Tetrarch Guitarist Names Classic Album That Started Her Journey

We all have to start somewhere, and Tetrarch’s Diamond Rowe told Full Metal Jackie that her guitar journey started with picking up a tab book for Metallica’s Master of Puppets.

Rowe and Tetrarch bandmate Josh Fore were guests on Full Metal Jackie’s weekend radio show and she recalls of her early beginnings, “Whenever I think back to my youth of guitar playing in general, that record is just always at the top of my list because I spent so many hours laboring over this tab book because it was my favorite record and my first record where I got acquainted with Metallica.”

“At the time, none of it could have sounded great because I probably had only been playing for six months at this point,” she adds, “But I do know that I feel like I progressed as a player so much faster because I just dove headfirst into just wanting so bad to be able to play like my heroes and play like James and play like Kirk.:

Diamond and Josh also dig into Tetrarch’s latest album, revealing what inspired the direction of their The Ugly Side of Me album, addressing Diamond’s first featured vocal on a Tetrarch album and speaking about how a song that once had the scratch title “Haha” has now become a focus track on the record.

The two musicians also discuss their musical journey from childhood friends to present day and how their tastes have shifted and evolved their music in the process. Plus, Diamond also shares the experience of now having her own branded Jackson guitar and how she celebrated the life long dream.

Check out more of the chat below.

It’s Full Metal Jackie. Happy to welcome to the show Josh Fore and Diamond Rowe from the band Tetrarch. The band’s latest album The Ugly Side of Me is another step forward for the group. What were some of the discussions had about the direction and was there any kind of jumping off point with one of the songs that kicked off this record for you?

Josh Fore: We were just coming off of our last album Unstable, where we really felt like we kind of came into our own as a band and developed a sound that was very much Tetrarch. It was really our goal to just take that and expand on it and explore and see where this band could go.

It was a long process to get to this album, but it was a fun one. We’re super stoked with where we ended up.

Tetrarch, “Cold”

You recently released the song “Never Again (Parasite)” which features another key moment in the evolution of this band. Diamond steps up with a more featured vocal. Diamond, it sounds great and blends so well with Josh. What was that experience like for you to take that step? And now that you have, do you envision utilizing your voice more as the band moves forward?

Diamond Rowe: Yeah, it’s interesting because I’ve always been like, I’m a guitar player and that’s it. But I think it’s been some years coming. Josh has been trying to push me to sing a little bit more. And I know other people have been like, you should sing.

We, in the past, have done songs where I’ve sang on a chorus or done harmonies live, little things here and there. And on this record, there was a day where Josh, he says, quote, unquote, “I don’t feel good” and was like, “Diamond, why don’t you try singing the verse of the song?”

So I was like, “Hey, whatever,” I’m going to give it a shot. And it ended up sounding really cool. It just gave it something different, you know? Something that when people hear it, they’re like, “Oh, is that Diamond?” So I think it’s cool.

I’m excited to do it live and see the reaction and the response we get from that. It’s something cool to just change it up a little bit.

Tetrarch, “Never Again (Parasite)”

I have to ask, Josh, you and diamond have been playing together since you were kids. You’ve grown musically together, evolved as a band. How great has it been to have someone to take this musical exploration with basically, since you were first starting music? I’m imagining situations of you each bringing things to each other to check out musically. What’s been the most surprising music acts you’ve brought each other as you’ve developed your tastes as musicians?

Josh Fore: First of all, I think one of the coolest things about this band and one of the most important parts of our story is the fact that me and Diamond have known each other and grown together since we were young. It’s growing in a band together and also going through and learning in life together.

Specifically with music, a lot of people would think that maybe I got Diamond into heavier music, but that couldn’t be any farther from the truth. Diamond was actually the one to kind of push me to check out the heavier bands. I grew up, and my favorites were Green Day and Pearl Jam and obviously Metallica.

I can remember specifically being at rehearsal one day and Diamond bringing an old Ozzfest dvd, and it had Trivium from their set there. It was an iconic set. And I watched that, and that was the first time I ever heard a band with screaming in it.

I was like, “Wow, this is really cool.” So Diamond is definitely the one who exposed me to the heavier side of music and of metal.

Diamond, this one goes back a ways, but in a Loudwire video a few years back, you shared that one of the first things from your youth was picking up the tab book for Metallica’s Master of Puppets album and learning it. I know you’re a major fan, but as a young guitarist at that point, what was the song that was most fun to learn and still remains a favorite of yours to this date?

Oh, man, that’s awesome. Whenever I think back to my youth of guitar playing in general, that record is just always at the top of my list because I spent so many hours laboring over this tab book because it was my favorite record and my first record where I got acquainted with Metallica. So just every song, I just studied so much and it was my favorite record to listen to and to play.

I don’t know. Obviously “Master of Puppets” itself was like a first. We even used to cover that when we would play shows as a young band.

There’s “Battery,” it has that really cool bridge riff that I remember just being so stoked when I got it. And also there’s like “Disposable Heroes,” that was another huge favorite of mine and just trying to learn the solo. At the time, none of it could have sounded great because I probably had only been playing for six months at this point.

But I do know that I feel like I progressed as a player so much faster because I just dove headfirst into just wanting so bad to be able to play like my heroes and play like James and play like Kirk. So I just have super fond memories of just learning that record and learning to play guitar to that record.

One of the first songs we got from the new album was “Live Not Fantasize.” I had read that Diamond, at one point you had given it the scratch name “Haha.” What’s the story of how that song started and eventually became a focus track for this record?

