Expellow

The Band was founded by Gudi (lead guitar), Taz (bass), Sergio (former guitar) and Berni (former drums) in 2006 in Regensdorf-Watt, a town on the outskirts of Zurich, Switzerland. These days were a time of stylistic experimentation and since the band couldn’t really decide on a genre for their music, it was mutually agreed to not make too much of a big deal out of it. Instead, they just played whatever made them happy at the end of the day, which, back in these days, was a wild mix of black metal, pop punk and alternative rock.
In autumn 2007 a fight between Taz and a certain Mik broke out at a local concert. In a rather curious turn of events, this led to Mik auditioning as a vocalist and shortly thereafter joining Expellow despite having no previous band-experience.
The band started working on their songs and songwriting in earnest as well as gathering live show-experience. The loss of their rehearsal room in the wake of several lineup-changes in 2008 couldn’t stop the band either, even when they had to resort to practicing in Gudi’s old childhood room at his parents’ home or acoustically by the side of the lake. After a year, around 2010, the band was finally able to plug in their instruments in a rehearsal room again, which they shared with Gudis’ side-project “Across Your Enemy” (ex-Delirium). This newfound power gave way to the first album “The Silent Days Are Over”, which was recorded completely in do-it-yourself-manner and still featured the initial mix of the genres like black metal, (pop)-punk and alternative rock, including Mik’s first approaches to guttural vocals.
In the following years, 2011-2014, the band was able to move to a new rehearsal space, which they could even renovate to fit their needs and wishes. Gudi, who had just earned his diploma as an audio engineer, came up with the plan to integrate a fully functional studio into the rehearsal room and so the new homebase was taking shape over the course of roughly two years. It was in this newly built studio, where Expellow then proceeded to record their second album, “Modern Age Credo”, which released in 2015. This record deviated quite significantly from the sound of the previous ones. From then on, hardcore and metalcore formed the basis, while the elements and genre-leaps typical of Expellow were now used as more subtle, smaller interspersions. With this unique, somewhat rougher and more “oldschool” style, the band seemed to hit a certain nerve with the listeners, also, or perhaps precisely because this new direction could not simply be pigeonholed as metalcore, which was very popular at the time.
In the very same year, Sergio admitted to the band that he would love to focus on other things in his private life and was – in good spirits – stepping back from his job doing guitars. After a nerve-wrecking auditioning process and a head-to-head race between candidates, Nici was eventually chosen to step into Sergios’ shoes.
The many years of experience as a band showed results. As incessant rehearsals led to better songwriting and more and more live shows, the band also started to earn their place on the stages of national clubs and festivals. 2018, the album “We Held The Line” was released and the video for “Game Insane” went viral on HCWW, a circumstance leading to even more international spotlight for the five friends from Zurich. Expellow had successfully put themselves on the map of the local scene while also gathering an international audience.
However, despite the growing success Mik decided in 2019 to go unconventional ways to work on herself and enlisted to the army for a year. The plan was to record a new album in 2020 and of course play all the shows. But life had other plans and 2020 happened. Mik wasn’t allowed to leave the army-base for months and the rest of the band faced great obstacles for even meeting up. With the segment of live events almost completely wiped off the table for unknown duration, the band dwindled into a crisis like so many others in these times. Circumstances improved along with the global situation and the band weathered the storm, not unscathed but in one piece. In the years that followed the lockdowns, Expellow rose to the challenge of finding their feet in a post-pandemic world.
Fortunately, the energy, drive and joy also returned. New songs were written, the band got better organized and gradually returned to the stage. In 2023, the songwriting for the long-planned new album was completed and the recordings sessions started. So far, everything has always been done 100% DIY, but this time it was decided to record the vocals off-site for the first time, namely at Mammoth Audio Engineering Studios in Zurich. Eventually, the new album “Signals On Swells” was released in October 2024 and was welcomed into the world with a completely sold-out show in Zurich.
Expellow have put the difficult, crisis-ridden, post-pandemic years behind them with renewed vigour. Not only the friendship among themselves but also their musical skills are stronger than ever. The best thing for the band, however, is the steadily growing, established fanbase that had been eagerly awaiting Expellow's return. “Signals On Swells” deals more with political themes and less with diary-like entries, offering an inimitable mix of genres ranging from pop-punk to black metal, hardcore, melodic death metal and, of course, metalcore. On the one hand, Expellow return to their roots, but at the same time raise themselves to the next musical level.