In Mortal Kombat, Goro is a four armed half-human, half-dragon warrior, prepared to shoot fireballs at anyone who crosses his path. The antagonist’s legacy of brutality is kept alive and well, thanks to continuous video games, Hollywood depictions, and now, a brand traditional metal supergroup, Hands of Goro. Consisting of bassist/vocalist Adrian Maestas (The Lord Weird Slough Feg), guitarist Tom Draper (Spirit Adrift), and drummer Avinash Mittur (Nite, ex-Vorlust), this power trio has assembled to lay the masses to waste with what’s bound to be one of the traditional metal highlights of the year in their self titled debut album. We had the chance to sit down with these three amigos to discuss the perks of a side project, the NWOBHM, and rocking retirement homes.
Greetings gentlemen and welcome to Defenders of the Faith!
Tom Draper: Thank you for having us Joe!
Avinash Mittut: Thank you!
Adrian Maestas: Thanks!
We’ve got a lot to tackle, so let’s hop right into it. What events took place that led to the formation of Hands of Goro?
AdM: Tom!
TD: I moved to the Bay Area in 2014 from the UK. One of the first shows I went to was a Slough Feg show. They were opening for Riot V…oh wow, Avinash has got two cats *laughs*!
Right on!
TD: I went to this show and I got there really early. Adrian was manning the merch booth. I went and talked to him, bought a Traveller t-shirt, spoke to him again after Slough Feg had played their set, and decided to let him know that I was a guitar player newly arrived in the Bay Area. I was looking around for people to jam with and bands to join. I said, “Listen, if you ever find yourself needing an English guitar player, hit me up.”
So we exchanged contact details. I didn’t hear anything from Adrian for over a year when I suddenly got an email out of the blue saying, “Hey, I got a gig in two weeks time for this new band called Hands of Goro. Do you wanna do it?” I was like, “Sure!” We didn’t have any songs. We didn’t have any idea of what we were gonna do. We had two practices with the drummer and we figured out enough music to play a 30 minute set. We replaced that drummer immediately after the gig because he was a weird fit. Basically, the band carried on from there. Do you have anything else to say about that drummer, Adrian?
AdM: No, that’s pretty much the story. We kind of did things in reverse order because there was a small heavy metal festival going on in San Francisco. Slough Feg couldn’t make the gig, so I said, “Hey, I got another band!” The guy goes, “Oh, what’s your other band?” I said, “Hands of Goro! Yeah!” “What kind of music is it?” “Oh, it’s cool heavy metal music.” “OK, cool! I’ll book it.” So he booked it and that’s when I was like, “OK, now we need to write a song.” We had the band name. Then we had to write a song. Actually, I had to find bandmates first. I kind of like to keep that style going forward where we come up with things in a slightly different order than most bands would come up with. That’s how Hands of Goro was born.
TD: It’s like a WayneStock, Wayne’s World 2 situation. “If you book them, they will come.” We kind of had that attitude towards the entire thing really.
What did that first show consist of? Covers? Songs that ended up on this album? Both?
TD: At least three, maybe four songs from that show are on the album. We covered “Strutter” by KISS and “Death Tone” by Manowar. We decided there had to be a Manowar cover for some reason and that was it.
AdM: We fired that first drummer because he didn’t like Manowar.
TD: He was more into Korn and that wasn’t really our thing.
I think we’re all on the same page there. When it comes to the band’s songwriting process, who handles what aspects, whether it be riffs, lyrics, melodies, etc.?
AdM: Well we generally go to the video game arcade with a pocket full of quarters and we just start going for it. Whatever games we can find where we can fight each other, whether it’s Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, Rampage, or any other of those spaceship themed games that allow us to fight each other, “Pew pew pew!” Once the quarters are gone, we head back to the studio and we just take what we learned and shape them into songs.
TD: It’s not a traditional writing process by any means.
AvM: Nothing about this band is traditional.
