Courtesy photo
Since forming in the summer of 2013, Shepherdstown-based sludgecore band RHIN (L-R: Tucker Riggleman, Ben Proudman, Dominic Gianninoto) has been writing, recording, and rocking out at shows. The band will perform at The V Club Saturday night.
Reposted with permission from The Huntington Herald-Dispatch
RHIN has been on a good run lately.
The Shepherdstown-based sludgecore/punk band, comprised of members of Bishops and Black Blizzard and fronted by a “Two Ton Rhino” singer-bassist, Dominic Gianninoto, released ‘Bastard,’ its debut full-length in December to some critical acclaim, and has been playing shows with West Virginia stoner rock pioneers Karma To Burn.
The band will ride no small amount of momentum into Charleston and Huntington this week for shows at The Empty Glass and V Club for its first shows in the respective cities.
“We’ve started off on a good foot,” Gianninoto said of how his band has started 2015. “The last couple of months, we’ve been getting some shows that we enjoy being on, and playing with some bands that we really look up to.”
RHIN (Gianninoto; Tucker Riggleman: guitar; Ben Proudman: drums) welcomed Karma To Burn to Shepherdstown for the band’s record release in late December, and things went off without a hitch.
“It’s been really great, all the support we’ve got,” Gianninoto said. “We were really nervous about the record release show, with Karma To Burn coming down, making sure it all went well. I was blown away with the response.”
Before blowing some critics away with its sophomore full-length, released on Grimoire Records out of Baltimore, the band’s home away from home, you could say Gianninoto, influenced by the Melvins and Mike Patton, got into “some heavier stuff” living in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
“When I started messing around with a bass and a distortion pedal, that was what started RHIN,” he said.
Returning to Shepherdstown found Gianninoto briefly fronting Domino and the Two Ton Rhinos.
“I really didn’t know what I wanted to do. I wasn’t very focused and I just didn’t know what the hell I was doing, just being in a band, what that means, you know?”
After reuniting with his college pal Riggleman, and recruiting Proudman on drums, RHIN was born in the summer of 2013.
“I was thinking about doing something with music again, because the whole Domino stuff was very short lived,” Gianninoto said. “Tucker told me I should meet this guy Ben, who I’d went and seen in Black Blizzard, and it kind of went from there. I must’ve asked Tucker to play, and he was down.”
The band released its self-titled debut in October 2013 and from there, Gianninoto said the good chemistry and approach has bore sludgy fruit.
“Ben’s really into more extreme metal, and he’s always expanding my tastes with really aggressive stuff. And he’s not afraid to get aggressive or angry,” he said laughing.
“Tucker brings a cool approach to it, in the sense that some of his lead work is really great, classic rock stuff. We both have a love for classic rock, so we share that. Having been in The Demon Beat, he has that garage influence. Some of his lead work is really cool noise rock 90’s stuff, and that’s right up my alley.
“It’s a nice little melting pot I guess. I think me, Ben and Tucker work well together. I like our songwriting process, because we can get it together pretty quick. I think we all just want to be respected and play music that our peers or people we look up to respect in the end.
“I mean, we’ve only been around for, maybe a year and a half or so, and we’re very pleased with our recordings,” Gianninoto said with pride. “We definitely felt like we matured a lot and we’re very pleased with [‘Bastard’].
The guys in RHIN, more used to the Baltimore scene than Morgantown, are looking forward for their first shows in Charleston and Huntington.
“I know it’s the first time, and it’s a building process of trying to get people out but we’re really excited to be coming down that way,” Gianninoto said. “We’ve talked about it now for almost a year, and we’re hoping to do it some more. That’s the cool thing about being in a band, you get to go different places, and we’re always down to play shows, so let’s make it happen.
“We’re just trying to keep the forward motion going, and just keep getting better and writing good songs and playing good shows,” Gianninoto said.
“We don’t waste too much time in general,” the singer-bassist said, kind of summing things up. “I haven’t had much band experience. I’ve had some, but, this has just been an awesome experience.”
If you go:
WHO: RHIN with Rat Ship, Cavern
WHEN: 10 p.m., Saturday Jan. 31
WHERE: The V Club, 741 6th Ave., 304-781-0680
COST: $7
INFO: www.vclublive.com
ONLINE: www.facebook.com/rhinwv
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