“Dead World 2189” is the second fully original full-length album and fourth non-single release for 2020. The album’s dark cyberpunk theme takes place in the distant dystopian future that some may believe we are on the path towards. Any similarities to current events with the theme this album uses is purely coincidental, the songs on the album were planned in Jan-Feb of 2020 and produced within the following months.
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PS: my music is stream safe. if you are a streamer who needs music to play during your streams, you are more than welcome to use mine.
released October 16, 2020
You can purchase the album through Bandcamp HERE If you cannot buy from Bandcamp at the moment, please consider Following, Playing, and Saving the songs from the album through Spotify HERE
This blog is about why I changed my artist name, and why a name change might be needed.
I first started my solo music project back in 2005 and named it Mechanized Warfare. This name was highly influenced by the Marilyn Manson album “Mechanical Animals”, but I twisted the first part around to “Mechanized” and ended up sticking “Warfare” onto it because it sounded cool. The name made me think of robots fighting, and this was before the first Transformers movie came out in 2007. I was in other bands at the time and none of them ended up working out. Mechanized Warfare ended up being what I had worked on up until 2016 when I completely quit the music business. I eventually came back to the music world in late 2019 under the name The Evil Dark. There are a few reasons why I did not continue to use the previous name, and I will explain those reasons in this blog post.
Mechanized Warfare was an Industrial music based project. In the beginning it was more experimental than anything, since it did not fall under any particular genre at the time. After awhile it morphed into an Industrial Metal mixed with Aggrotech music project, and this is where it was in 2016. Coming back under a different genre would be one of the reasons I changed my name to The Evil Dark. However, I do admit that you can make an argument that there is a close relation between Aggrotech and Darksynth/Cyberpunk (more notable bloggers have talked about a correlation between these genres), and there have been some former Aggrotech music producers that moved over to making Darksynth & Cyberpunk music.
The reason I changed my name is because I expected my sound to be completely different than what I was producing under the name Mechanized Warfare, but whether or not it actually sounds different is really up to the listener. In my opinion, a name change would be fitting if you were to switch to a completely different genre. For example, if you make Black Metal and want to switch to Country music, you would definitely need to consider a name change. Switching genres does not always warrant a name change, but in some cases it does. You do have to think about your fans and if they would be willing to listen to your new stuff even if it is different, or risk losing all of your fans if the change is too dramatic. It’s a calculated risk, and the artist themselves should make the final decision on this one.
Since there was an issue with the name I was using, I wanted to get rid of it and use a new name. I had a longstanding issue with using the abbreviation “MW” for Mechanized Warfare because of a certain popular shooter game that first came out in 2007 called Modern Warfare. So because I had used that abbreviation on some of the URLs I was using, I ended up getting some smart-ass comments from people that didn’t realize my music had pre-dated that game’s existence. After all, 2005 happened before 2007, if the obvious is needed to be stated here. Another issue was that I had unknowingly used the same name as a Jag Panzer album, which is not how I came up with the name. I had always felt uncomfortable using the name ever since learning about that album. And if that wasn’t enough, there were “gamer clans” on YouTube that started to call themselves “Mechanized Warfare” in the mid-2010’s, and there is also an Airsoft account on Twitter that uses that name. While the name itself is not unique, there were just too many people using it in the mid-2010’s.
When I came back to the music world, I did not want to be one of those people trying to tell everyone that I was not one of these dozens of people using my name. Renaming my music solo project to The Evil Dark still has a few issues, but not as many as my previous name. If you Google my name you still get a lot of useless stuff that has nothing to do with music, but it’s not quite as bad as it was before. If you use certain search terms, even with SEO optimization, my stuff will finally pop up and appear in search results, which is better than nothing.
Now that I explained why I changed my name, I will attempt to give out some of my advice. Should other music artists consider changing their project names?