That really shows in this album, which I’ve listened to probably three or four times now. What draws me back in is the unpredictability of it all. So much of the so called NWOTHM, it’s fine and good. There’s your Priest worship bands and your Maiden worship bands. I like the albums where I don’t know what’s going to come next. I like those curveballs, those intricacies within the songs. One song could have an old school power metal feel. The other can be a Motörhead style, kick you in the teeth rager. They shouldn’t work next to each other, yet they do. You guys make it work so well over the course of this 8 song record, which is why we’re sitting here right now.
TD: That’s awesome dude. I’m really, really happy you’ve listened to it three or four times. That’s rad!
AvM: Those are awesome compliments. Thanks Joe.
TD: I guess I could say probably that we’ve never had an overarching plan or direction. It’s always been like, we meet up for fun to jam and we just try and make shit that we think is cool.
As it should be. Avinash, I know you joined Tom and Adrian a little later. How did you come into the fold?
AvM: Yeah, so I had jammed with Tom and Adrian on separate occasions for separate things, just for fun a couple times. I’ve known Adrian for 12 years or something like that. I used to intern at the studio where Slough Feg made a bunch of their records. These guys knew that we had similar musical interests and that I could play. In 2020, there was a short pocket of time when we thought that COVID wasn’t as gnarly. It was near the Fall, so folks started going out and about a little bit. These two had gotten back to jamming a little bit and they were looking for drummers to hit up. My name came up, I swung by, and it was really fun!
I remember we jammed on “Highway Star” by Deep Purple that night. They sent me a couple old recordings of Goro songs for me to learn. “End to End” was there, I think, “Prince of Shokan”. It was a good time. Obviously, the pandemic being the pandemic, we didn’t get to jam every single week, but we’d get together when we could. Like Tom said, it was always in the name of fun, always organic. What happened was we just kept getting together and we’d keep working on new riffs. That would turn into songs like “21st Century Plague”. “Archduke of Fear” was another new one that came in out of that. Yeah, that’s kind of how it all happened: Having a good time, getting together when schedules aligned, *laughs* when vaccines came into play. Especially in the name of making a record. That really kicked us in the butt to keep getting together and keep working on stuff.
In that breath, is this an album that could’ve come out sooner had events not transpired the way they did four years ago?
TD: I’d say no.
AdM: It probably would’ve taken the same amount of time. Goro’s got four hands. He handles a lot of things at the same time, so it was a matter of everybody getting themselves together because we all had things we were working on. It finally did happen and we’re very proud of it.
AvM: All of us play in at least one other project, so between touring, jobs, and stuff…if anything, I’d say the pandemic, in a way, brought us together. We weren’t jamming with our regular projects at the time and we were just looking for things to do to have fun.
Speaking of those bands and projects, is there anything musically you’re able to achieve within the realm of Hands of Goro that you couldn’t do or wouldn’t do within another band or project?
AdM: Absolutely. There’s riffs that became Hands of Goro songs that I tried to make Slough Feg songs. It didn’t work in Slough Feg because it’s a different band. Slough Feg songs are Slough Feg songs. If I bring in a tune that sounds like something else, we might throw it around for a little while. If it sticks on the wall, we’ll do it, but sometimes that doesn’t work. Usually when Tom and I work on riffs, sparks fly. Avinash, the Godzilla, tears down the building and lays down the foundation for us.
TD: From my point of view, I’d say that with Hands of Goro, I have infinitely more freedom to do whatever the fuck I want with the guitars because most of the other bands I played in, I haven’t had a large stake in songwriting and there’s normally been one other guitar player. A lot of the time in the other bands I’ve been in, I’m pretty much there to add decoration like harmonies and solos to songs that have already been written.
I find it a lot more fun being part of the initial creative process with Avinash and Adrian, especially when it came to recording. These guys basically said, “Do whatever you want with the guitars.”, which is why there’s so many on the album. I wanted to record as many harmonies and solos as I possibly could. It’s easier to take stuff away than it is to add it once you’re a certain way into the project. I don’t think a single guitar track I recorded ended up getting cut. Avinash was like, “Fuck it, we’ll use all of them!”
