Welcome to a new feature on Heavy Blog, “The Anatomy Of”. Taken from the Between The Buried And Me album of the same name — in which the band pays tribute to artists/bands that they feel have most inspired their songwriting — it’s a feature in which we hand off the metaphorical microphone to bands so they can talk about their influences.
This week in “The Anatomy Of”, we’ve got every member of the newest, hypest thing coming up in progressive metal. Rising from the ashes of the now-defunct The Safety Fire, Good Tiger features guitarists Derya “Dez” Nagle and Joaquin Ardiles joining forces with all-around tech metal drummer Alex Rudinger, former Tesseract vocalist Elliot Coleman, and bassist Morgan Sinclair (who, among other things, toured with Architects). The new project was unveiled through an Indiegogo campaign last week, and has already earned 167% of their requested funding as of this writing.
So what makes Good Tiger tick? The band have deconstructed their sound and each member has traced their personal inspiration back to the records that have ultimately informed not only how they write and perform music, but how they’ve become passionate about the craft in the first place.
Derya Nagle (guitars): My brother bought this album as soon as it came out, both of us being big fans of At The Drive-In at the time, and suffice to say, it blew me away. It really opened me up to a whole new melodic approach to guitar, the role of the instrument and songwriting in general. It showed me things didn’t need to be formulaic to be catchy, and that arrangements can be interesting while also accessible. TMV never really clicked with me on their other albums, but this one had a huge impact on me as a musician and songwriter.
Morgan Sinclair (bass): This album was a bit of a turning point for me, and helped me reassess the way I was playing music. The performances captured on all four sides of this LP are some of the most energetic I’ve heard. As well as being an album I just put on and enjoy often, it really helped me judge my performances in a studio environment, as a ‘perfect’ take might not be the most conducive to a cool sounding record.
Joaquin Ardiles (guitar): This album is full on rifflord next hype. I bought this in an airport waiting to board my plane, I put it in my discman and it didn’t leave the whole time I was away. It is one of the few albums I think is perfect the whole way through and it ends on such a great track. It made me want to play guitar all day. While some of the material is extremely complex, there are so many powerful moments of simplicity which really resonated with me. The artwork is amazing too. A flawless package.
Alex Rudinger (drums): I got this album when I was 12 or 13, right around the same time that I was getting into more extreme genre’s (like death & black metal). It was one of the records that kept me from becoming a complete death-metal-elitist. The songs are so catchy & well written; the album is full of emotion. As a kid just getting into metal, part of me just wanted to play fast and aggressive. This album helped keep things in perspective at a young age; it taught me the value of laying back, song structure, and execution. Playing more notes/playing fast isn’t always what’s best – it’s how you play.
Elliot Coleman (vocals): Bjork is pretty out there sometimes, but I’m pretty sure she nailed it on this album. This album was extremely influential in helping develop me as a vocalist. The expression in her voice is astounding, as is the layering and production on the album.
Good Tiger’s debut album can be pre-ordered by contributing to the crowdfunding effort at IndieGoGo. Visit the band on Facebook to get updates as they happen.