Light Pupil Dilate sizes up its D-I-Y cred

From its Cocteau Twins-on-acid cover art to its vivid lyric sheet, Light Pupil Dilate's recent full-length is as professionally packaged as any distributed by a major label. But despite the album's outer appearance, its content is firmly rooted in Atlanta's underground metal and hardcore scenes. Cascades is a sprawling hard-rock behemoth -- a visceral torrent of chugging minor-key structures, intricate melodic shifts and bellowed vocals that straddles the line between the two forms.

That fact hasn't been lost on the trio's audiences. "Just kind of talking to people, we get a better response from the metal community than the hardcore community," says bassist Mike Chvasta. "Not that the hardcore people don't like it, they're just more into the whole D-I-Y community."

It's a community all three members share an affinity for, even as they continue to slog away at perfecting their sound and their presentation in hopes of snagging a deal. This isn't an attempt to "sell out," according to drummer Michael Green. "We don't [play music] to be indie, or to be mainstream or metal or whatever. We just do it, and how it comes out is how it comes out." Chvasta agrees, noting that some label muscle could help put the band in front of more audiences. "Given how heavy our music is," he says, "people aren't exactly running toward it."

He may be selling the band's accessibility short, if one recent listener is any indication. "We had a radio interview on Album 88," Chvasta says with a chuckle, "and someone called in and said we sounded too professional to be on college radio."

-- Kevin Forest Moreau
Light Pupil Dilate plays the Neutron Bomb Sun., Sept. 28. Call for ticket price.