It depends on what you are doing with your music, and if the name is being used elsewhere. If you are switching to another genre that has nothing to do with your current genre (like my example of Black Metal to Country), then it would be worth considering rather than losing all your fans. Some genre changes don’t need a name change though and it’s something the artist will have to consider themselves. And if your name is being used by a lot of other artists, or if the name is being used elsewhere, you can consider changing your name to avoid confusion.
With that said, it is not uncommon for multiple bands to use the same name if they are from different countries and/or genres and were not aware of the other band(s) with the same name. For example look at Assassin, there are 3 music artists/bands with that name, one is a Thrash Metal band from Germany, another is a Hip-Hop group from France, and the last one is a Dancehall musician from Jamaica. If you can co-exist with the same name without a probable chance to cross paths, then you probably don’t need to change it. However, in some instances keeping a name can cause confusion, and maybe even start arguments in this age of social media. The artist themselves have to decide if changing their name is something they need to do.
My final thought is this, if your artist name is based off of your real name or sounds like a real name, then you can probably avoid all of this. Music artists with these types of names can make music in any genre, as long as there are no other artists with the same name. However, since a lot of us work under a name that sounds more like a brand than a real name, we have to remember our own limitations and be considerate of how others perceive us and our music. In a perfect world, we would be able to make whatever music we wanted to, under any name, without the judgment of others. But unfortunately, that is not how it is.
The purpose of this blog post is to hopefully explain and give insight on why I don’t play live any more.
Playing bass with Black Gun Barrels in late 2006 for a battle of the bands event.
The last time that I technically played live was in late 2006 or in 2007 with the band I played bass with at the time, called “Black Gun Barrels”. That band ended up splitting up sometime in 2007. Before then, I had played live with a few other bands. But in late 2005 I had started my solo music project, which was called “Mechanized Warfare” at the time, as I did not rename myself to “The Evil Dark” until late 2019. I started Mechanized Warfare as a solo side-project since I was in a few bands at the time, but it later became my focus after those bands broke up. Also, looking for bands that needed a bass player around DC was getting me nowhere, I learned the hard way that bass players are not needed in the DC area therefore I was not needed. Mechanized Warfare lasted until 2016, and the one & only time my music project had played a live show was in spring of 2006 at a new age shop which hosted live music shows at night. At the time, Mechanized Warfare was me playing a distorted octave-down effect bass along with a drum machine, so it was possible for me to play live.
The thing was there was a falling out between myself and one of the promoters of their events, and I was no longer welcome to play with them again. The way it worked at these DIY venues (which were technically not venues through a legal loophole), is that they would reserve a time slot with whoever the promoter was, and the promoter would do the rest of the work to get the show together. Of course I only knew the one promoter who basically black-balled me from playing there, and I never found out who else was booking shows at that location, otherwise I would have tried to arrange something through them instead. At these places, bands can also reserve time as well if they don’t mind doing the work of the promoters themselves, at least if you know who to contact at the venue.
There was a reason I had a falling out with that particular promoter. I did not hold anything against them on a personal level, but I had an issue with their professionalism (or lack thereof). My main issue was that the headlining band had never played live before and they had only previously practiced together a handful of times at most. I was bumped to the slot of opening the show simply because I was “one person” and supposedly easier to set up and clean up after. This is what I was being told even though as a musician, this far from being my first time playing live and opening slots are usually given to those with less experience than the other performers. The band after me also did not understand why the headlining band was who it was either, both me and the band after me had years of experience playing live and we did not know why a band who was barely a month old was headlining a live show. The new band should have been opening, not headlining. There was obviously some favoritism with that arrangement because some of the members of this new band were friends and relatives of the people who owned the place as well as the promoter.
I have never before heard of a band headlining their very first live show until that night. And before people start saying, “it just sounds like a hurt ego”, its not that at all. If you go to a live show, the headlining band is always the biggest name with the most experience. Headliners are what typically attracts people to come to watch the live show. It doesn’t matter what genre the show is, it doesn’t even matter what location it is at, the headliner is always the biggest name with the most experience. Now some people might say I have an attitude about what happened because I was not headlining. This is also not true, for Mechanized Warfare this was the first show, so I was expecting to play after the new band opened and then the more experienced band who played after me would have headlined. This is how it should have happened, but it did not.
