Los Angeles band, Purest Form, are just starting out and emerging onto the metal and industrial scenes. The band formed in 2023 and features vocalist Story Beeson, guitarist/programmer Madi Woodward, and bassist Riley Joyner. Together, they make a beast of a band that feature blasting heaviness and punishing industrial gaze, proving that the two aren’t mutually exclusive.
They have announced their debut self-titled EP and shared their first single, “Broke.” The EP will release March 7, and “Broke” is out February 1.
“Broke” has a tornado of metal energy combined with a neo-industrial like sound. The aim is to capture the modern frustration of a society that becomes more and more isolated. Especially one that demands both punishing adherence to capitalism and deconstruction of community in order to make space for technological advancement, such as artificial intelligence.
Story Beeson on “Broke”:
“It’s about the fear of artificial intelligence and the possibilities it could hold for further separating us from ourselves and from each other in society. I’ve been afraid of AI for years. There’s a dystopian idea that your authentic self could be replaced by something artificial. Technology could take us away from our true selves. That’s the root of industrial music to me.”
The music video for “Broke” was shot in the basement of the San Gabriel Valley. It was directed by Kristopher Kirk and Jeremy Stith, using a VX1000. Many of the influences for the video came from iconic, post-punk videos from artists such as Depeche Mode and Nine Inch Nails, yet it feels distinctly rooted in a 2024 mood given the cyberpunk undertones.
Woodward and Beeson met while they were working at an independent venue in downtown LA, where they bonded over a shared love of dark underground music. In between writing hardcore and metal songs for his other bands and experimenting with nu-metal and “straight Orange County mosh metal” that he grew up listening to, Woodward has been making heavy synthesizer sequences. When he came to Beeson with a collection of bedroom demo industrial techno beats that he had been making “to get it out of his system,” he couldn’t have predicted how well Beeson’s vocals would’ve completed the transformation into synth-metal.
“Once Story came in and did vocals, I was like, wow, this is a real song…it suddenly has gravitas,” Woodward comments.
Purest Form Track Listing:
Broke
Optics
Self Destruction
Purest Form Live Dates:
February 9: Los Angeles, CA @ Genghis Cohen
Purest Form is available on Spotify, BandCamp and Apple Music. The links are down below:
BandCamp
Spotify
Apple Music