Diamond Rowe: I’m more impressed that you even found that somewhere, because I don’t even remember saying it, but that’s awesome. No, I remember. Josh, we lived together up until about a year ago. But he wasn’t home one night, and I was at the computer just making riffs, trying to just start something new.

And I came up with the riff and it was just like this very basic, just almost a bad guitar riff, silly, and all open strings. Even though it was kind of just really bland, there was still something about it I could hear in my head that made me be like, “I’m gonna send this to Josh.”

And I was like, “Is this bad?” And he was like, “It’s not great, but I just kept laboring over this song and kind of adding elements to it. We always have working titles for songs, so you kind of name them by what it reminds you of or what you were thinking at the time. It could be anything. You could be fishing and name it bassed or something.

But in this case, it was just funny because it was so bad. And so I was like, “Man, I’m gonna call this Haha.” And I just wrote “Haha” when I went to send the track to Josh just for him to check out. And that stuck until we came up with a name for it. That song, honestly, was the last song we named. We could not figure out what to name that song until like a week before it came out. We still to this day call it “Haha” at practice and everything. So it lives forever.

Tetrarch, “Live Not Fantasize”

One of the cool things to have come out of this past year was Diamond getting her own signature Jackson guitar. And I understand that you have since gifted your guitar model to some of your favorite players. That has to be a dream to get your own signature instrument. What has the experience been like for you and why was it important to share with some of your favorite favorite musicians?

That’s something that’s always been a dream of mine since I was probably 12 or 13, since I started playing guitar. I feel like maybe it’s not as common as it was when I started playing guitar, all of the guitar heroes had a signature guitar. So it was like you had your Kirk Hammett and Zakk Wylde’s and the guys in Korn and any guitar player you could think of that was making moves and was like everyone’s favorite had their name on a guitar.

I remember as a kid, you always wanted the guitars of your favorite players. So when I was young, that was just something that I just always said, “If I could have a signature guitar, that would mean a lot to me. That would be awesome. That would be a milestone for me.” So getting that opportunity and Jackson approaching me with that, that opportunity was honestly just super humbling. It was a really amazing experience.

Especially just being the first female at Jackson to have a signature guitar also was just nuts to me. You have those moments where you’re like, “Why me?” You know what I mean? But at the same time, this is just super cool and I’ve worked really hard for this and you’re really excited.

But I also always said, “I wouldn’t be here. I wouldn’t have had the inspiration or the passion to do this without some of my favorite players, some of the ones I mentioned, and a lot more. I even told my rep at Jackson, I was like, “It would mean a lot to me if I can just give some guitars to some of the guys that really influenced me, that I truly feel like I would not have had the passion for guitar to even make it to this point without them, even though some of them don’t even know it.”

READ MORE: Diamond Rowe Names the 9 Best Nu-Metal Guitar Solos and Leads

So it just was crazy timing that the guitar came out, I think on October 3rd, and Korn happened to be doing their anniversary show here on the 5th. And I was like, “Oh, yeah, I gotta go and I gotta take a guitar to Head. Strangely, I’d never met him before that point and a lot of people were like, “Oh, wow, you never met him before?” And I was like, “No.” But it was just really cool to be able to do that.

What makes it even better is that he was such a cool guy and he was so appreciative and loved the guitar, and it’s just like the whole experience was just more than I could have dreamed of. So, yeah, it’s all been just received really well. And I’m just really happy about how it’s gone.

You may or may not be aware of this, but on Reddit, Tetrarch has been one of the most frequent names mentioned on a thread shouting out the best of the modern nu metal acts today. Obviously nu metal was big in your formative years, but this band continues to grow and evolve musically. Thinking back to your early days, what did you initially envision for this band? And does it ever surprise you the path that music has taken you?

Josh Fore: Yeah, I think it’s our, our music has definitely taken a journey over the years. I mean, people don’t believe us now, but we always say when we started we were a straight up just thrash band. I think even bands in the Atlanta local scene would make fun of us because all our riffs just sounded like Metallica.

Diamond Rowe: But when we say Metallica, we mean like 1982.

Josh Fore: Yeah, Kill ‘Em All, Metallica (laughs). That’s part of just growing up together and exploring music together. Like our tastes all just have an influence and have evolved and grown and it’s been a journey, but we’re really happy with where the band’s at now.

Some people shy away from that word nu metal, if people want to call us that. That doesn’t bother us at all. We just think of ourselves as musicians and as a metal band. But any label someone wants to put on us, we’re not going to shy away from it.

Specifically with those bands, they had such big hooks and choruses and still to this day are some of the biggest bands to ever come out of metal. So to be mentioned amongst some of them is pretty cool.

Diamond Rowe: Yeah, we definitely don’t shy away from the label. A lot of the bands that came out of our formative years and that have that label are still some of the biggest bands in the world and influenced mass amounts of new players and new bands and new artists. So it’s awesome to just be lumped in that category.

Whenever I think of nu metal. I think of heavy bands that have hooky choruses and that can transcend the genre to where fans of pop or hip hop or country or no matter what genre can listen to a band like that and really enjoy it and get into it.

I think, if anything, we’ve always strived to be a band like that. A band that was accessible for different types of people.

Thanks to Josh and Diamond of Tetrarch for the interview. The Ugly Side of Me album is available now. You can stay up to date with the band through their website, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok accounts. Find out where you can hear Full Metal Jackie’s weekend radio show here.