Old flyer for the one and only show Mechanized Warfare did live in 2006. Much like my music at the time, this was done the old way, by hand, as I did not own a computer until 2008. Rites Of Ash and The Marbles were the two bands that cancelled and did not play.
There was also a big issue with booking through the promoter. The live show was moved back from it’s original date, which means all those people that were set to watch the performance on the original date would now be no-shows due to their own schedule conflicts, as many were not able to arrive on the new date. It was supposed to be a 5 band show, but it ended up being 3 because one band backed out beforehand and the other band cancelled at the last minute because the promoter did not want them playing. I’m not even sure how the promoter fumbled with that band that had to cancel at the last moment, but my theory is that because the new band was so favorited and the promoter already set their mind for the new band to headline the show, that the band got angry with the promoter for not considering having a bigger band take the spotlight for a headliner and therefore cancelled. After this gig was over I ended up telling off the promoter in an email, therefore burning bridges with them and getting black-balled from their “gig promotion” services. But not surprisingly they only continued booking for that location for a few months after this before themselves quitting from it. After this, I didn’t have luck finding gigs under the current format Mechanized Warfare was using.
After Mechanized Warfare changed it’s sound over the years, it was still impossible to find gigs. A lot of this was due to electronic music promoters at the time considering anything related to industrial music as “not part of electronic music” and I did not have any metal promoter contacts either. It also did not help that within the industrial community that there were many people who actually said “if it has guitar, it’s not industrial”, these are the people I call “industrial puritans” and others would also call them “gatekeepers”. They are the ones that would argue with fans of industrial metal and industrial rock, telling them that bands in these genres should not even use the word “industrial” in their genre name. This was a bigger problem in the early 2010’s than it is in 2020, but it still made it impossible to find a gig due to the fact that nobody understood the genre I was playing. The only time Mechanized Warfare’s music got a review was done by an online metal magazine in 2014. Since they specialized in metal genres they did not fully understand the music, but I still thanked them for the review since they took the time to do so.
Since renaming my music project to The Evil Dark and changing my sound to a different genre, I have gotten a few offers for playing a live show. The only reason I’m currently turning them down is an issue with equipment, I would need a keyboard of some sort in order to play live and I don’t own one. I’m a computer-based music producer, and I don’t use any external inputs (such as midi for example). If that wasn’t an issue, I could still only play locally since I rely on using the public transportation system based around DC. While asking for a ride may not seem like a big deal to most, it is a big deal when you no longer know anyone in the area so you have nobody to ask. Also, if touring was in my future, I would need to co-tour with someone that could give me rides to the gig locations.
“Undead Again: The Remixes” is the multi-genre remix companion to the album “Dead Again”. This is the second official album from The Evil Dark and this album features various remixes of songs from the “Dead Again” album.
This album requires a $2.00 minimum (US currency).
Remember that every purchase will enjoy the various Bandcamp perks from being a paid supporter.
Thank you!!
released February 7, 2020
You can purchase the album through Bandcamp HERE If you cannot buy from Bandcamp at the moment, please consider Following, Playing, and Saving the songs from the album through Spotify HERE
“Dead Again” is the first official album released under the name “The Evil Dark”
While the previous releases under the old name are free (or name your price), this album requires a $2.00 minimum (US currency).
Remember that every purchase will enjoy the various Bandcamp perks from being a paid supporter.
Thank you!!
released January 24, 2020
You can purchase the album through Bandcamp HERE If you cannot buy from Bandcamp at the moment, please consider Following, Playing, and Saving the songs from the album through Spotify HERE
Disclaimer: all professional bios are written in 3rd person. If you have a problem with that, please leave.
