me was the voice actor for Sephiroth, even though it wasn’t horrible and ruined anything for me I just wish they brought back the voice actor from Advent Children and Crisis Core. That guy set the PERFECT tone of what o felt Sephiroth sounded like! But either way it was good! I loved it and the new voice actor for Sephiroth did a good job as well.
On that note – what are your thoughts / hopes for the next generation of gaming? See that Unreal 5 demo?
Aaron – I did see the Unreal 5 demo and I was blown away! I hope that’s really what to expect! It looks amazing. My hope would be that innovation, imagination and storytelling continues to progress in game developing and also continues to thrive along with graphics and gameplay to help excel the experience of the stories being told and vice versa. Also, the PS5 reveal happened the other week and I watched it and I am extremely excited and will be putting my pre-order in immediately when they announce when they are taking pre-orders. The Demon Souls Remake and Resident Evil 8 VILLAGE both look so amazing.
Let’s throw it back – if you could choose any game console pre-2000 – what would it be and why?
Aaron – PS1 and Sega hands down! I grew up with a Sega Genesis playing games like the Sonic games, Mortal Kombat 1,2 and 3, Road Rash, Altered Beast, Toe Jam and Earl, Earthworm Jim, The Bevis and Butthead game, Shaq-Fu (the Shaquille O’neal game) and many more I could name! Then my mom got me a PS1 in 1998 for my birthday and my first games were Resident Evil 2, Final Fantasy 7 (I traded a friend for a few of my rare holographic Pokémon cards for cause he didn’t like FF7) Duke Nukem 3D, Final Fantasy 7 and Mortal Kombat 4 and man that changed everything !!!! 1998 was the year gaming became apart of me and my interest in stories and introduced me to people in that community that were connected into other communities like music, D&D, magic the gathering and more, and because of that love of video games it became a huge part of me and Ken becoming friends when we met because we had that in common. We both loved video games of all kinds and when that helped pave the way to a 20 year friendship, ken introduced me to Metal music and D&D and then well…here we are! Ken, His dad Frank and myself making Melodic Death Metal in a project named after a video game we love!
After the new single, what’s next for AERITH?
Aaron – Well we have 11 track totally (including the new Single and a Cover) and all of them have a guest spot in some shape or form and 4 of which have vocals recorded and just need bass and drums. We plan to have another single or two that shall be out and completed as soon as the fall, we have artwork for a few singles done and possible a 3 track EP. We are still working on it as we move along and talking about how to release the material. In any case we will have good stuff for everyone to enjoy music and merch wise! We will also be pushing the production even further in the coming new material to come, we want everything to sound bigger, more nostalgic, more cinematic, more powerful and atmospheric!! We have a lot of very cool ideas we are working on and we have all intentions to give our fans our absolute best ability to give them something special!
Anything you want to say to all the folks out there before we wrap?
Aaron – First I want to say thank you to our featured guests on our new single Scott Carstairs and Antonio Palermo of Fallujah, they were super fun and easy to work with, they gave their spots 120% and made the track their own in their own right! We really appreciate them taking the time to work with us and liking the music enough to do so and we really appreciate their patience as we worked on the track after they recorded their spots. I also would like the thank Mendel bij de Leij for again taking the helm to mix and master the single and giving us his production touch and taking in a our notes and thoughts on the mix! The new single for the “Fallen the Fallen” will be a available on all streaming platforms and our bandcamp July/10/20. A huge shout out to our fans, we would not still be doing this project and giving it our all if not for you guys and keeping the flame of creativity and inspiration lit to create a style of metal we love dear to our hearts! Thank you to you guys at the Circle Pit for your continuous support of Aerith and helping us get the word out and giving such awesome interviews. We love all you guys! Thank you again Circle Pit!
