michael ilios

Prologue- Michael ilios is a flint-edged americana songsmith who cut his teeth as the guitarist and principal composer for Rochester, NY based extreme metal band Agiel. The band recorded a debut for Unique Leader records, enjoyed healthy album sales, gained enthusiastic local and far-flung support, played countless shows across the US and Canada, and suffered the inexorable spiral toward eventual dissolution typical of many such outfits.

Now-ish-logue- Michael feeeeeverishly wrote, recorded and released 2014's The Anywhere EP over 2 months on outdated and cruelly abused equipment. In it, he eschews the standard banjo-and-whistling schmuckery of contemporary folk rock in favor of a more honest, direct, and brutal approach that is at once calming and abrasive. Like a skilled sandpaper brain masseuse, he loves you long time. Duct tape tapestries of lilting and weighty guitar lines plow a furrow from which Michael's stark and powerful lyrics erupt with a voice like priceless emeralds set in a bed of crooked, ancient rust.
The Anywhere EP is a collection of narratives obsessed with ghost town desolation, suicide romance, holiday weekend sea monster visitations, and obsequious greener-pastures listlessness.

Epilogue- This guy is going to keep writing these hook-laden over-hyphenated rustbelt-baroque diadems until the prodigal cows come home, no doubt packing udders full of whiskey. If I were you, I'd maybe keep an ear out? At least... kind of?