Underground bands, told the long way.
As The Story Grows follows musicians through origin stories, local scenes, band formation, and the records they are making now. The conversations are warm and unhurried, with room for scene memories, touring realities, and odd creative detours.
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As The Story Grows is a long-running interview show about musicians, bands, scenes, and the records that come out of them. It is rooted in heavy music, but its borders stay usefully porous. Metalcore, death metal, black and death metal, sludge, stoner rock, ambient music, and indie rock all turn up in the recent run. The show is not built around hot takes. It is built around people explaining how they got here. A typical conversation starts with childhood, first instruments, local venues, and the first band that made playing music feel possible. From there, it moves into the current project without rushing the path that led to it. Jacob Lilly of Chamber talks about becoming a frontman, sharing lyric duties, and letting other band members bring shape to the words. Randall Taylor of Amulets talks about guitar, tape loops, circuit bending, field recordings, and making sound that can both fit and not fit on heavy bills. A Levels conversation circles modern metalcore, genre blending, pop hooks, funny band bios, and the frustration of watching the same tour packages repeat. Witch Ripper uses melody, tone, Seattle, album artwork, and genre naming habits to talk about how a heavy band defines itself without flattening the weird parts. Adam Kerr of As Everything Unfolds brings in music discovery, COVID-era momentum, local venues, and the shrinking habits of live scenes. Other episodes reach into German death metal, Budapest metal, jazz-guitar influence, family encouragement, Wacken, songwriting, and the practical grind of getting heard. The show has a casual, peer-level warmth. It assumes the audience already cares about bands, scenes, records, and rooms. That gives the interviews space to wander into details other music shows might cut. The best moments are often small: a guest admitting lyrics are hard, a musician explaining why a name stuck, or a band member wondering how a genre grows if the same acts keep getting recycled. It is a discovery show, but not in a playlist-brochure way. It lets working musicians tell the long version.
Made for: For listeners who follow heavy, experimental, and underground music beyond the singles. It especially suits people who like hearing musicians talk plainly about scenes, records, touring, and how bands actually form.
What sets it apart: The show’s strength is its patient, peer-to-peer feel: guests are allowed to trace the whole path from first instrument to current record. It finds discovery through biography, process, and scene context rather than quick recommendations.
Discover Your Next Favorite Band!
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
As The Story Grows turns heavy-music interviews into a practical record of how bands form, change, release records, tour, and endure.
Brian Patton builds As The Story Grows around conversations with heavy bands and the people working alongside them. The interviews move easily from formation stories and record-making choices to the less glamorous machinery of music careers, with Patton asking direct questions…
One minute you're parsing stoner-doom names; the next, you're hearing how an A&R career starts with a zine.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A tight metalcore conversation about fronting a band, sharing the writing, and leaning into difference.
Jacob Lilly’s talk with Brian Patton is at its best when it gets into the awkward fit between fronting a band and not wanting to be the only one writing the words.
A process-first conversation about experimentation, ambiguity, and making soundscapes work live.
Randall Taylor of Amulets traces a path from guitar learning into tape loops, circuit bending, and long stretches of sound experimentation, then into the harder task of carrying those textures onto a live stage.
A clean look at Levels widening its sound while keeping the riffs intact.
Yeager Filos talks through Levels' new album This Will Make You Feel Again with a clear focus on the band's effort to widen its sound without losing the metalcore edge that made it work in the first place.
A grounded talk about Witch Ripper's new record, Seattle, and the balance between heaviness, melody, and artwork.
Curtis Parker and Joe Eck of Witch Ripper sit down with Brian Patton on As the Story Grows to talk about the band's new record, Through the Hourglass, out today on Magnetic Eye Records.
A grounded interview about growth, scene loss, and the road to a new album.
Adam Kerr's conversation with Brian Patton stays close to the practical pressures of a band level-up: where the group comes from, what a local scene teaches, and what changes when a project grows from COVID lockdown momentum into a Century Media release.
A band-focused metalcore conversation about growth, arrangement, and what comes next.
Manuel and Armarage keep this one tightly on the band’s own path, and that works. The conversation tracks the move from piano to bass, then from a solo idea to a fuller band, while also making the case that musical understanding carries across instruments.
A patient, grounded look at a band widening its sound without losing its center.
The episode takes its time with The Hirsch Effect, tracing how Niels Wittrock and John Lappin started playing together, what comes with being a German-language band, and how Der Brauch opens up the sound a bit.
A zine-to-A&R career story that keeps its attachment to new music.
