The Denver progressive death metal group Entropist step into this week’s Meet The Band spotlight. Their debut album is The Vision. Guitarist/vocalist Solomon Smith introduces us to Entropist.
Chad Bowar: Give us a brief history of Entropist.
Solomon Smith: The band has a bit of a unique origin story actually: we originally started this project back in college, a bunch of kids messing around, trying to sound like our heroes!
I still remember us sitting around in the living room of a 6-bedroom house trying to make this super-ambitious concept album while everyone’s got school work to do and jobs to get to and whatnot. We got the initial ideas together but didn’t finish it at the time, needless to say.
Describe the songwriting process for The Vision.
Given that The Vision is a concept album, a lot of the process was trying to tell two stories at once. One of them is a fantastical story I’ve been writing about celestial entities, the apocalypse, and humanity’s role within that conflict. The other is more personal, being about living through a really dark and challenging time, and then about overcoming that, finding self-actualization in creating, and finding oneself reaching for the future. Writing a concept album really makes you develop a particular relationship with the music, and I find that having a story to tell gives you emotional context of each moment and a sense of cohesion. It was invaluable for creating what is otherwise a pretty chaotic and complex album.
The core of the process is creating tons of ideas, which allows us to be really methodical with how we orchestrate them. When I’m writing parts I typically hear the entire composition in my head, so I’ll gather parts and ideas that I like the most and find ways to creatively fill them out and fit them together, with the story the album is trying to tell being the main reference for decision making. Sometimes what the music doesn’t make it obvious as far as where a song should go, the concept does, and vice versa. It helps ground the musical storytelling process overall.
How did you come to work with producer Jamie King?
To us Jamie was “The Guy.” He has produced multiple bands that we considered to be definitive of the genre, and was definitely accustomed to the aggressive, but dynamic style of sound we were going for. It was great working with him, he was really helpful giving us information, options and guidance throughout the process, especially considering that this was our first album ever and he’s been working with plenty of seasoned professionals over the years.
What will be your strongest memory of the recording of the album?
One of the memories that I’ll always look back on was when we were recording the final track of the album “Revelation,” the 15-minute prog metal odyssey. I wanted the drums to sound as huge as possible so I’m in the recording booth waving my hands around like a maniac in sync with the hits just to give our drummer Matt as much of my energy as possible! It was hilarious in a way but we got it sounding powerful and huge and I’ll never forget when we got those last couple slams recorded.
What was the biggest challenge in its creation?
When we got back the first single and finally got to properly hear the song, we realized how huge this could sound and that almost the entire album needed to be re-recorded with tighter performances. We took months of rehashing parts, trying new ideas, beating our heads against the wall (and each other at times) before sending things back in. I would NEVER do that again, but it really taught us the lesson the hard way of how to tell when a song is actually “done.”
How would you characterize its style/sound?
The Vision is an intense journey, with arc from the I think the shift can really be felt throughout the album, beginning with really dark and heavy songs, and gradually evolving into an optimistic, and eventually victorious sound.
What lyrical topics do you cover?
A lot of the lyrical content and musical direction comes from the story connected to the concept! The first arc relates to the struggle of finding a place in life, feeling like the world is ending, disillusionment, that sort of thing. As the music gradually changes tone, the lyrics shift as well to be about not just finding your place, but creating it, pushing toward the future.
What led you to go the independent route for its release?
that’s a simple one, really. We’ve spent an entire chapter of our lives creating this album, it feels good being the ones who own it! Getting on a label wasn’t the focus, making the music was.
What are your goals and expectations for the album?
Honestly, if this album can speak to even a single person on the level where it is deeply impactful, and they can appreciate the ideas and get to the underlying positivity within the chaos, this album will have done what I wanted. As far as expectations go, I think the prog metal community will really dig this one, there’s a lot of crazy technical elements, callbacks to other songs, heavy songs, epic songs, the works!
What has been your most memorable Entropist live show?
Our first show at a battle of the bands over in Cheyenne has to have been the one with the largest impact on me personally. When we hit the first breakdown on “Intense Warmth” the lights all went crazy and the crowd went even crazier and it just cemented so much of the work that had gone into making this music. We’ve definitely played much better shows since then but I’ll always remember how it felt the moment that it finally felt “real.”
What are your upcoming show/tour plans?
We’re looking to line up local shows in Denver for the fall. We’ll make it a huge bash this Halloween!
How would you describe Denver’s metal scene?
I freakin’ love the Denver metal community. There’s tons of local metal bands, and lots of touring metal groups from all over the place come here. I feel like most of the people I run into at shows are also musicians, and collectively just chill people. It’s really easy to connect with someone you’ve never met before. Especially in the prog scene people are super-kind and respectful at shows, helping people up at the pit, making space so the shorter people can see, and most bands are happy to just chat after the show! The scene’s just got awesome people all-around.
What are some of your non-musical interests and hobbies?
All of us are gamers, which is probably unsurprising to hear. I’m also into biking these days, and with the internet in the state it is I’ve picked up a couple philosophy books to dive into as well!
Anything else you’d like to mention or promote?
I’ll just say that we’ve got our album The Vision coming out on June 26th! It’ll be available on YouTube and all streaming services!
(interview published June 27, 2026)
Listen To Entropist – “Intense Warmth”