AvM: If anything, there’s some stuff on “Uncanny” where I took a pair of guitar tracks from Tom and ran them through different effects in a way to double them. I’m sure you remember the Boston pedal, right Tom?
TD: Yeah, the Rockman *laughs*.
AvM: Actually, there’s even more guitars on there technically than what Tom even sent me from some tricks I had ran in the studio. Also, not to digress too far from your question Joe, but this is the only band I have so far where I play drums. I’ve always been a member of a rhythm section in all my bands, whether it’s a bass player or a drummer. Playing drums in Goro allows me to access a totally different part of my brain than I do in my other bands, where I’m thinking about, “How can I support the melodies of the guitars? How can I lock in with percussion?”
Now it’s a bit more on my shoulders. “How can I drive the tune? How can I fill in the gaps a little bit? If the band’s on an open chord, does it need a rolling double bass? If Adrian’s coming up with his lead vocals, should I pull back and give him some space?” It’s a totally different side of my brain that I get to exercise with this band and it’s awesome.
What did you start playing first, bass or drums?
AvM: Well, I started playing guitar when I was a teenager *laughs*. I started with that. Then, I picked up drums and I joined a band on drums that didn’t do a whole lot. Right as soon as that came up, a band here in Oakland called Wild Hunt needed a bass player. I jumped in with them. That was my first real serious touring and recording project that I did. Drums have always been super fun. I’ve always loved playing with other people as a drummer. Jamming as a drummer is such a different experience than jamming as a bass player for me, especially with guys like Tom and Adrian who are always so fun and so creative and have such a great way of making songs happen, just one riff or one melody. It feels great to be able to support that from a production perspective.
Some of these songs boast a strong fantasy theme within the lyrics. Who’s responsible for this characteristic of the band?
AdM: It’s all a manifestation of Goro. His hands have travelled the decades. I don’t write the words. The words come from Goro.
TD: Adrian’s just a vessel.
This debut album also boasts a strong NWOBHM influence. Going all around, if you had to choose only one, what is your essential NWOBHM album?
TD: Angel Witch by Angel Witch.
AvM: I think I have to go with Court in the Act by Satan.
AdM: Oh gosh…the first Iron Maiden album.
I was almost between Angel Witch and Iron Maiden myself, but at the end of the day, I gotta go with Wheels of Steel by Saxon.
AvM: Awesome!
That triumvirate of Wheels of Steel, Strong Arm of the Law, and Denim and Leather, it can go either way, but Wheels is the one that just inches out to #1. Great choices all around! Those are all influences I hear when listening to this album, especially Court in the Act. What an album.
AvM: You picked a really cool one in Wheels of Steel because that straight rock beat you hear in the title track, that’s “End to End” all the way. That, “Budu-bada-budu-bada-budu-bada!” It’s that same tempo, a really similar groove. That feel, at least drum-wise, is what I was totally trying to go for. You picked a badass one right there.
Thank you! Going back to that unpredictability I was talking about earlier, a couple songs on here, specifically “21st Century Plague” and “You Have No Face”, are overtly punky. Growing up, what were your views on punk and how did it affect your musical development?
AdM: I was a skater in the ’80s and I played all the punk rock tunes. I went and saw all the punk bands. All my friends were little punk-ass mofos like me. That’s where a lot of it comes from because I played all the punk music until I learned how to play a couple of Led Zeppelin songs and figured out that’s how you get chicks.
TD: I had zero punk in my upbringing, none at all. I was an indie kid in the ’90s. My favorite bands were Blur and Oasis. When I started getting into music, there were what was popular in the UK. That was the stuff I aspired to as a budding young guitar player. Then I went straight into hair metal and classic rock, then classic heavy metal. I bypassed punk completely, the closest I get to any punk stuff I guess is when I was playing with Angel Witch. Songs like “Extermination Day” have a pretty punky feel. It’s just not really part of my musical DNA.
