Since 2014, Dallas’ own UnityTX has concocted a ferocious blend of metal, hip-hop and electronic elements long before the resurgence of nu metal. Their uncompromising grind has landed them a label deal with Pure Noise Records and tours with bands like Silverstein, Poppy and Loathe.
Despite the success, carving out a lane for themselves has meant pushing past the negativity and becoming wary of underlying motives.
Webster has experienced firsthand the hollow feeling in the aftermath of other bands using UnityTX as a resource to benefit themselves before moving on to someone else. Then there are the naysayers of Reddit that always have something to say. It has chipped away at Webster’s passion, but he’s still determined to do whatever is necessary to take his band to the next level. That drive isn’t going anywhere.
“People don't take this as seriously as they should if they really want it, because I've been doing everything for my band ever since the beginning,” he says. Webster’s fierce loyalty and determination to do things a different way were cemented long before the band even began.
He grew up in the Audelia neighborhood of North Dallas and learned not to follow what everyone else was doing as he searched for where he belonged. The neighborhood kids didn’t understand who the alternative, skinny-jean-clad Webster was. When he found skateboarding, it was a haven for the misfits and outsiders.
“That really changed everything, because before I did that, I couldn't play guitar,” Webster says about his discovery of skateboarding as a gateway to the music scene. Through skateboarding, he found bands like The Devil Wears Prada and Bring Me the Horizon and started playing guitar.
He would venture to (the now-defunct) Eisenbergs skatepark in Plano, which served as a formative hangout for skating and seeing bands.
“So I think rightfully it just goes hand in hand with guitar, skateboarding and stuff. And it's pretty much what's got me here, and why I'm still doing everything the way that I do, instead of to what everyone else wanted me to do,” he remarks.
His family then moved to Lewisville, which led to his contribution as a guitarist in I AM. Unsurprisingly, there wasn’t a robust metal scene there, and many musicians ended up in Dallas. Webster worked as a stagehand at The Door and played shows around Deep Ellum before forming UnityTX.
Even with the immense strides UnityTX has taken over the years to solidify their status in Dallas, Webster still notices a lack of support from the city, explaining that it’s “something that makes us want to work harder to get out of this city and go out there and do other things, and see what we could do with what we have.”
While it’s unfortunate the support hasn’t happened much back home, UnityTX’s reach has expanded far beyond DFW. This year, the band toured Europe for the third time and performed in Australia with Void of Vision. There’s a surrealness to being welcomed with open arms and crowds reciprocating the energy thousands of miles away. Webster points out that being so different from everything else is part of the appeal.
“The kids love the spirit of the hip-hop with the heaviness. They don't really get that genuine feeling from a lot of these bands,” he says about Australian fans. “They're just really hyped and explained to me how what I do as a Black vocalist, or a Black musician… It's really cool, and it inspires them to just like do more things. And that's not just from like black kids, it’s just people in general.”
It's an appreciation for being who they are with nothing to hide. UnityTX has never tried to categorize itself into one particular subgenre within metal. Sure, that mentality can be divisive, but it can also set the group apart from the saturated field of metal bands.
“We’re just always pushing the envelope because we like music. We like different things. I don't want to be just known as a metal vocalist,” he says, citing Skrillex, Trent Reznor and Ice Cube as inspirations.
For the upcoming album that the band finished recording a few months ago, Webster freestyled all of the vocals at the studio. The spirit of socially conscious hip-hop artists like Wu-Tang Clan, Mobb Deep and The Pharcyde was channeled into a rhythmically inclined project that didn’t let up on grittiness.
The vocals in the latest single “Heinous” display rhythmic awareness, but still capture the vexation of feeling like an outcast.
The upcoming LP represents how he was feeling in the moment. “I never really get a chance to nurture the lyrics or anything like that, or I write all the lyrics previously and then I get into the studio, and I don't feel that anymore. So I feel like now, with these lyrics for this album coming up with everything, it's a lot more present.”
Recently, he’s been more focused on moving forward in his own way, which has altered how he talks about what he’s going through. “I’m just looking at what's around me, and I'm just kind of speaking on it. I don't even have to really rap it. If anything, I think the way that I do everything feels like a form of slam poetry,” Webster observes.
As the band continues to rise up in the ranks within the metal community, there’s plenty to observe and speak on. Last year in Cincinnati at a show headlined by Alpha Wolf, a concertgoer (ironically wearing a shirt that said “I still hate everyone”) commented racial slurs on Instagram after seeing the band play. UnityTX’s Instagram reel about the incident shows the man getting kicked out of the venue before the headliners took the stage, but it’s a stark reminder of the issues UnityTX still has to confront.
“There's no way that I'm gonna be able to relate to the average American Caucasian male who is the metal standard,” Webster says, explaining that he has stopped caring what other people think.
The band had heard the complaints about the music not being metal or rock, but at the end of the day, UnityTX are going to do what they want, regardless. A white racist dude from Ohio certainly isn’t going to be swaying their opinions.
Despite past experiences in the local scene and beyond, UnityTX will continue to march on and remind everyone where they’re from.
“We go out and we do it for our city. Every time we play our shows, we say we're from Dallas, Texas, he says. “I’m putting it in our music. I'm expressing for the city with it on my back, and I don't really care who doesn't care about it.”
UnityTX will support The Callous Daoboys on Wednesday, Sept. 17, at TX Tea Room, 2815 Main St Suite B. Tickets are available starting at $30.71 on eventim.us.
