MTHS has a plethora of bands that come together and and preform original music. A band that many may not have heard of is a heavy metal band that goes by the name of Antitheus, made up of MTHS senior Erick Goin and junior Ethan Hyatt, and MTHS alumni Jason Layne and Nolan Head, along with Edmonds Woodway H.S. student Martin McDonagh.

Goin’s interest in music started out very young. He was always surrounded by music.

“I remember being five or six years old and I’d heard ‘Purple Haze’ by Jimi Hendrix, and I was astounded by that. It was just incredible.”

Goin’s father was a guitarist, which then inspired him to pick up the guitar as well.

He always heard his father play Jimi Hendrix, and he came to be one of his influences in music along with Alice in Chains and Nirvana. “’90s rock was the huge inspiration,” he said.

“My major influence would be my father. He was the one who inspired me to play guitar and just [immerse] myself in music,” Goin said.

When he moved to Mountlake Terrace in eighth grade, Goin met Hyatt, and it happened to be that they both played guitar.

“I met [Hyatt] when I moved here in eighth grade, and we’ve been jamming since,” Goin said.

They started a band together and when it came time to choose a name, they went online and looked through Latin words and came upon Antitheus, meaning “Anti-God” giving a name to their heavy metal band.

“We try to go for the darker theme, but it’s stuff that has true meaning to us,” Goin said.

The band consists of Goin, the guitarist; Hyatt, also a guitarist in the band; Head, the drummer; along with Layne, another guitarist; and their vocalist, McDonaugh.

As a heavy metal band member, one would think Goin would listen to heavy metal music to get inspiration. However, while in the writing process, Goin said he listens to and plays guitar to jazz or classical music, then puts a dark twist on the song, creating his own piece.

“Nowadays, kids like to play the music heavy, we play it a lot faster. We also incorporate melodies, solos and stuff. We do a lot of harmonies and just try to add a little more depth,” Goin said.

Antitheus’ first showcasing was Battle of Bands, and their first performance was at El Corazon with a former member of a band called Gwar. Goin said they enjoyed the opportunity to perform at the venue.

“We still had the time of our lives just doing what we love,” Goin said.

They released a self-titled demo on April 8 that they had been been working on for about seven months.

A normal song process started with Goin writing ideas for a song, or completing a song and giving it a potential name, which he then showed to the rest of the band members.

From there, Head will try to play along with Goin while he played it out on his guitar.

“Hyatt will watch me play and he’ll slowly, over time learn it, and develop his own way of playing it,” Goin said. “The writing process is collaborative, but at first one of us will come up with an idea and it bounces off.”

In the future, Goin plans on continuing with being involved in music. He plans on becoming a music teacher possibly in the next 10 years or building guitars.

You can find out more about them on their Antitheus Facebook page or even check out their Bandcamp at www.antitheus.bandcamp.com/releases.Η