Adrian College alumnus rocking it with metal band Fatal Conceit
ADRIAN — There’s a new metal band that has hit the six-figure mark in views on YouTube and whose music has been streamed more than 30,000 times on Spotify.
It’s called “Fatal Conceit,” and guitarist and vocalist Timothy Martuch has roots in Adrian where he lived and attended Adrian College majoring in music. The other band members are Joe Blake on lead guitar, Katie “Kixx” Puga on bass and vocals, and James Balina on drums.
“We had some personnel changes over the years. The lineup that we know now, we had our first show in January of 2022. So we’ve been going for just over a year as this team,” Martuch said.
The band has released three songs. “Taking Back the Name” is a song about defiance.
“It’s about not allowing others to define you, and if you have a title you chose, you take that back and you own your power. You control your destiny in that way. It’s a fun song,” Martuch said.
“Devil’s Little Helper” is a song about a breakup, and "Under the Ashes" is a relationship song as well.
“I like to call it ‘entry-level metal’ or ‘radio-friendly metal.’ It’s like hard rock, but the spicy vocals can be a little much at times. So we don’t tend to do a lot of stuff like what you hear from Lorna Shore or those more harsh vocals-oriented bands,” Martuch said. “Our sound is primarily influenced by bands like Avenged Sevenfold and Breaking Benjamin. We think we would be a good touring companion to those kinds of bands, or that we would be complementary to bands like Trivium or Eva Under Fire.”
Fatal Conceit was just added to a festival in Chesterfield called “Hear This! Fest” put on by Hear This! Promotions. The two-day festival runs on the Friday of St. Patrick’s Day and Saturday, March 18. There will be 33 bands playing, and Fatal Conceit will be in a prime time slot in the Saturday show.
The band will be the opening act for Eva Under Fire on April 1 at the brand new Wyandotte venue, District 142.
“They’re (Eva Under Fire) signed with Better Noise Music, which is the record label for Mötley Crüe, Five Finger Death Punch, Ice Nine Kills, Asking Alexandria, From Ashes to New and tons more. They’re doing really well, and we’re so grateful that they’ve asked us to be the opening act for them and Kaleido on April 1st, which is really going to be a great show. We’re almost halfway to selling out the venue,” Martuch said.
Fatal Conceit will release a new song, “Nightmare,” at the end of March just ahead of the show to get more buzz online.
“You heard it here first. We wrote it in one day just as an exercise — if we were to write a song about a nightmare, what would it be about? Literally, it is the musical manifestation of a night terror, something like a dream that’s gone too far, or you get trapped in the reality of the nightmare. It is intentionally vague, but also sinister and spooky,” Martuch said.
Martuch had several colleges recruiting him with scholarship opportunities while he was in high school, but it was former Adrian College band director Marty Marks reaching out to him personally over the phone that made the difference. Martuch attended Adrian College from 2008 to 2013.
“I really fell in love with the place. The town was wonderful and the campus is gorgeous,” Martuch said. “I worked there at the admissions department for a year. I lived downtown, which only enhanced my opinion. The place is really wonderful. It’s really special to me.”
This article originally appeared on The Daily Telegram: Adrian College alumnus rocking it with metal band Fatal Conceit
