Stinking Lizaveta

If you want to know how hard Stinking Lizaveta rocks, ask people who rock. “When people ask who my greatest musical influences are, they typically expect me to say Black Sabbath or Slayer. The real answer includes the mighty Stinking Lizaveta,” said guitarist Kyle Schutt of the Sword. “A truly masterful set of musicians.”

Born in West Philadelphia basements, raised in a blue Chevy van, Stinking Lizaveta has spent almost three decades building an unmatched catalog of instrumental rock, starting with its self-titled 1995 EP released on Joe Lally’s (of Fugazi) Tolotta Records.

“They blew us all away,” recalled Gary Mader, bass guitarist with Eyehategod. “Heavy in a whole different way - dynamic riffs with fractal perfection, a rhythm section with the fluidity and warmth of old school jazz, and guitar leads that made vocals unnecessary.” Today, the band is preparing its ninth release, as yet untitled, which finds Stinking Lizaveta as challenging and vital as ever.

“Their latest work finds them inspired and in full stride,” says Lamb of God guitarist Mark Morton. “Heavy, hypnotic grooves. Soaring lead guitar. Swaggering riffs that peel away into lurching, angular blasts. Driving flows that feel balanced and cohesive.”

“Stinking Lizaveta has always brought the raw, unfiltered truth,” said Damon Locks, vocalist with Black Monument Ensemble. “Every Stink release is worth your time and this one is no exception." None of it happens by accident. Named for a doomed Dostoyevsky character, known as “the Stinkies” to friends, Stinking Liz’s trademark is meticulously arranged, carefully rehearsed, furiously deployed rock compositions that feature generous strains of jazz, classical, punk and even Greek music.

“How do we tell stories without preaching, with just an upright electric bass, guitar, and drums? Compelling melody. Hypnotizing rhythm. Passion and detail,” explains drummer Cheshire Agusta.

And where many bands crumble under the weight of their own ambitions, Stinking Lizaveta stands up strong, wielding its spiky, elaborate tunes like a gladiator’s mace. Live or on record, the band delivers its material with fury, precision, swing, and – rarest of all among heavy bands - an unmistakable sense of joy.

“More than anything, their performances sound like the band is having fun,” said Lamb of God’s Morton. “That makes them fun to listen to.”

Thirty years of that savage delight has earned the band a reputation as one of the nation’s heaviest, most original, and most challenging power trios.

“Both polished and unruly,” wrote the LA Weekly in 2001. “Uncompromising in the best sense,” wrote the New Yorker Magazine in 2009. “The word is ‘unfuckwithable,’” wrote reviewer JJ Cozan in 2022 after the band’s appearance at New York City’s Desertfest. “Not a single second was misspent. By the time they were done I wasn’t even tired anymore.”

Stinking Lizaveta features Yanni Papadopoulos on guitar, brother Alexi Papadopoulos on upright electric bass, and Agusta on drums. All three came to the band with various backgrounds in rock, jazz, punk rock, and classical music. The trio found its collective voice in West Philadelphia’s early-90s underground scene. They’ve toured and recorded steadily ever since, sharing stages in America and Europe with such bands as Clutch, Mastodon, Beehoover, the Sword, Torche, Weedeater, Fugazi, Don Vito, Dÿ se, Rollins Band, Lamb of God, Orange Goblin, Zeni Geva, Hidden Hand, Corrosion of Conformity, and Today’s the Day.

Over the years they’ve worked with such producers as Steve Albini, Sanford Parker, and Steve Berrigan. They’ve been featured on compilations alongside such acts as Kylesa, Pentagram, and Jarboe. They’ve appeared at festivals in America and Europe including Desertfests in London, New York, and Berlin; SXSW in Austin, England’s All Tomorrow’s Parties, and in 2022, Psycho Las Vegas.

The band’s upcoming release, recorded at Steve Roche’s Permanent Hearing Damage Studios in Philadelphia, features all of the band’s trademarks: Cheshire’s grace and power on drums, Alexi’s relentless drive on upright electric bass, and Yanni’s singular mix of melody and howl, wrung from the same battered black Les Paul he’s played for decades.

“I learned more from watching Yanni play guitar than I ever learned from a lesson,” said the Sword’s Schutt. “Bass, drums, guitar – their unrelenting dedication to sonic thunder cannot be understated,” said Black Monument Ensemble’s Locks.

The only question about Stinking Liz’s music is what to call it. It’s more than metal; it’s bigger than blues; it’s heavier than rock. One metal historian, Garry Sharp-Young, dubbed it “doom jazz;” Lamb of God’s Morton calls it “avant-jazz punk.” Yanni calls it, “psycho-toxicpunk-rock-jazz.”

Cheshire doesn’t call it anything: “I let other people describe my music. I play it,” she says. Whatever it is, Stinking Lizaveta will keep making it, says Alexi. “I can’t imagine not doing it,” he said. “Why does anybody keep doing what they love?” And it can’t be stopped, says Yanni: “It’s genetic destiny. It’s the culmination of millennia of history, coming through my guitar, coming through this band,” he says. “So powerful. So juicy. So bloody. So meaty. So timeless. There’s nothing better. Nothing at all. And we have the full power of the modern world to back us up.”