With COVID-19 keeping people at home, it’s only natural that many music lovers miss live events and concerts. Nobody misses it quite as much as Unstoppable Force, however.
Currently consisting of Michael Douthwright on vocals, Sean Goodwin on guitar, Brandon Leming on drums and Emmanuel Medina on bass, Unstoppable Force is a metal band with a real passion for entertaining live shows that break the norm.
It’s not uncommon to see a person in an inflatable shark or dinosaur suit up on stage alongside the band.
Formed in 2011 as a Slayer cover band, the original goal of the band was to simply compete in a battle of the bands event at Goodwin’s high school.
“We all just wanted to bring some of the good old fashioned death metal to a group of students who had no idea it existed,” said Sean. “We thought it’d be funny. We did and people actually liked it”.
After this realization, the group decided to continue playing together.
“Over time we kind of drifted from taking it too seriously… we were kind of going for a thrash metal band, but even back then thrash was not really what we clicked with,” said Sean.
The biggest change came when the band enlisted the help of Emmanuel and Michael. With their input, the band started to embrace a more comedic tone.
“We had to find a way to differentiate ourselves and at the same time still take ourselves seriously. We stuck with that more fun side of metal, and it seems like people are vibing with it,” said Sean.
Their heavy sound paired alongside the visuals of a dinosaur headbanging on stage and moshing in the crowd is what sets the band apart from others.
“At the end of the day, there are 50 metal bands in SoCal that wear black t-shirts and go on stage and play distorted chugs for 30 minutes. We want to do a bit more,” said Emmanuel.
Sean continued, “A lot of people don’t realize that when you go to a concert, it’s okay to sit back and laugh at some absurdity. I’m so glad that we’ve cemented ourselves [as] a band people can go to and realize that’s what we’re trying to accomplish”.
Unfortunately, due to COVID-19, the band hasn’t been able to perform or even rehearse.
“It’s been a year since we’ve done anything as a band. It’s been really hard, since, at least to me, our identity was as a live band. Finding something that feels like us, something that we can do online, has been really difficult,” said Emmanuel.
As a substitute of sorts, the band has begun to dive into some video projects. One of the most creative of these projects was their cover of K.K. Metal from the Animal Crossing series.
The band even filmed a video for the project, with much of it being filmed in-game.
With COVID-19 being an obstacle in 2020, not allowing them to rehearse or record, Sean had some news for fans of the band.
“We’re working on an EP right now! We’re trying to get new music out there,” said Sean. “We’re tuning it in A, which means for all you music nerds, it’s going to be nice and heavy. Look forward to it!”.
“One of the tracks on it, just to give a bit of a tease… it’s probably one of my favorite tracks I’ve recorded. It’s 9 minutes of pure fun,” said Sean in regards to the upcoming EP.
You can follow Unstoppable Force on Twitter at @NonStopBandTalk, Instagram at @UnstoppableForceMusic and Facebook at @UnstoppableForceBand.
Make sure to listen to their most recent album “Momentum” on Spotify and Apple Music and check in on their YouTube channel to catch up on their most recent projects and skits.
