Nefarious "Addicted to Power": Bleeding Priest's Bay Area Metal Spotlight 15

What’s up everybody and welcome to a brand-new edition of Bleeding Priest’s Bay Area Metal Spotlight. It’s been a minute. I got home from tour and kind of wasted away for a few weeks there. Not really, though. I’ve been working hard drumming with Nefarious and doing a lot of stuff with Death Angel as well. But now that I’m re-acclimated to Bay Area life, I’m back at it.

For this edition, I want to talk about something big that happened since I’ve been home: the release of Nefarious’s debut album Addicted to Power. I almost forgot what the album was called for a second, but yes, Addicted to Power. I want to tell you the story about this record.

Doug Piercy reached out to me about a year ago. I had actually met Doug at one of my DJ Metal nights. I knew him before that, but not really well. At one of those nights he showed up, we got to talking, and got to know each other better. He mentioned that he was doing a solo thing and asked if I would be interested in laying down some drum tracks if I had the time. He said he would pay me for my time and I figured, sure, why not. At that point I had a lot of free time when it came to drumming, so I thought, what the hell, let’s do it.

I started jamming with him and recording these songs that were originally supposed to be his solo album. Tom Gears was already involved. He was recording it at his studio and playing all the bass tracks.

Nefarious band photo, May 2025

The funny thing is that when I recorded these songs, I thought they were demos. I was under the impression we were just recording songs that Doug would shop to labels before going back and doing a more produced version. It did not affect how I played. I would have played them the same way regardless. But still, I thought they were just demos, and Doug told me the same thing.

We recorded an album’s worth of material and then Doug decided he wanted to make it a band instead of a solo project. He brought in Rick Hunolt, and I was all for it. I was digging the music and I enjoyed working with them. Suddenly it was a band, not just a demo, and before I knew it they were putting the finishing touches on it and it was a real record.

I tracked my drums in a really small room at Tom’s Subterranean Studios in Oakland. Tom does a fantastic job with that space and I recommend it to anyone. He works wonders with that tiny drum room. Still, the room has super low ceilings and is completely insulated, so the sound has nowhere to travel. The drums ended up sounding smaller than I would have liked. But that actually fits the old-school vibe of the album and the music, so I am not complaining. For the second album, though, I would like to record in a bigger room so the drums have more air, more boom, and more space to breathe.

After I finished my drums I was not as involved. I did go to one vocal session with Katon W. De Pena, which almost turned into a disaster. I brought a six-pack of AC/DC beer I found at a liquor store near the studio. I had not planned on bringing alcohol but I saw it and thought, how could I not buy that. Tom and I drank it quickly, then the hard liquor came out, and things got messy. Tom especially. But Katon got the work done. I think he recorded the vocals for Together We Rise that night with both of us being a major distraction. It was chaos for a bit, but Katon pulled it off and the song turned out killer.

Doug deserves more credit than he is getting. Katon’s vocals are incredible, but Doug wrote most of the lyrics and vocal patterns for the album. He came up with the structures and the phrasing. He also wrote most of the music, co-produced, and essentially conceived the whole band. This entire project was his concept from the start. He did a huge amount of work and deserves recognition for that. I like to call the kind of metal Doug writes “rain metal,” because Doug Piercy is the Rainman of heavy metal.

We played our first show a couple of weeks ago at DNA Lounge and it was a huge success. We almost sold the place out. The album is being received really well around the world and copies are flying out the door. Rick came into the project later, but he still contributed a lot. He wrote Together We Rise and a few other parts, and his solos are fantastic. He is fully on board now, which is great because he is fun to work with.

I am proud of Doug, I am proud of us, and I am happy with how the record turned out. Addicted to Power is a success and I look forward to doing more gigs and making more records with these guys. Pick up a copy at hectic.com and we will see you out on the road soon.

–Bleeding Priest