Kardashev

Kardashev is a progressive metal group from Tempe, Arizona, active since 2012. The band works in deathcore and progressive metal, and its broader sound draws on atmospheric black metal, post-rock, death metal, and related heavy styles. Its music is framed around ideas of technology, love, and altruism.

Formation and sound

The group forms in June 2012 and builds its material around a heavy but atmospheric approach. It is associated with deathgaze, atmospheric, djent, progressive death metal, deathcore, space, and science themes, alongside the main progressive metal and deathcore classification. The band describes its aim as making heavy music with a strong melodic and textural side.

Members

Mark Garrett and Nico Mirolla are core members of the band, with Sean Lang on drums and Alexander Adin Rieth on bass. Garrett has been part of the group since the start, contributing vocals, lyrics, melodic ideas, and broader creative input. He sings and screams on every release, directs and produces music videos, creates vocal how-to videos, prepares promotional material, and runs the instructional school Kardavox Academy. He also writes poetry and performs as vocalist and lyricist for Neverbreath and Viraemia.

Mirolla has also been with the band since 2012 and serves as the sole composer and guitarist, as well as handling day-to-day management, social media, publishing, shipping, networking, and other administrative work. He also runs the home studio where the band has created all of its music since the beginning.

Lang joins the group on drums after being introduced to the band in 2015, with the process of bringing him into the lineup beginning in 2018. Rieth becomes the bass player in 2019 after having known the band since 2010 through a mutual friend. He first appears on the album The Baring of Shadows and is also known for playing bass in Holy Fawn. Earlier, he tours with the band on a week-long run called “The Game of Tones” in 2013 with his then band A Distant Calm.