Into the Bonestorm

Four friends bonded together in high school through their love of metal music. Soon after, a transformation from classmates to bandmates unfolded in 2019, introducing the Bonestorm we know and love today. “Heavy metal really drew us together,” states Sergio Mora, the band’s vocalist. “We’ve been friends ever since.”

Bonestorm’s origin story began when Rob Snow, guitarist, created a song and asked Bryan Blanco, drummer, and Michael Palyka, bassist, to bring the song to life. “We had a practice space downtown,” says Mora. “It was a place we could all get together and create music.”

“Black metal is notorious for being satanic but we’re not on stage with goat heads.”

Bonestorm separates practice space from recording space, utilizing the talented services nestled within the Salt Lake Valley. “We record our music with Mike Sasich at Man Vs Music,” Blanco adds, “We track all the instruments together and add vocals after. We like capturing raw sound and the organic feel of it. Mike is awesome, and we love working with him.”

However many variations of black metal there are, Bonestorm threads the individuality of each member within each song to provide a unique sound for their listeners. “We’re nerdy in our particular ways, so we take themes from things like Star Wars or horror films and put those elements into our music, too,” Mora explains. “Black metal is notorious for being satanic but we’re not on stage with goat heads. However, that doesn’t mean we won’t do it at some point.” Bonestorm performed their twentieth, goat head-less show at Aces High Saloon on August 17, opening for Anvil. This show follows the release of their new EP, EP II. “There were a lot of emotions that went into the release of this EP, like anxiety and joy,” says Snow, “because you’re watching all of your hard work come to fruition.”

“Tell your parents to buy the new Bonestorm or go to hell!”

“We also had people asking why we weren’t putting out anything new,” adds Palyka. “It was pretty cool to add two more songs onto Spotify and then make tapes for it.” That’s right, Bonestorm has cassette tapes—and they’re red! This collector’s item is available to all metal lovers, or collectors, around the world. “Tell your parents to buy the new Bonestorm or go to hell!” exclaims Palyka.

And although Hell would be a neat venue for a band like Bonestorm, their plans for touring won’t start until next spring. “We want to start getting our feet wet when it comes to touring, and explore the surrounding states for maybe a weekend or two, or go up and down the West Coast,” states Snow, as the band has yet to tour. And although they are taking the month of September off for shows, they plan for October to be twice as epic.

Give Bonestorm’s EP II a listen, available across all streaming platforms now, and follow them on Instagram @bonestormslc. 

Read more interviews with local metal bands:
Localized: Debrider 
Localized: In Your Grave