| If there's any one band that knows the phrase "stick to your guns" all too well, it's Kaos. Despite sudden and drastic shifts in the climate of the metal scene in the Bay Area and abroad, the Hayward-based veterans have bravely, consistently, defiantly stuck with what suits them best.
"It all started a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away," jokes guitarist and longtime member Stacey Murray.
Founding members Jason Darnell, Jay Figueroa and former guitarist Joe Loescher met in high school in the late 1980s, an era the band says was much kinder to their preferred craft. They began their career humbly, playing shows at parties, back yards and the occasional pizza parlor.
Eventually the band acquired Murray, formerly the guitarist of a band known simply as Hate, whose other members were cousins and brothers of those in Kaos, conveniently enough.
As the band's formative years progressed, the heyday of the celebrated Bay Area thrash movement was just beginning to come to a close.
"It was peaking. It was hot," vocalist and ex-drummer Jason Darnell remembers.
"And we rode it all the way down," Murray interjects.
Kaos soon befriended other seminal Bay Area thrash acts such as Vio-Lence, Death Angel and Testament, who at the time were known as Legacy. The young band shared stages and rehearsal areas with these artists several times, including one Hayward concert at Centennial Hall that was shut down by the local police department after several fights reportedly broke out at the venue.
Honing their skills alongside such now legendary groups acted as a motivational aid for the band.
"It just made us want to play more; more and more and more. Play harder, play heavier," Darnell says.
As many if not most other bands are, Kaos were beset with lineup changes as their career went on. In the early 90s, Darnell stepped down from the drummer’s stool to make the switch to vocal duties. The band subsequently cycled through skinsmen until Burton Ortega joined the fold in early 2003, the result of a rather comical twist of fate.
In search of a drum set to replace the one they had been using, the band answered an online advertisement and purchased a kit from a Bay Area guitar player. Not long after, Burton contacted them wanting to audition for Kaos.
“He walks in the studio,” Murray recalls. “And, lo and behold, there’s his drum kit. So it was kind of like destiny, in a way.”
Loescher parted ways with Kaos after the release of the band’s second LP, “Kaos Among Us,” at which point guitarist Keven Albert stepped in to fill the void. Murray says the choice was “easy.”
“He just clicked with us,” he says.
With over 17 years and two full-length albums under their belt since their inception, Kaos have made the transition from high school thrashers to wage-earning family men, with most of the members either married, with children, or both. Keeping their busy personal lives in harmony with their career as a band, they say, involves compromise.
| “There’s a lot of personal sacrifices that we have to make,” Murray admits. “We have to bend over backwards for each other and understand each other’s situations.”
He adds that because of said situations, at times the band’s activities have been put on hiatus, often for periods of several months.
“Back in high school, that’s all we did, was rehearse and hang out together and go to shows,” says bassist Jay Figueroa. “Because the scene back then the scene was so alive. I mean, every weekend you’d go to the Stone or the Omni or the One Step Beyond.”
Nowadays, Kaos have scaled back their once-intensive practice schedule to about two nights a week.
“It’s kind of like our bowling night,” Murray quips.
After being together for so long and seeing so many bands fall by the wayside, it's a heartfelt affection for what they create that keeps Kaos going.
"It's just a love of the music, the passion that we all have," bassist Figueroa says. "It's one of those hobbies that just sticks with you for life."
The ability of the members to remain friends throughout also "has a lot to do with it," Murray says. "We’ve all known each other for a lot of years, and it's comfortable. We've gone and played with other people and it's just not the same."
As much as they love and appreciate the scene that gave them life, Kaos express a strong desire to leave the proverbial nest and gain footholds in other regions. Already, they have played at festivals as far away as New Jersey and have their collective eye on the Los Angeles area. The band is also happy with how "Kaos Among Us" has sold overseas, even revealing that it has seen better success across the ponds than it has in the United States.
Members of the band lament what the local scene has become since Kaos first started out; a day and age where the rarity of all-ages shows has increased dramatically, and where a bill can contain as many as six bands that burn the midnight oil into the morning hours, long after the majority of the crowd has had its fill.
"It's all about who has the most friends. It’s not about who plays the best music," Murray says, referencing the current practice of fans being asked who they came to see as they pay for admission.
The band, however, sees a positive light for the metal scene in general, citing the return of bands such as Death Angel and Vio-Lence as evidence of a long-awaited comeback.
With plans already drafted for an eventual return to the studio with “heavier” and “more technical” material, the band promises they won’t lose sight of what got them into music in the first place.
“The greatest metal bands of all time, that made metal what it is, came right out of this hole right here,” says Murray, confidently and proudly. “We’re really fortunate to have been right there with it. That was our school. That’s where we come from.” |