The man behind the music project called “The Evil Dark” is named Aaron Henderson. He was born in 1984 in Washington, DC. By the late 1990s, Aaron was living in Ohio. And as a teenager in high school, he started writing song lyrics to original songs. He also started playing guitar in high school as well, due to a few music classes that were offered in 9th and 11th grades.
The 9th grade class taught classical music through acoustic guitar, it is in this class where the teacher claimed Aaron (and another student as well) had “qualm palms” and this would have prevented him from playing guitar in the future according to the teacher. Unfortunately for that teacher, he continued to play but never had any issues because he never needed to play in a style that required every single string to be used in an open chord pattern all of the time (ex: Folk music). The kind of music Aaron was into was definitely not folk music, he liked rock music. When he was in 10th grade, he started listening to the harder stuff which would be considered under the umbrella term of “Underground Metal”. One of the first Death Metal bands he would listen to would be Morbid Angel. The next music class that offered guitar was in another high school in Maryland which Aaron attended 11th grade, where an actual “guitar” class was offered. Much like the last class mentioned, the classroom had their own acoustic guitars which where owned and supplied by the school.
Outside of school he only messed around on friends’ guitars at times, but didn’t play much since he didn’t own his own guitar. And he also didn’t properly know any full songs because of his limited time behind the guitar. It would be the next year, for the Christmas of 2001, when he would first get an electric guitar of his own. Since Aaron was into Hard Rock and Metal, the first things he learned were power chords and different kinds of alternative tunings (such as Drop-D). From that point on, he would eventually teach himself how to become a Metal rhythm guitarist of sorts. The early recordings from that period of time are lost to the sands of time, which is probably a good thing since most of those recordings were not great by any means.
In late 2003, Aaron would meet a new friend & start a noisy Hardcore band with him called Random Noise. Aaron would play guitar and his friend would be the vocalist. The band officially started in early 2004 and wouldn’t do very well because they were considered a joke by the majority of people in the DC Punk scene who had witnessed the band live. The vocalist wasn’t overly concerned over what anyone thought, and used the opportunity to work out his own issues over the mic. The lineup was always changing outside of the two founding members, the third member being whoever happened to agree to be the drummer at the time.
Aaron also agreed to join the Alternative Rock group Black Gun Barrels in 2004 as a bass player. At the time Black Gun Barrels were made of 3 members but were soon to be joined by a drummer. A few months later the lead guitarist quit the band making it a 3 person band once again. The peak of the band Random Noise would be the time they played a show with Total Chaos in late 2004 at an unknown dive bar in Alexandria, VA. At that time the drummer from Black Gun Barrels agreed to play the show. That would be the last show ever for Random Noise as the band finally called it quits in 2005.
Playing in Black Gun Barrels, early 2005
In 2005, Aaron would also first start working on his solo music project called “Mechanized Warfare” by borrowing a drum machine and recording the first few tracks, which also involved playing an octave-down tuned distorted bass played alongside the drum machine. The project was mostly experimental at the time. In the spring of 2006, Mechanized Warfare would release the first EP (called “Endless Night”) and do the first & only live show for that project. These early tracks would also be found on Myspace as this was before other social networks, such as Facebook, would take off. The drum machine heard on the first EP was borrowed from the singer/guitarist of Black Gun Barrels. Aaron bought his own drum machine in mid-2006 after finding a way to pay for it (a Zoom RhythmTrak RT- 223).
The Zoom RhythmTrak RT- 223 drum machine that was used from mid-2006 until 2009
At some point in mid-2006, Aaron played bass in a short lived Hardcore Punk band called “The S&M” (which also went by a plethora of alternate names since members of the band considered the name to be an acronym and you could make up any name you wanted for it, as long as the words started with S and M). Most of the band already had another main band they played in, so for the majority of the band this was just a side project. Aaron met most of these guys at many of the live shows he attended in the DC Punk scene at the time (from about 2003-2006). That band only lasted a few weeks during the summer of 2006. Black Gun Barrels continued until some time in 2007 when that band finally broke up.
