Artist Profile: PeelingFlesh Talk Friendship, Inspiration, and Meow-Meow

“Meow-meow” is one of the many ways in which Oklahoma’s PeelingFlesh would characterize their brutally infectious and groovy style of music, according to vocalist Damonteal Harris. The multifaceted slam outfit has shot to underground notoriety in the metal scene since its inception in 2021 and is currently on its biggest tour yet, lighting up the stage with extreme metal giants Lorna Shore, Shadow of Intent, and The Black Dahlia Murder.

Sitting on the sidewalk behind the New England Metal and Hardcore Festival’s Nuclear Blast stage, it soon became clear that the PeelingFlesh experience offstage consisted of good weed, smart humor, and even better company. Reflecting on the start of their tour, guitarist Mychal Soto noted his appreciation for the opportunity to tour with the aforementioned bands.

“They asked us — I don’t know how they thought that was a good idea, but somehow they thought it was a great idea, and now we’re playing stupid music in front of too many people,” Soto said in an interview with The Crimson.

Placing jokes aside, vocalist Harris commented on the enormity of playing at such a large magnitude, making note of the fact that lead guitarist of Lorna Shore, Adam de Micco, told him that he still gets nervous before performances.

“That’s good,” Harris said. “That’s good to know that none of us bleed mercury.”

After providing insight into touring at this level, the band took the time to explain exactly what “slam” is, and what it means as a style of music to them.

“It’s groove. It’s groovy. It’s got a head bob,” Soto said.

He went on to explain how rhythm changes create that energy.

“Tempos change — changes the vibe; it pulls an emotion. It makes you feel like you’re at a fun house party with some friends back in high school, you know what I mean?”

It soon became clear that, for PeelingFlesh, one of the virtues of slam is to tap into this collective experience, above all because of the underlying, omnipresent “groove,” as Harris was quick to affirm.

“Your friend just got a new car with a sound system, and now you guys are running around the city, terrorizing everyone; it’s non-stop groove, like [Soto] said, tempo changes, blast beats, gutturals, so many different things, but it all comes back to the groove,” he said.

And it seems that this collective sentiment and understanding of groove transcends the music, as Soto revealed that the band’s pre-show ritual consists of nothing more than hanging out together as any friends would.

“If we’re laughing together, we’re raising the energy together — our vibe is higher together. We love to just be around each other,” he said.

Other than this, however, it’s the band’s collective pride in their Oklahoma roots that is really driving them forward in their conquest of groove.

“It’s like being chosen for your state’s Olympics,” Soto said.

He described the responsibility of representing Oklahoma with a sense of fulfillment.

“It feels like there’s a lot of weight on you, in a good way — something you can feel proud of if it’s executed well,” he added.

Harris also mentioned his appreciation of being able to play festivals, again emphasizing the importance of friendship to the quartet.

“All your friends pull up at 9 a.m., and then we all hang out until 9 a.m.,” he said, laughing.

Regarding creativity and the creative process, guitarist Jason Parrish emphasized his free-flowing approach to production.

“Let the metronome rock and let the ideas just come,” he said.

Harris also talked about his attitude towards vocals, and what makes slam vocals so unique.

“It’s another part of the rhythm,” he said.

From there, Harris explained how he approaches the delivery itself.

“My goal is always to be as unintelligible as possible. I don’t want you to understand what I’m saying. I want to sound like a monster you don’t understand — that’s always the goal,” he said.

What perhaps may come as a surprise to the unfamiliar reader is the extensive role that hip-hop plays in the band’s music.

“It means everything,” Harris said.

He elaborated on how the two worlds collide.

“It’s a little bit of look, a little bit of feel, a little bit of lifestyle. Everything that rap brings and everything that slam brings, we want to meet them in the middle, because they’re both the same thing,” he added, using the analogy of a circle whose ends barely touch to describe the relationship that hip-hop has to slam, stating slam to be the connection between the two ends of the circle, in essence bridging the gap between rap and metal.

This becomes clear in listening to their music, not only because of their clever use of samples, but because of the bounce of the music — the groove, one could say — itself.

Parrish also had some remarks on the subject.

“We didn’t do it to be cool,” he said, recounting how his father introduced him to both styles of music at a young age.

Looking back, Parrish said that exposure came early.

“He would show me metal bands and rap at the same time, and that was when I was like, young, young,” he said.

Soto echoed the same sentiment about the overlap.

“There’s no line [between slam and rap], it’s so blurred that it’s not there,” Soto said.

He framed that overlap as something larger than just sound.

“It’s a culture, and we are the representation of our culture at this moment,” he added.

Interestingly, the band sees their style almost like an “inside joke” within metal, and if it isn’t already apparent to the reader why this is, then it probably never will be. Nevertheless, drummer Joe Pelletier put into words exactly what to expect from a PeelingFlesh performance, epitomizing the humor that runs beneath the band’s skin.

“Stupidity,” he said, dead serious.

—Staff writer Rowan A. G. Whitworth can be reached at rowan.whitworth@thecrimson.com.