Dissentience Break Down Kaiju: From Riff Salad to Cinematic Destruction With Connor Valentin -

Some bands write heavy songs.

Dissentience wrote a monster movie.

Bethlehem, Pennsylvania’s progressive death thrash unit have been quietly sharpening their claws since forming as high school mates in 2013. Over the years they have evolved from riff hungry teenagers into a tight, intentional unit that understands not just how to play heavy, but how to structure it.

With the release of their new concept EP Kaiju on February 20, Dissentience have delivered their most focused and cinematic body of work to date. This is not four songs stitched together. This is impact, collapse, annihilation and aftermath. It is deliberate. It is paced. And it feels like a band stepping fully into their identity.

When I caught up with guitarist and vocalist Connor Valentin, there was relief in his voice. Not the nervous kind. The earned kind.

“It feels like a massive Godzilla sized weight has been lifted off our shoulders,” he tells me. The EP had been finished for over a year. Masters in hand. Close friends had heard it endlessly. But until it exists physically, until it is out in the world, it is not real.

For Connor, that physical moment still matters.

“When we get the CDs in and pop that CD in for the first time, that’s when it’s all for real.”

And if you know anything about Dissentience, you know that physical side is not just symbolic. It is hands on. Connor designed the album layout himself. He prints and cuts lyric sheets. He stuffs CDs. He handles screen separations for merch. This is not branding. This is ethos.

That ethos goes back to the beginning.

Growing Up Together Matters

Dissentience did not form through auditions or industry networking. They formed as kids.

Connor and guitarist Jimmy Vitale were teenagers figuring out metal in real time. Bassist Sean Langer joined almost accidentally, turning up as a mate and getting pulled into the fold because the band needed a bass player. Drummer Nick Scherden entered the picture after the band spotted a Trivium cover he had posted online. He lived four hours away. They did not care.

“He was so good,” Connor says simply.

That early commitment shaped the band more than any label deal ever could. They grew up musically together. They discovered albums together. They developed taste together. That kind of shared evolution is rare.

“There are professional level bands that don’t have lineups that last as long as this one has,” Connor reflects.

That longevity shows on Kaiju. This is the first release they wrote fully in the same room, feeding off one another in real time instead of sending riffs back and forth over email. The difference is obvious.

No More Riff Salad

Connor is honest about the past.

One thing he felt the band struggled with on earlier releases was what he jokingly calls “riff salad.” A collection of strong ideas strung together, but not always serving a larger intent.

Kaiju changes that.

This time, the concept was mapped from the beginning. Connor and Jimmy outlined it like a film. First appearance. Civil unrest. Military round table discussions. Destruction. Aftermath. Every riff had to match where they were in the story.

“It wasn’t just what riff are we going to throw here,” Connor explains. “The riff had to match the intent.”

That single shift elevated the songwriting. The lyrics were not an afterthought. They were part of the architecture from the first note.

From Drive In Idea to Full Concept

Connor and Nick were at a local drive in theatre watching Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla when the conversation drifted toward the idea of making a purely meathead kaiju band. Just riffs. Pure destruction. Something kids could slam into each other to.

What began as a tongue in cheek idea evolved into something far more ambitious. Rather than writing a collection of destruction anthems, they leaned into the cinematic approach. The result is a four track narrative that mirrors classic monster films while grounding itself in real world tension.

The Four Acts of Kaiju

“Obsidian Tomb” opens with a somber acoustic passage that was written and recorded on the spot in the studio. It is tension before impact. The shoreline moment before the beast steps into the city.

Then comes “Chaos Absolute,” where the monster is no longer the only threat. Systems break. Leaders scramble. The panic feels uncomfortably familiar in a post pandemic world.

Connor does not shy away from the metaphor.

“It’s hard not to acknowledge that there is that metaphorical aspect that relates to real life.”

Musically, the band leaned into syncopated, militaristic rhythms without falling into cliché. The chaos feels structured. Regimented. Like panic inside a command room.

The title track “Kaiju” unleashes everything. Swedish death metal influence bleeds through. Connor cites Black Breath and that gritty HM2 resurgence energy as a major inspiration. This is the moment the monster hits the street. No restraint.

Then comes “Death Shroud.”

Instead of ending in flames, Dissentience chose aftermath.

“That’s the proverbial Godzilla walking back into the sea,” Connor says.

The city remains. The trauma remains. The monster does not care.

This is where the EP becomes deeply human. The unnamed beast becomes personal. Illness. Loss. Turmoil. Whatever monster the listener is fighting.

“We all have a sort of giant monster in our lives,” Connor reflects. “Things come through, they cause destruction, and then they’re just gone.”

The decision to leave both the monster and the city unnamed reinforces that universality. Inspired heavily by Lovecraftian horror, the band deliberately avoids defining every detail.

“It’s way cooler if the listener has to imagine the monster and the destruction.”

Ambiguity becomes impact.

The Fifth Member and Finding Their Sound

Producer Corey Pierce has been with the band since the early days and remains central to their growth. Connor describes him less as a producer and more as a coach. Someone who understands the band’s grey area between thrash, death metal, progressive elements and groove.

One piece of advice from Corey stuck from the beginning. Put every influence you want into your first release. Even if it is subtle. That way growth never feels like betrayal.

That philosophy echoes throughout Dissentience’s catalog.

For Kaiju, the band brought in Zeuss for mixing and Alan Douches for mastering, forming a production team with serious pedigree. But the goal was not polish for the sake of it. It was identity.

“There’s too much metal production today that just sounds the same,” Connor says. “We wanted something that sounded like us.”

Mission accomplished.

Forward Without Nostalgia

Dissentience sit comfortably in what they describe as Lehigh Valley death thrash, but they have no interest in nostalgia cosplay. Influences range from Trivium and Revocation to The Black Dahlia Murder, Death, Lamb of God, Deftones and Swedish death metal pioneers.

They blend. They shift. They refuse to be boxed in.

Kaiju feels like the moment that blending becomes cohesive rather than experimental.

It is a defining release without being a final form. A band confident in its direction but still hungry.

Support the Monster Direct

Connor makes one thing clear. If you are going to support the band, go direct.

Dissentience run their own website. They handle their own merch. Every purchase cycles back into more product and more music.

That is the same DIY ethic that shaped them as teenagers.

And it is the same ethic that fuels Kaiju.

Dissentience have not just written a heavy EP. They have written a structured, intentional and emotionally grounded monster story that mirrors both cinema and real life.