Columbia, Missouri’s Dark Below is a band on the rise, storming out of America’s Midwest. Since forming in 2016, guitarist and vocalist Joshua Campbell, bassist and backing vocalist Josh Grove, and drummer Quin Koldan have teamed with famed producer Malcolm Springer and JPS Production’s Jason Schrick to make their groove heavy, hard rock sound. Springer, noted for his work with Fear Factory, Collective Soul, and Matchbox 20, among others, co-wrote the band’s latest single “Make Believe” alongside the band and Schrick. This group of talented musical minds has harnessed their combined talents to produce one of the most pulverizing, melodic, and resonant singles in recent memory.
They package the single with an accompanying video that puts its best foot forward. It’s a no-frills concert video, filmed at the legendary Rose Hall in their hometown. Their go-for-broke live performance is full of energy, and you come away from watching this video dead sure that this is exactly what you would get if you attended one of their shows.
They’ve got great material to work with for such a video. It’s easy to get into this song based on Joshua Campbell’s vocals alone, the way they weave through each of the verses, and the way he puts himself out there on each line. There are no reservations about his commitment. He feels deeply about the song’s subject, the different faces of imagination, and you can’t doubt that the words come from a place of deep personal experience. Josh Grove’s backing vocals open up added possibilities, as well, though he’s never omnipresent as a singer. The pair’s vocals mesh well together.
Grove’s bass playing, however, is very present. He makes a great team with drummer Quin Koldan and the huge punch they provide in “Make Believe” is one of the song’s major points of appeal. It’s a skilled performance from the two, but it’s also no-holds-barred as they seem to share the same connection to the song’s sentiments as Campbell does, albeit expressed in a different fashion. This rhythm section is the bedrock of anything Dark Below does, as with any band, but their innate feel for playing with one another gives it something different that breaks it away from the ordinary.
Joshua Campbell’s guitar is another major selling point. He’s on his way to becoming one of the preeminent young talents in the genre with performances such as this. His guitar roars, burns, and tosses riffs in between blistering lead breaks that sear the brain. The same deep well of emotion he draws from for the vocals supplies him with the necessary passion to push his guitar work to the next level. Everything about this track smacks of Dark Below being the proverbial “Next Big Thing” and you should catch them live when they come to your town. All indications are that they are going to soar even higher from this point forward. The sky is the limit for this band.
Troy Johnstone