Mydriasis

Mydriasis is one of those bands where the “new” status is a little amorphous: They’ve been jamming in various incarnations for the past two years, and three members—Mike Atwell, Mitch Henshaw and Jeff Morrison—have played together for years. But after going through three bass players and two singers, guitarist Henshaw says that the pieces finally began to solidify for the metal quintet earlier this year when Chris “Red” LeBlanc started doing vocals.

“We don’t know much about him, but it felt right to us the minute he picked up the mic, and that’s kind of rare these days,” he says. LeBlanc’s range and emotive delivery hearkens back to the days of the Deftones and System of a Down, before rap-metal came along and ate itself. For Mydriasis, the pieces are finally starting to fit together. A four-song demo is due out in July, and this weekend the band heads toward the Battle of the Bands final at Club 1668 on June 12.

This article appears in Jun 10-16, 2010.