After Dondre “Savages” Campbell put the finishing touches on his newest guitar solo, he eyed the whiteboard on the wall. Another check mark could be added to the track list.
The music Campbell finished recording is loud and aggressive, which stands in contrast to his friendly and unassuming demeanor.
Campbell tend to laughs nervously at his own wry — and often self-deprecating — jokes. He is heavily tattooed, but rather than the skulls and demons of his metal peers, he is ornamented with video game characters.
By day, 26-year-old Campbell is a customer service agent, but in his spare time the self-taught musician and producer runs the 5-piece death metal group All In Agony, where he plays lightning-fast guitar licks and screams bellicose guttural vocals.
Arizona has a thriving, albeit underground, metal scene that Campbell is tapping into. And while All In Agony are an upstart band, they have already started making waves in the local scene by opening for more established bands in various dives in the Phoenix area, which has had a long history of producing big name metal bands like Sacred Reich or even Alice Cooper.
But the death metal scene All In Agony are part of now is more raw, irreverent and, most importantly, heavier than these bands.
“People say the scene is dead,” said Campbell, laughing. “It’s not f—ing dead; if it were, you wouldn’t have shows like this.”
Growing Up Metal
Campbell became enamored with metal music at a young age. His mother lost her job in the 2008 financial crisis and several relatives died in a short time period, so he moved in with his uncle in Flagstaff, an artist, who introduced Campbell to the genre.
“I still graduated high school, but I went at least eight,” Campbell said of his childhood struggles. “I got heavy into drugs as well.”
Campbell said this period in his life was difficult but music helped him overcome his struggles.
As Campbell relayed this in his apartment bedroom-turned-music studio in Mesa, the off-white walls surrounding him were bare save for the whiteboard bearing his album progress and a painting of a DJ his uncle created for him.
Campbell eventually moved back to Mesa from Flagstaff but his school credits did not transfer and he had difficulty graduating.
But Campbell said he eventually did graduate — though he purposely delayed his graduation date until April 20, a play on an in-joke of marijuana users — and he quit taking drugs to focus on his music. He attributes both his sobriety and work ethic to his musical endeavors.
“You have to expect sacrifices in order to do what you need to do, and that’s what I had to do,” said Campbell. “It involves spending some time not sleeping and spending a lot of time learning.”
Campbell first saw some success as a dubstep musician operating under the stage name “Savages,” a sardonic play on his Native American heritage. After his DJ career dwindled down, he kept “Savages” as his stage name for All In Agony, his first foray into metal despite his lifelong love for the genre.
Path to Live Shows
All In Agony had a few smaller local shows under their belt before entering a battle of the bands to compete for a spot on the Summer Slaughter Tour in summer 2018 – which is a big deal in the metal scene. The band didn’t win but the show earned them the recognition of Thirteenth Floor Entertainment, a local promotion company. This led to a booking in September at the modest Club Red in Mesa, one of about 20 or so dives in the Phoenix area that host local metal bands, with the much larger groups Exhumed and Revocation.
In turn, the Club Red show earned them another spot opening for Unearth, a childhood favorite of Campbell’s, slated for Dec. 1, also at Club Red.
All In Agony draw a modest crowd, mostly comprised of friends and other local metal musicians, but in the process they get a chance to play for the much larger audiences of established groups. There are always people surrounding the band’s merchandise table, though many of them are just there to chat.
A fan of the band, 26-year-old car technician Corey Koch is one of these people, who said he didn’t really listen to much metal until discovering Campbell’s band.
“The past three months or so, I’ve been going to his shows and I’ve already got the shirt,” sad Koch. “I’ve been loving it. I never have a bad time at any of their shows.”
Koch said the band’s stage presence, dedication and, above all, sense of fun are what initially drew him into the metal scene.
“I think they all have a good time doing it and Dondre does a great job making all the music,” Koch said.
Writing Process
Campbell is currently writing the band’s debut album in his apartment, tracking the guitars and vocals straight into his computer and using samplers to program drums. He draws upon skills gained in his former life as a DJ to mix and produce All In Agony’s distinctive sound.
For Campbell, the ability to self-record with modern technology offers freedom not previously available to musicians.
“It’s more of a be-your-own-boss type thing,” said Campbell, whose recordings, concerts and internet presence have built a following for the band through word of mouth. “If I had a manager, I’d probably see some negatives.”
From the inception of the band, Campbell has written all the music in his home studio and delivered the tracks to the bandmates, which he said he considers an ideal situation.
“We’ve gotten this far without any professional recordings,” said Campbell. “It’s just been through word of mouth – just us being who we are.”
“All of a sudden we got so many great shows and we’ve opened up for a lot of great bands,” Campbell added. “We’ve gotten almost 500 likes [on Facebook] in our first year.”
Limitations
Despite these successes, heavy metal is not a lucrative genre and Campbell does not expect to make a career from All In Agony’s music.
“I don’t really expect any money out of this whole project,” said Campbell with his usual laughter. “You’ve got to pay to have fun.”
For Campbell, the band is not about money but being able to dedicate himself to something he is passionate about and the friendships gained in the scene, which he describes as a family.
Comradery
According to bandmate, bassist Nico Depasquale, a 26-year-old sales representative from Ahwatukee, Campbell’s attitude and work ethic is central to the cohesiveness of the band. Beyond that, Depasquale said he considers their friendship paramount.
“The only reason I can stay in a band is because I really get along with the people that I make music with,” Depasquale said. “If we’re not all on the same page, then the band doesn’t work.”
Campbell agreed and attributed the band’s success to the comradery he has garnered with his bandmates.
“Playing in my room four years ago, I would never think any of this would be happening,” Campbell said. “I have a really great line up of talented men and I’m really excited for the next year and more to come.”
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