“I saw Ace Frehley bending backwards doing a solo. That’s when it clicked with me: ‘I wanna be a rock guy now!’” Inspired by Kiss, Metallica and Dokken, DRAIN’s Cody Chavez is the hardcore hero who isn’t afraid to shred

A typical show by Cali hardcore crew DRAIN plays out like a greatest hits of early ’90s metal music videos, with bodies flying off the stage into a circle pit churning with moshers and slam dancers.

But while the crushing tones coming from Cody Chavez’s stable of Jackson guitars may fit the time when hardcore punk and thrash first met, he isn’t stuck in a bygone era – or even the genre itself. In fact, the rhythmically-inclined riffer, who started out playing drums, was a hip-hop head before discovering Kiss.

“I remember seeing Ace Frehley bending backwards doing a solo, and I was just like, ‘Whoa!’” Chavez says. “That’s when it clicked with me. I was like, ‘I wanna be a rock guy now!’”

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On DRAIN’s latest album, …IS YOUR FRIEND, his metronomic instincts shine – a rock-solid picking hand maintains a tightly wound, militaristic chug on songs such as Nights Like These, evoking comparisons to all-timers like James Hetfield, who he’s long respected.

“I watched videos of James playing during the …And Justice For All era and I just mimicked that,” Chavez recalls. “I feel like it kind of hindered me at first, because I’d downpick everything, and obviously you can only go so fast. But over the years I’ve found a balance between alternate picking and downpicking.”

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He puts that into action on Darkest Days, which builds from a stomping groove into a full-on thrasher. “I was thinking, ‘What would 19, 20-year-old Cody mosh to?’ I’m sitting with my eyes closed, imagining myself in a VFW hall or something, and I just imagined that beat and riff.”

The squeals, screams and dive-bombing licks throughout the 10-song record channel his inner Ace, not to mention Dimebag Darrell. Armed with his white Jackson MJ Series Dinky – he used a Jackson Virtuoso on the riffs – plus Peavey Butcher and Diezel amps, Chavez has all his tricks on display.

The new album distills everything people love about DRAIN, but there’s progression in the songwriting and playing. What was the feeling as you were working on it?

We really threw all our personalities and influences into a melting pot. Not that we haven't been down for that before, but I feel like we really honed in on it this time. And I feel like we’re a lot more mature now.

When we wrote California Cursed [2020], me and Sammy Ciaramitaro were like 20 and Tim Flegal was a little older. Now we’ve been a band for a while – we’ve been on so many tours in vans and buses together. I view this as a more mature body of work.

Your riffs recall elements of crossover thrash and skate punk, but you’re pulling from a broader slate of influences. What else inspires you on guitar?

Life experiences in general, like seeing what Mike Shaw does in Mindforce and what Dennis Vichidvongsa does in Speed. I’ve been listening to a lot of Kiss since Ace passed, going down memory lane.

On DRAIN’s earlier songs you shied away from solos, but they've become more integrated now. Are you shaking off some hardcore purism?

I wouldn’t say that. When I was a kid I’d see guitarists soloing and think, “I could never do that – I’m just gonna stick to playing rhythm.” But in reality, if you practice hard enough you can play like that. I’ve surprised myself over the years by how much I’ve improved in that area. I’m pretty excited to get more of that in these new songs.

Who are your biggest lead inspirations? There’s Dime and Zakk in all the pinch harmonics.

I love Dime and I love Zakk Wylde, especially the stuff he did with Ozzy. And I love a lot of the early Black Label Society stuff. But my favorite guitarist of all time is Dimebag for sure. When I got into Pantera as a kid, he really stood out to me.

I love Regular People off Vulgar Display of Power. My favorite album is Cowboys From Hell – Heresy is undeniable. It starts off with the harmonics and as a kid I was like, “What even is that?” It was all the little stuff that was different from your average thrash or hardcore band. It had so much character.

And then obviously The Art of Shredding is such an incredible riff. But for my favorite solo I’d probably say Live in a Hole from Vulgar – the way it goes into the groove part first is so cool.

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What goes into composing a solo for DRAIN?

For this album, we’d have the demos on our phones, then I’d come back home after practice and play them over a little JBL speaker and sit there with my guitar. I’d have an idea of what I want but then I’d think, “I could switch this part up.” It’s about sitting there and figuring out what works best and what sounds the best to my ears.

The solo on Who’s Having Fun matches the vocal melody; I like little stuff like that. My goal on Until Next Time was to sound like Dokken – a glam-metal sound, but something hardcore kids can still dance to.

So for the solo, I don’t wanna say I stole, but I was inspired by George Lynch on the Dokken song Into the Fire. You can hear there are some similar notes, but it’s more the way he plays. I took that energy for our song.

• …IS YOUR FRIEND is out now.