Written by Dorian Wolfe, Photographed by Jess Diaz, GC Moorman (@mediabygc), & Maude Tucker (@solaceinsolitude).
On November 11th, 2025, we sat down for a chat with Nashville-based screamo band Catacomb. Taking a quick break before practice, the members——Alex (vocals/guitar), Silas (guitar), Colin (drums), and Mae (bass)——crammed onto a couch to talk with us about how they started, what drives their sound, how they feel about the local scene, and what projects they plan to do next.
How did you get started making music?
Alex: “Catacomb kind of started when I told my brother [Colin] to start a band and learn drums for a post hardcore band.
Colin : Yeah. We loved screamo and hardcore music. Especially Title Fight and Orchid.
Alex: Then we went to Quahog Emo Night, but I was writing the first EP’s riffs before then. We met Silas at a Maker’s Fair through our old bassist. Ever since we’ve been grinding, recording, and finalizing new music and the Southeast Summer Unity Festival [more on that later].
Was your latest album’s title “Remove the Faceplate” intended to be a Sally Face reference?
Alex: It didn’t start off as a Sally Face reference but after I watched Mae play through the whole game I felt inspired to write a lot of the songs on RTF. We had the album’s concept hanging around for a year and a half and never felt like I was able to play with a band that could express it emotionally enough.
Colin : I think we shared the lore account (@etalpecafehtevomer) but I don’t think we’ve really talked about Remove the Faceplate…
Alex: The girl on the cover is like, kind of a direct rip from Sally Face. The cover art is by @corrupted.automata.
Has living in Nashville/the Southeast inspired your music in any way?
Silas: I’ve only really been in the [Nashville] scene since joining Catacomb because I didn’t really know it existed. Then I joined and was shown all of this and––it’s crazy how much inspiration can come from your friends.
Alex: Yeah especially that Wideparte album that came out the other day.
Colin: Yeah agreed.
Silas: Definitely.
Alex: It’s so cool to see your friends play cool stuff, it’s like friendly competition. We’re all encouraging each other to get better and build up the scene.
Colin: The Nashville Hardcore scene is really supportive when it comes to making music and helping people get shows. When we played the Week Knees farewell show with The Gallstones, Figurine, Celltower, Could be better––afterwards Will from The Gallstones came up to us and told us they were starting Makeworks Studio and that they’d love to record our album for free.
Alex: They really helped us so much with mixing & mastering. Sean is so helpful when it comes to booking advice. He actually helped me book one of the bands for the first-ever show I’m hosting on December 19th. The band is called “when the rain clears” and they’re really cool. I didn’t really know how to do this so. Sean and everyone at Makeworks is so great. I think it can be really hard and intimidating to work with corporate studios–at least that’s what I’ve heard. The people we know have really made this all feasible.
What’s your favorite song/album?
Alex: Album-wise, lately I’ve been listening to Feedbacker by Boris.
Silas: Oh this is hard, it’s such a broad question. Ok, for album–Just Got Back from the Discomfort by The Brave Little Abacus. As for song….well, anything by The Microphones.
Colin: For album, “Last Thing You Forget” by Title Fight. I’ve been really into older hardcore like Floorpunch, Gorilla Biscuits––
Alex: Do you have any songs or…?
Colin: Oh. Yeah. “Hardcore Pride” by Ten Yard Fight, “Don’t Forget the Struggle, Don’t Forget the Streets” by Warzone, “Bigmouth” by Gorilla Biscuits. ALL great. Oh, and Skycamefalling is a great band.
Mae: Honestly I don’t really listen to hardcore a lot. I really enjoy folk/indie music. I really love the album “Bleeds” by Wednesday. Oh, and Lowertown––I saw them recently at The Blue Room in Nashville.
If your music could say one thing to someone, what would it be?
Colin: I don’t know––not to sound corny––but you’re not alone. Everyone experiences a lot of the same things. Our album, Remove the Faceplate, is a lot about mental health. There’s a community around you, people are there for you.
Alex: Especially with the direction our newer stuff is going–very political and anti-war—I want people to be angry. I want people to recognize what’s going on and what our government is getting away with. You can make a difference!
Silas: I don’t know––yeah––definitely. You kind of took the words out of my mouth.
Alex: You could just repeat it.
Silas: Even though it’s sad music, I want people to feel empowered by it. They can make a change. We’re a bunch of teenagers that made an album. If you listen to our album and get something out of it, that makes a difference.
Mae: I kind of just work here, but I want people to get out there. Get on stage and don’t be afraid to make your own type of music. Make shit, move it. Be loud and don’t be afraid to be loud.
Alex: Move it!
How do you feel about the local music scene?
Alex: Love it. But one of my biggest pet peeves is when I ask people to come up to the front and they don’t. If I’m telling you to come up front, I only really do that if it’s not going to get that crazy.