AvM: Yeah, so when I was growing up on music, I was playing a lot of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater. How about that *laughs*? That had a lot of equal doses of punk and metal in there, so when I was a real early teenager, like 13 or 14, I was listening to just as much punk as I was metal. I remember there was a certain inflection point when I got both Damaged by Black Flag and Overkill by Motörhead at the record store. I just happened to listen to Overkill a little more, so it got me a little more in the hard rock/metal side. Eventually, it became all metal, but I still have the Ramones in my DNA. I still have a lot of Dead Kennedys, a lot of Black Flag, a lot of Discharge. I don’t listen to as much punk these days. I don’t go to punk shows or anything like that, but there’s still some punk bands and records that I love.
I’ve said it many times: Discharge was the most influential punk band on metal. That d-beat, the riffs…they were as important to thrash as Motörhead or any NWOBHM band, as far as the genre becoming a reality.
AvM: Totally!
AdM: That shit really comes from Goro because Goro was the Outworld fighting champion for 500 years, up until very recently when he was defeated for the first time in 500 years by that scumbag Johnny Cage. Goro’s pissed off. It’s time to get his title back!
While we have you all here, are there any updates you’d like to provide on your main bands?
TD: Spirit Adrift was supposed to be going out on tour with Green Lung in Europe in April, but due to a family emergency, had to cancel. However, very luckily for me, the band who was asked to fill in, Spell, needed a guitar player. So I will still be doing that tour, but I’ll be playing with Spell, not Spirit Adrift. That’s pretty nuts. That’s the most interesting thing I’ve got to share un-Goro related.
AvM: One of my other bands, Nite, we’re going on tour for a couple weeks. We’re going to the Hell’s Heroes Festival and back, which is over in Texas. We wrapped up tracking for a new record near the end of last year, so we’re in the middle of mixing it and hopefully getting that end of things taken care of soon. Nite album #3 hopefully coming out this year if manufacturing and all that annoying stuff that doesn’t have anything to do with music works out in our favor. Then I’ve got my death metal band, Wretched Stench. We’re about halfway through writing a new record and we’re just playing random shows here and there, trying to stay busy. That’s what I’ve got going on with my projects.
AdM: Slough Feg is working on some new material. The spaceship has left the building and we are currently in orbit working on new material that probably should see the light of day hopefully this year. The Highwatters is playing at J Winston Winery on February 24, I believe, and we’re playing at the retirement home in San Francisco on February 19. That’s a private function, but still always good. That’s about all on my end.
While you’re all busy with your main bands, is there any chance we can see Hands of Goro playing live in the future? If not a full blown tour, perhaps a festival here or there?
TD: We would love to start getting booked for festivals and out of town shows. So far, we have only played in San Francisco and Oakland, which is very convenient for us, because that’s where we live, but very inconvenient for people who do not live nearby. We have one show booked right now which is our album release show on February 24. We’re playing Oakland for that one with Matt Harvey’s old thrash band Dekapitator and Molten, the San Francisco based death/thrash band. They’re about to release a new album.
We’re hoping that the release of this album and doing interviews like this with your good self are gonna help get our name out more so that people know we exist and we are available to be booked because we all love going to those festivals, especially as artists. It’s really fun turning up to a new place and playing your tunes to strangers. That’s what we wanna do with this band.
AdM: Yeah, help us get some gigs Joe!
TD: Help us get some gigs Joe!
If you book them, they will come!
TD: That’s exactly right. The next time there’s some kind of traditional metal festival going on at Reggies or something, we’ll be there if they’ll have us.
Legions of Metal 2025! Let’s make it happen!
TD: Deal!
You hear that Bob (Byrne)? If you book Hands of Goro, they will come.
TD: If you book Spirit Adrift, Slough Feg, and Nite, you’ll get Hands of Goro for free!
Hands of Goro’s self titled debut album releases Friday, March 1st on BSP Records. For more information on Hands of Goro, visit www.facebook.com/thehandsofgoro/.