Animals as Leaders knew it was going mainstream when women started showing up at concerts.
The D.C.-born trio play instrumental prog-metal, a subgenre not known for its appeal to women. In the old days, “One hundred percent, if there was a woman, she was there with her husband or boyfriend, asking to take a picture of us with (him),” says guitarist Javier Reyes.
Animals as Leaders’ sound, legendarily dense, has recently opened up a little. Its latest album, 2016’s typically virtuosic, atypically melodic “The Madness of Many,” which incorporates elements of classical and flamenco music, may be the trio’s most accessible work.
“These days, I think part of the pop element that we’re bringing, just being slightly different, is helping bring in a broader audience,” Reyes says, in a phone call from his adopted hometown of Los Angeles. “The music is metal, but there’s definitely part that’s the opposite of metal. I think the not-screaming is adding to that. We tend to have some older people as well. I think it’s a (consequence) of not having any screaming, or boyish singing.”
Animals as Leaders originated as a solo project for Tosin Abasi, the band’s lead guitarist and the closest thing prog-metal has to an Eddie Van Halen. Reyes has lately become a breakout star in his own right, appearing on magazine covers and taking over many of the trio’s promotional duties, but for years, Abasi was the band’s only celebrity. This suited everybody, including Reyes. “I like to pay attention to subtleties, and the little things behind the scenes that make the song, without people realizing it,” he says. “That’s where I get my joy, when I get to produce and stuff. I don’t really mind being the rhythm guitar player. … There’s only three of us, so each of us has a specific role in the band. I think I’m pretty happy where it’s at.”
Reyes first picked up a guitar when he was 6, and realized he was unusually good at playing it when he was 8. “I knew there was a difference between how I played and how the other kids played.”
He and Abasi met as teenagers when they played in a band together, and stayed in touch after the band broke up. Two years after he formed Animals as Leaders, Abasi enlisted Reyes to play live shows. “We didn’t know what we were going to do as a band,” Reyes says. “There was no instrumental scene. The music was kinda abstract at the time. We were like, ‘Hey, let’s just do this for a couple tours and see what happens.’ At this point, we haven’t stopped. The band just kind of grew into what it is now — we definitely didn’t force it.”
“The Madness of Many” is the group’s fourth album, and its third to debut on the Billboard Top 100 chart, a particularly impressive feat for a niche metal band. The members of Animals as Leaders (now rounded out with drummer Matt Garstka) have never not been prodigies and have never known a time when they weren’t celebrated or successful. They helped pioneer the prog-metal sub-subgenre known as djent. They sell T-shirts with the slogan “Odds are we are better musicians than you,” and they’re only slightly kidding. Abasi regularly appears at the top of Best Guitarists In Rock lists. Their side projects (Reyes plays with Abasi and members of Suicidal Tendencies and The Mars Volta in T.R.A.M., and in his own band, Mestis) do well.
Even their depressing crime stories have happy endings. Reyes’ home in North Hollywood was robbed while the band was on the road in 2012. Ten of his guitars were stolen, including a rare Rick Toone eight-string, the only one of its kind ever made (the thieves also made off with his car, and amps). “Some guy who had it ended up passing away, and his brother ended up inheriting it,” Reyes says. “I reached out to the builder of the guitar, and I let him know the guitar was stolen, and I ended up getting the guitar back.”
Reyes had only owned the guitar, valued at around $25,000, for a month when it was stolen. It was returned to him in March. “It was kind of crazy that I got it back five years after it actually happened,” he says. “It was in perfect, perfect shape. Not a scratch.”
When: 7:30 p.m. Wednesday
Where: The Vic, 3145 N. Sheffield Ave.
Tickets: $30 (18+); 773-472-0449 or www.ticketfly.com
Allison Stewart is a freelance writer.
onthetown@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @chitribent
