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PHOTO BY JOHN LARSON

COMIC RELIEF. From left to right, Kyle Sylvester, Austin Langford and Pete Ruff clown around during a break from practice.

Open palette colors sound of local metal outfit

By John Larson

Watching the three members of Kyaustic play is quite an experience. Kyle Sylvester pounds out complex drum lines, the fingers on both of Pete Ruff’s hands are all over the fretboard of his bass, while Austin Langford whips out all kinds of techniques on guitar. Their brand of heavy metal is technical yet thoroughly entertaining.

Ruff lives in Tacoma while Sylvester and Langford live in Seattle. Ruff and Langford handle vocal duties.

Sylvester and Langford started the group as a two-piece in 2006. They recorded a demo titled “Smoke Some Heow!”

Ruff was in another band they were familiar with from the local scene. Realizing they needed a bass player, they asked him to join last year.

The band’s name came to Sylvester one night in a dream. He awoke and immediately called Langford about it. The proper pronunciation is “Ky Oss Tic”

Sylvester has been drumming for two years. Ruff picked up bass seven years ago. Langford has been playing guitar for 12 years. Music runs in his family. His father is Tim “Too Slim” Langford, singer and guitarist for Seattle-based blues outfit Too Slim and the Taildraggers.

All three members bring their ideas to the table for songwriting. “There are no rules. It is an open palette,” Sylvester remarked.

“Austin is a melody machine,” Ruff said. “We are all pretty brutal metalheads, but we were drawn together by our common love of the Deftones.” Among their other influences are Swedish band Meshuggah and Denver-based Cephalic Carnage, bands known for mixing elements of experimental jazz into an intense thrash metal format. Langford is into black metal, an underground and especially ferocious style of metal.

Sylvester feels the band has expanded its compositional style since Ruff joined. “Pete has brought structure to our sound,” he said.

Ruff said their band’s newest material is coming together well. They plan to record some material once they have enough money to cover time in a recording studio.

The band wants to hand the singing duties over to a lead vocalist if they can find the right person. “We want someone who knows our style,” Sylvester said. They encourage anyone who is interested to contact them through their website, www.myspace.com/kyaustic.

Kyaustic plays the Midnight Sun in Olympia at 8 p.m. July 6.

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