Local Metal Band Rocks On

     Often the idea of a high school metal band elicits visions of headache-inducing noises and wannabe punk rocker kids trying too hard to make a sound more complex than their capabilities.  Ground Zero is not this band.  
     Last weekend, six Middlebury students went to the Hub Teen Center in Bristol, Vt. to see a metal show advertised in the Campus the week before.  
     “I saw this tiny ad in the newspaper, ripped it out, and was like, we have to go,” said Matt Ball ’14.
     After assembling some friends together and getting lost a couple of times, they finally found the Hub, which looks more like a graffiti-covered military bunker than a music venue.  
    Ball admitted that his initial expectations for the show were quite low, “I was expecting the sort of high school scene that I grew up with,” he said. “But they exceeded my expectations big time.”
    Ground Zero formed in November 2010 in a high school music class.  At first, their sound leaned more toward punk than metal until a show they saw together at the Hub convinced them that heavy metal was the music they were meant to make.  
    Originally consisting of four members, the band added their fifth member last February: Matthew Mullin, younger brother of the drummer, Scott Mullin.  Matthew may only be 13 years old, but the kid has major swag.  His performance exudes a type of confidence rare in a 13-year-old boy.  You can see his sly smile right before he starts to sing that seems to say, “Go ahead, laugh, cause I’m about to blow your mind.”   
    In fact, the band is chock-full of budding talent with not a member over the age of 17.  Most of the band members, with the exception of their rhythm guitarist, Wallace, have been playing their respective instruments for less than five years, making fans excited to see what they’ll be capable of in another five years.  
    When asked about whether or not it’s hard to be taken seriously being such a young band, they tell me that it’s something they face everyday.  
    “It sucks cause older bands often judge us, but then we start playing and you can just see their eyes get really wide because they definitely didn’t see it coming,” wrote the band in an email.  
    The Middlebury students who attended the show spoke of the same sensation when seeing Ground Zero live.  Ball described the other bands playing at the show at the Hub as having more of a mall-core sound “marketable to teenage middle America girls who shop at Hot Topic. “
    “Ground Zero was better,” he said.  “They stood out.”
    The band’s name comes from the many times they hung out as a group and engaged in what they called the “highly childish activity” of throwing snow balls at cars passing by.  
    “If someone ever stopped or got mad at us we would start running and yell ‘Back to Ground Zero!’” they said.
    And while they don’t recommend throwing snowballs as a recreational activity, the name Ground Zero stuck.  Although the name comes from high school shenanigans, it also conjures up images of 9/11 and hints at the delicate balance that Ground Zero achieves in their sound.  Their sound is simultaneously heavy and melodic, and the band stresses the importance they place on the writing of their music.  They want it to be meaningful, and have a lot of fun.  For the members of Ground Zero it’s less about making money than it is about gaining a fan base and putting on a good show.  
    “We aren’t here to make money,” they said. “We’re just here to play good music and convince people to not give up on music because music will never give up on you.”
    Ground Zero is currently in the process of recording an EP that will be out sometime in May or June of this year.  The band plays at least two shows a month and are going to be playing a show at the Mill in March.  The Mill show will feature Ground Zero with College student band Goat Pack as the opener.  
    “It’s going to be a great show,” said Ball.

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