Diabology is a teenage thrash metal band from Los Angeles, California. Members Jesse Bergen (guitar and vocals), Jack Kleinman (guitar), Joseph Mazisyuk (bass), and Matthew Morales (drums), met up on the rock school circuit. They were united by a love of metal and a desire to break out of the rock school mold to start working on original material. Defying the many subgenres of metal, they choose to simply call their music thrash, a tribute to the old school sounds of the late eighties, with a young and refreshing voice. The band began playing many well-attended and prestigious gigs around the Los Angeles area, but things really took a turn when they released their debut LP, ‘Nobody Believes Me‘. Taking the metal world by storm, the album was featured in countless magazines and received a fair share of radio play but the icing on the cake was when their song ‘Defiling Innocents’ made it to the top of Kerrang’s American Excess Spotify playlist. Check out our interview with the band!

Beginnings:

Jesse: I started the band back in 2016. I started off in the School of Rock program, where I learned how to play guitar and sing, but after several years of their program, I wanted to move on and start writing original music. I initially formed the band with fellow rock school students, but over the years the lineup has changed. Our current lineup came together through various local shows.

Behind the name:

Jesse: Diabology is the study of evil. My father was actually the one who suggested it. He had read it in a book about Satanism, and as soon as I heard it I knew it was a perfect band name.

Inspiration:

Jesse: My parents both played in bands when they were younger. They got me into metal and they are always a huge inspiration to me. As for bands, I’m inspired by Trivium, Metallica, Mastodon, Megadeth just to name a few.

Jack: The bands that inspire me the most are Exodus, Death, and Megadeth. The things that inspire me the most are the darker parts of our reality.

Joe: I am inspired by bands such as Opeth, Dream Theater, Porcupine Tree, Havok, and Alestorm.

Matt: I am inspired by Slipknot, Slayer, Belphegor, Behemoth, and Gojira.

Inspiration behind the debut LP, “Nobody Believes Me”:

Jesse: “Nobody Believes Me” was just inspired by things I like, both musically and lyrically. It’s fast, heavy, and every song describes a different dark fantasy. Our second album, currently in the works, has a little more inspiration from current events and the pandemic, but it is still largely based on dark fantasy.

COVID-19:

Jesse: Covid has been really hard. We can’t play shows, we can’t do in-person interviews, and we can’t even consistently rehearse. It’s been really hard, but we’re making the best of it, working on new material, and doing what we can. 

Matt: Yeah, Covid affected us a lot because we’re very social people. We really like going out and playing shows and hanging out with friends and family.

Joe: We know we could have it worse but it’s still hard. We can’t wait to get back out there.

Online concerts:

Jesse: We actually already have done two, one for my birthday and one to promote our latest single. We would definitely be open to doing more in the future, but hopefully, we’ll be vaccinated before too long.

Jack: Heavy, frantic, rhythmic, dark, and fast.
Jesse: I would add diverse and chaotic.

Describe your music in five words!

Fun facts:

Jack: One funny story is when we played at the Viper Room. It was a pretty big show for us, and my strap button detached from my guitar halfway through the set. I ended up playing the entire rest of the set while also holding my guitar up with the side of my hand. Very stressful at the time, but looking back it was pretty funny. 

Jesse: During that same set I fell on my face and the battery in my guitar fell out! It was pretty hectic. There was a separate show where someone in the crowd fed me a hot pepper in the middle of our set. There was a lot of pain, and my mouth was totally numb when I tried to sing.

Joe: At one show I was helping Jesse unload some of our gear and an old man was sitting by his car and he started talking to us about music and he asked if we know a band called “ADCD” and asked if we listen to Phish. Jesse told him that we actually sound a lot like Phish.

Matt: I break drumsticks all the time, not just at shows but also at practice. There have been several times where the broken stick flies away and hits someone else in the band.