Mike Gitter's path runs from zine making into Atlantic Records, then Frontiers Label Group and the revived Black to Black imprint. What lands best is how easily he moves between underground scenes and label work without sounding detached from either side.
Chicago critics DeRogatis and Kot pair new-album reviews with deep dives into records like Rumours.
Annual Songlines Music Awards ceremonies spotlighting global artists, from Afrobeat to sevda.
A high schooler's music diary — Grammys press pass stories to family concert interviews.
Stephen Hyden and Ian Cohen argue about indie rock, one Metacritic score at a time.
As The Story Grows talks with Jacob Lilly, frontman of Chamber, around the band’s March 27 release This Is Goodbye on Pure Noise Records.
As The Story Grows welcomes Randall Taylor of Amulets to talk about the new EP Remainders Reminders, released last Friday on Pelagic Records.
Levels guitarist Yeager Filos joins the show to talk about the band’s new album *This Will Make You Feel Again*, out last Friday on Sharptone Records.
Heavy can still bloom.
Adam Kerr starts close to home.
This episode features an interview with Nick Ruiz and Dawson Henry from indie rock band The Props, discussing their new EP Arrow, musical backgrounds, band formation, and songwriting.
This episode features an interview with Maik Weinhardt, drummer for the German death metal band Mesticator, discussing their album Total Mastery, his musical influences, and the band's rise through events like Wacken.
Host Brian Patton interviews Martin Kerstes, guitarist of Hungarian black/death metal band Rivers Ablaze, about their new album and the band's evolution.
A recap episode featuring clips and interview highlights from all bands interviewed in March.
Brian Patton interviews St.
Host interviews members of the band Resistor about their new album and evolution from deathcore to rapcore.
Interview with Guilt Trip frontman Jay Valentine about their surprise EP 'God Forgives' and the band's experiences.
Host interviews Nate and Justin from Red Arrow Highway about their new album Be Someone Better, discussing punk rock, songwriting, and the band's journey.
Host Brian Patton interviews Nick and Alex from the band The Silver about their upcoming album and the end of their label Gilead Media.
Interview with Lost in Hollywood frontman Aman Ghirassi about their debut LP and the German metal scene.
Interview with Vicious Reign about their new album The Anatomy of Surviving, discussing writing process, lyrics, and artwork.
Interview with Ryan Patterson of Photo Crime and Coliseum about his new album Security and his creative process.
Brian Patton interviews Eric Peterson of Testament about their new album, upcoming tour, and the band's current relevance in 2026.
An interview with Boostinage frontman Brian Manning about the band's new album and musical journey.
Interview with Final Gasp frontman Jake Murphy about their new album and his musical journey.
A recap episode featuring clips from interviews with multiple bands aired in February, plus sponsor promotion.
Interview with drummer Zach Mayfield about his bands Dayseeker and O'Sleeper, genre classifications, and the music industry.
Host interviews Martin Westerholt about his new project Eyes of Melian and album Forest of Forgetting, discussing his musical journey and influences.
Tom Hewson of Tailgunner discusses the making of their album Midnight Blitz, signing with Napalm Records, and his passion for classic British heavy metal.
Host Brian Patton interviews Kat Kiyo of the band Hoax about their new album Death Knocks, discussing the band's preparation, touring with black metal bands, and lyrical themes.
This episode features an interview with Dima Kozhuhar and Alex Zaterkovny from Ukrainian metalcore band Space of Variations, discussing their upcoming album Poisoned Art, how war has affected the band, and the role of live music as an escape.
An interview with guitarist Jake Woodruff about his new project Jagged City's debut EP, his time with Defeater, and his musical journey.
This episode features an interview with Joe Edwards and Sam Finney from the UK metalcore band Shields, discussing their new album 'Death and Connection', including its musical diversity, the band's reunion, lyrical inspiration, and art design.
This episode is a January 2026 recap featuring interview snippets from various guests in snowboarding, music, and other creative fields, along with announcements about upcoming content and a sponsor.
Manuel Möbs keeps things loose.
Nils Wittrock and John Lappin, guitarist and bassist of German progressive metal band The Hirsch Effect, discuss the release of their new album Der Brauch on Long Branch Records.
Host Brian Patton interviews Joe Nally of the band Earn about their upcoming album and the band's evolution.
Mike Gitter comes in with real miles.
Host Brian Patton interviews Textures keyboardist Yuri Dyke about their new album Genotype and the band's journey.
Interview with David Grossman of New Miserable Experience about their upcoming album Guild the Lily and the journey of musical discovery.