Maegashira

By firmly taking their name in one of Sumo Wrestling’s heavyweight divisions, New Jersey’s Maegashira were building obvious mention of the Southern sludge and doom steel affects pervading their music, however, not necessarily the epic post-metal tendencies that occasionally brought interesting active contrasts in to the picture. Formed circa 2005 by vocalist JJ Koczan, guitarist George Pierro, bassist John Willing, and drummer Steve Moraghan, Maegashira trim their tooth on local levels while releasing a set of demos: 2006’s The Internal Workings of Stop Period and 2007’s The 1,209,600 Secs Periods. These brought these to the interest of Connecticut’s Extra Change Information, which matched them with manufacturer Lou Gorra (of Halfway to Eliminated popularity) for the documenting of their public debut record, The Stark Arctic, released in the beginning of 2009.