Silas: We’re not trying to trick you.
Colin: Although I will say sometimes we’ll be playing “Wilted flowers…”, which is one of our softest classic screamo songs and there will still be a mosh pit for some reason.
Alex: I don’t know if anyone watches our live sets but there’s a clip of a 280lbs 6’4” like, guy whacking everybody down at the front of the stage they’re pins and he’s a bowling ball.
Colin: He knocked over my whole drum set.
Alex: It was really bad. But yeah, it’s one of our biggest pet peeves when people don’t come up front.
Alex: Okay as much as I love the scene I have some problems. There are too many beatdown bands.
Colin: Yeah I could say that.
Alex: There’s not enough in the hardcore/screamo scene. There are too many people making the same band right now and you can be more creative than that. I think why people are discouraged to be different is that there are a lot of successful “traditional” beatdown/hardcore bands. I think people should know that there is room to be as successful as something else. Like, Catacomb is––we’re just a bunch of kids that wanted to make a screamo band and now we’re playing shows out of state and looking at touring next year. It’s really cool, I didn’t think we’d get to do a lot of things. But now we are. Like right now, never thought we’d get interviewed!
Silas: So, what were the takeaways: just too many beatdown bands?
Alex: Too many beatdown bands, some people doing too much at shows with no regard for other people’s safety.
Colin: Genuinely though I love this scene, it took me out of such a dark space in my life and helped me get out and be myself at these shows. I’m forever grateful for that. I love how at shows you see almost the same people every time. It’s always nice seeing new people, but seeing the same people come out again and again is great. Like even if it’s not in your genre.
At this point, we veered off track to talk about different shows that were happening around Nashville. Eventually, we landed on the topic of what Catacomb’s band practice ritual is.
Alex: Ok, so we usually get a pizza. But tonight is different. We’re making soup. We lowkey practice for thirty minutes, then eat and watch Youtube.
Colin: It’s been happening since the first practice.
Mae: We watch Good Mythical Morning.
Alex: I used to watch bald eagle trailcams. Those are good.
Colin: Car crash videos. Let it be known, Catacomb practices for thirty minutes, pizza, then car crash/police chases.
Alex: Okay we watched a police chase ONE time but the rest of the time it’s Good Mythical Morning.
Have there been any bands or artists who have particularly supported or inspired you?
Alex: Sean from Celltower and total wife. He’s put us on a Ryman 2 bill that was really cool. Also Cort from Fate Chimera. He’s helped us a lot–like helping me book my first show at his house. I don’t mean to keep plugging that haha. Zach from Guerilla Bizkits. I already had them before but we went up to Nashville to try them the other day, and I’d rather have that than a regular biscuit any day.
Mae: I love Guerilla Bizkits. And Total wife, they’re all very nice. We’re recording our next record with Luna and Ash. Very sweet people. Rig b, celltower, total wife—all great bands.
Alex: Total wife is amazing.
Colin: I would like to shout out all of Iconoclast Zine and all of Heartattack–they have helped us so much. Makework Studios has helped us with literally everything. They’ve put us on bills, helped us record, put out our physical media. Sean, William, Will, Zach–all awesome people. My friends too! They’ve helped me with so much.
Silas: I don’t have many specific people, but anybody who runs a DIY space like a house venue or small business—all the people at Arcane Workshop who booked our first shows. We played exclusively at Arcane for, like, our first three shows. I don’t think we would’ve done much without those outlets.
Any upcoming projects or releases we should look out for?
Alex: We’re coming out with a new album. The folks at Ivy.Eat.Home, Total wife recorded their latest album there and it came out amazing. So I’m super excited to see what they can do with a heavier sound. Our first album was more conceptual and self-released. Our new album, or EP–not sure how many songs yet—is going to have more metalcore influence. Remove the Faceplate was very clean, we want our sound to be grittier and heavier moving forward. Our biggest influences are Neil Perry and Reversal of Man.
Silas: We’re not making post-hardcore but we’re taking a lot of inspiration from that…more breakdowns and stuff.
Alex: It’s going to be a lot angrier.
Alex: We’re also doing Southeast Summer Unity festival! This is like exclusive information but I’m in talks with Everyone Asked About You from Little Rock. I know they don’t really play down here but it would be really cool to have a Southeastern band headline. We’re also looking at a mini southeast tour in the summer. We do want to hit up Birmingham for sure. We have some new projects as well. We have a metalcore band we’re starting in like March. Silas is coming out with new music. We love Catacomb but we also want to explore and find more opportunities. Our show with Tower of Pines on 11/23/25 will be our most hardcore show yet.
Colin: I want everybody to come out to that one.
Catacomb’s music and latest album, “Remove The Faceplate” can be found on most major streaming platforms:
Keep up with their shows at @catacombtn on Instagram.
Thank you for reading! ≽^•⩊•^≼
Action Cat Zine 
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