At this point, Mechanized Warfare was the only survivor. Aaron had left the DC Punk scene and was now a regular at a goth club in DC called “Midnight” from 2007 until early 2009. Between 2008-2009, with a new guitar and finally, a computer to record with; his solo project became more guitar driven and ended up creating songs in the styles of Industrial Rock/Industrial Metal. A YouTube commenter (in 2011) once said “Reminds me of KMFDM but heavier”. That comment most likely has been deleted due to the multiple apocalyptic wipes YouTube has done over the years (which also explains the disappearance of many old comments). Also, Aaron was an Industrial, Electronic/Dance, and Rock DJ for an adults-only online world called “RLC” between 2009-2011, and again from mid-2017 until Jan 2018.
In late 2010, shortly before Mechanized Warfare started posting to YouTube (in 2011), Aaron obtained a copy of FL Studio and started to learn about electronic music production. And that was when the last era of Mechanized Warfare’s sound was born. The closest way to describe it would be Industrial Metal mixed with Aggrotech. Many of the influences ranged from Nine Inch Nails, Skinny Puppy, Ministry & other artists such as Agonoize, Centhron, Front 242… And countless others. In this final era, the project would release 4 EP’s and a 10 track compilation album that contained the original “Endless Night” EP as well as additional songs from the Industrial Rock/Industrial Metal era.
The solo project Mechanized Warfare would join other similar music artists in an independent music label called Elektro Villain near the end of 2014. There was a collaboration album released in 2015 called “Mechanized Warfare vs Elektro Ferret” which was released through the label. That label was also known for putting out compilation albums. Mechanized Warfare lasted until the final EP was released in 2016, when Aaron completely quit the music business for various reasons. An old friend, whom used to be the vocalist for Black Gun Barrels, seemed to agree with the choice Aaron made. He told Aaron that it’s been over 10 years since he started Mechanized Warfare, maybe its time to move on.
Then 2019 rolled around… At this point Aaron was an Army veteran, and at some point during the year Aaron discovered a genre called “Synthwave” which he had not been aware of before. Upon first listen, it reminded him of synth heavy 80’s music. He had listened to music genres from the 1980’s before, but this was new and different. In November, Aaron was preparing to return to the music world. All social media profiles with the name Mechanized Warfare had been changed to reflect the brand new name.
The name for his solo music project would now become “The Evil Dark”. Aaron has also decided to go with a different sound, and come from a new Synth angle rather than from the previous Industrial side. Everything he has made has been dark sounding, even his Rock and Metal had been dark. Therefore his new music would also be dark, as there was no choice for the music to come out differently. The name is a good fit to describe his dark sound, and the name is also a reference to an 80s Horror movie (which also explains the design of the logo).
“Dead Again” was the first album released by The Evil Dark in Jan 2020, and the remix album followed in Feb 2020. He has also released the “Endless Night Revisited” EP and 2 singles leading up to the album “Dead World 2189” which was released on Oct 16, 2020.
As of the start of 2021, The Evil Dark is no longer associated with Synthwave or any artists within the genre, due to internal issues within the genre. The Evil Dark has returned to it’s previous industrial music roots from before the name change, but this time it is more aggrotech and electro based rather than an offshoot of industrial metal. As of mid-February 2021, The Evil Dark has changed the spelling of the music project to EVVLDVRK1 and has released one single “Life Is A Bitch” under the new spelling with the newer sound.
As of April 2021, Aaron has taken a break from music production and is now DJ’ing on Twitch playing music on that platform. The main reason for taking the break from music is that the music industry always favored those on labels, even Bandcamp Fridays favored those on labels and not those that actually needed the money. Also, even a small streamer on Twitch makes more than unsigned independent artists, so there is a huge discrepancy on potential income. Because there is no desire to go back to being a starving artist (where it takes an entire year of 4 different releases to make $200, which is what small twitch streamers make in one or two months), there are no immediate plans to return to creating music in the future. Unless, of course, the fans ask for it.
The Evil Dark, the dark electronic music project 