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Arkaik is:
From Riverside County, California USA
Style Influences: Polish & Swedish death metal, Norwegian black metal and American thrash metal.
Genre: Extreme Metal - Thrash Metal Goal for the future: Arkaik wants to get signed & wants to continue to play the music they love. They plan on becoming the biggest & best metal band in the world. Arkaik is poised to explode again so get your eardrums ready. Their new CD - Existential Chaos was released on March 9, 2007 with Jared doing the drumming AND the lead vocals -- It will melt your face... With Ryan Smith as drummer Jared can focus full force on his vocals while Eric Cohen plays the bass like no other.
BIO from 2004-2006: Jared & Chance played on a Little League team in elementary school but didn't become friends until later. They started hanging out in middle school. Jared & Chance started playing guitars together in 6th grade. Matt & Chance started hanging out in 8th grade. Matt didn’t start playing drums until about 2004, he rode motorcycles & wake boarded a lot. At Chance’s urging Matt bought a set of drums and Matt picked playing right away. Chance, Jared, and Matt started playing as a band in mid 2004. They became Arkaik in July, 2004. Dylan, the bass player, joined Arkaik in late 2004. The first lead singer was Greg Leach who joined the band in early 2005. He helped Arkaik win the first 2 Showcase showdowns in January & February 2005. During this busy time the band went into the studio to start recording their first demo. It became apparent that Greg’s voice just wasn’t going to get stronger and he had to leave the band. Jared took over the lead vocals with Chance doing backup. In May 2005 Arkaik won their 3rd Showcase Showdown to take home the prize with Jared handling the lead vocals with great skill. In their own words: “Arkaik is blindingly fast-paced, catchy riffs, high energy rhythms, and groove-laden music. We try to mix all styles of the metal genre into our own style. We hope that our fans enjoy our music as much as we do.” In July 2005 drummer Matt decided to pursue other goals and he left Arkaik. Undaunted, Chance & Jared put out a call for a new drummer & the spot was quickly filled by young & talented Nick vodrey. Nick has the ability to pull off fast blast beats, speedy double bass & has chops. Unfortunately, Nick encountered some personal issues & had to leave the band. Dylan decided to form his own band and left as well. In about August 2005 Chance & Jared auditioned a guitarist they had heard about and decided that Justin would be the new lead guitarist of Arkaik. Chance now does backup lead & rhythm. In November the guys were able to add a new drummer. Jimmy Harris took this position and fit right into Arkaik. In about Late November 2005 Arkaik submitted their 2nd EP CD, Prolific Apocalypse to the Inland Empire Music Awards and in December were notified that they have been nominated with 4 other bands in the Best Alternative catagory. 2007 - Arkaik is in continual evolution. Joining the band in the Spring of 07 is Ryan Smith who took over the drums leaving Jared able to focus strictly on the vocals. And in late September '07 Craig Peters joined to add a 2nd guitar to the mix and then decided to leave the band in January 2008. He will make an appearance as a session guitarist on the upcoming recording slated to start in March or April 08. |
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| Jared Christianson: | I have always been musically inclined, so at the age of 10 I got my first guitar. I started out with punk and played guitar on and off until I met Chance in sixth grade. He got me into the heavy music of that time like Korn and Deftones. We played guitar side by side for few years and then met our first drummer for Arkaik. I started playing guitar for Arkaik, which lasted for a while until I felt the need to take over on vocals. I sang vocals and played guitar or bass for a few months then decided to focus on being a vocalist. After 3 undedicated drummers fell through, I made my biggest musical decision - that was to play drums. I plan to master the drums as I have done with my other instruments. |
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| Eric Cohen | I started playing bass at the age of 15 as a sophomore in high school. My friend had a guitar and he said get a bass….so I did. A lot of people I grew up with went through a punk stage, not me. Straight metal. Korn was probably my major influence. They made me want to play bass. From there it went to Mudvayne and Tool. I started a nu-metal band with a name that was never official. That lasted around 3 months. Somewhere during the time of not being in a band I got into really heavy metal. I started listening to Chimaira, Lamb of God, then Cannibal Corpse, Suffocation and Decapitated. I was in a band called Neck Deep. The whole band was stoners so the music was really slow, so I left that atrocity. I then joined a band called Anachronism, an old-school death metal band from Riverside. Then at the showcase in Corona one night I heard someone say they needed a bass player. I showed Jared and Chance the bass in my trunk and that was it. I joined Arkaik and the mayhem started.
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| Chance Strickland: | Chance, now 20, started playing guitar at about 8 years old. He is now an accomplished guitar player and has a range from Stevie Ray Vaughn, Eddie Van Halen, Darrell Abbott, and beyond. He is also a talented songwriter & lyricist composing the songs for Arkaik with the help of Jared. He owns & plays a Gibson Explorer, an Ibanez 7 string, and 2 Jackson guitars, plus an acoustic/electric. He plans to attend MSJC in San Jacinto, CA. to focus on music production and recording. |
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| Ryan Smith: | I am a musician. I've always been in a musical environment ever since I was a child. My father would play guitar to excite my mind, or my mother would play smooth tunes to ease the tensions. As a result, I've picked up playing drums in early elementary school, receiving traditional snare drum lessons, and excelling greatly in the marching band in middle school. High school has been able to open my eyes to all cultures that express themselves through music. My goal throughout the years was to find the most extreme music available to me, and recreate it. I've been randomly jamming with random friends for a random amount of hours, and now that I'm truly a part of Arkaik, it all seems to fit in place. It's a great feeling to be with members that have the same mindset as myself, who all seem to want to create the same type of excellent music.
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