From The Hollies to Kill ’Em All
Vince’s earliest core musical memory does not begin with distorted guitars or a screaming metal crowd. It begins at around four years old with a Walkman belonging to his uncle Vincent and a cassette featuring The Hollies’ “Bus Stop”.
It was the first time he remembers visualising something while listening to music. That connection between sound and imagination stayed with him, even if it took years before he considered himself a vocalist.
Vince initially travelled through several instruments. He played saxophone in elementary school, moved to trumpet, picked up bass in a jazz band and then shifted towards guitar. Singing was something he did privately, whether in the shower or while cutting grass on a tractor with headphones on.
That changed when he was 19 and working on a garbage truck. AC/DC came on, Vince started singing quietly to himself and his coworker stopped him to point out that he could genuinely sing. It was the first time somebody else made him consider that his voice might be more than something he did for his own enjoyment.
His path into heavier music began with Bon Jovi’s Slippery When Wet, followed by Poison, Mötley Crüe’s Dr. Feelgood, Aerosmith’s Permanent Vacation and the self titled Skid Row album.
Then came Metallica.
After seeing videos from the Black Album era, a young Vince asked his uncle for Kill ’Em All because it was the only Metallica album title he knew. “Hit the Lights” came roaring through his headphones on Christmas Eve, sounding nothing like the Metallica he had seen on MTV.
“Hey, wait a minute, this isn’t what I saw on MTV, but this is fucking awesome.”
From there, as Vince put it, it was all downhill.
That full album listening experience remains important to him. It has even come full circle through his two teenage daughters, who both own record players and are building collections spanning modern indie releases, The Beatles and classic rock.
Building a Band That Could Not Be Taken Away
The roots of Symetria reach back through Vince’s earlier Pennsylvania project Blindside.
When a record label told the band that its name could not be used because another Blindside already existed, Vince became frustrated enough to leave Pennsylvania in 2015. He moved to New Jersey to take over his father’s business and prepared himself for life as a working man outside music.
That lasted around six months before the itch returned.
Vince connected with a three piece band playing covers, including Iron Maiden and Metallica’s “The Four Horsemen”. They were good enough to pull him back into a rehearsal room, but covers were never going to satisfy him for long.
After spending years writing original music, Vince told the guitarist that he could not keep moving forward unless they started creating something of their own. The guitarist agreed, and Symetria began taking shape.
The classic metal influence of those early rehearsals can be heard across the band’s self titled 2017 debut. The eight track release built enough momentum to attract attention and touring opportunities, but once again the path forward was torn apart.
COVID arrived. Vince went through a divorce. The lineup disappeared, and a plan involving a Boston label and studio musicians was stopped by the lockdowns.
For a period, Vince was the only person keeping Symetria alive. He continued doing interviews and reminding people that the band had not completely vanished, even when he did not have a functioning lineup around him.
Coming Full Circle
After relocating to Pennsylvania, Vince reconnected with Bryan Stiver and Mike Ditizio, two guitarists from his Blindside days.
The musical relationship was already there. They knew one another, had written together and had unfinished ideas waiting to be revisited. This time, Vince also had something he had been denied before: an established band name that nobody could take away.
The returning musicians learned material from Symetria’s debut, revived older songs and began writing heavier material. Early live shows confirmed that people responded to the renewed sound, which retained the band’s traditional metal foundation while pushing further into thrash.
That lineup produced the three track 2024 EP Where Did We Go Wrong, a release Vince saw as much as a personal return as a band comeback.
“It was kind of like a comeback for myself,” Vince told me. “Hey, look, I’m not going anywhere.”
After losing one project to a name dispute, watching Symetria’s original lineup disappear and having the pandemic shut down another opportunity, Where Did We Go Wrong became proof that he was not finished.
“I’m gonna do it till I die, or till I’m out there on a wheelchair like Phil Collins.”
Reaching Symetria’s ten year mark carries the weight of everything that came before it. Vince describes the journey as evolution, powered by an internal drive that has never stopped churning.
“The Game” Is Bigger Than Winning
Symetria’s new single “The Game” began naturally in the rehearsal room.
Mike started playing a riff, Bryan found his part and the rhythm section joined around them. Vince was drawn to the song’s circular movement and ominous atmosphere, which led him towards the idea of two very different games being played throughout life.
The finite game is about winning for yourself. It is the pursuit of money, pleasure, status and personal success. The infinite game is about ensuring that something remains for everybody who comes after us.
“The battle between the game for pleasure and the game for eternity,” Vince explained.
That idea carries directly into Vince’s concerns about community, the environment and the kind of world being left to future generations. For him, the infinite game means retaining practical knowledge, caring for the land and understanding that personal success means very little if everything around us is allowed to collapse.
It also comes down to “really caring about your neighbours and other people as a whole, and not just being in it for yourself.”
I told Vince that, stripped of everything else, it comes back to being a decent fucking person. That thought sits at the heart of “The Game”. It is not against ambition, but it challenges ambition that leaves nothing behind for anybody else.
Recorded at SoundMine Studio in East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, and produced and mixed by Dan Malsch, “The Game” is the first taste of Symetria’s third release overall and their second through Curtain Call Records.
Paying Tribute With “XIII”
The next single from All or Nothing will be “XIII”, scheduled for release on July 30.
The track originally existed as an instrumental written before the current band began playing together. Vince’s challenge was finding a place for vocals without smothering the music or taking away from the way it had been constructed.
The solution became a tribute to the metal artists who have carried the genre from the 1960s through to the present. Vince worked references to as many of those bands as possible into the lyrics, allowing his vocal contribution to serve the existing music while paying respect to the history behind it.
The title track “All or Nothing” is expected to follow on September 3.
For Vince, the title reaches far beyond the future of one band. At 45, after a lifetime spent working in construction, electrical work, welding, pipe fitting, power plants and 15 years travelling as a millwright, he has watched the world change from ground level.
The EP channels his belief that people need to move beyond borders, political divisions and personal gain to consider what is being built for future generations.
“If there’s one fight left to have, it’s gonna be one big fight, and it’s all or nothing.”
That frustration fits naturally within thrash metal. The genre has always given artists a place to challenge authority, question the decisions being made around them and call out something that feels fundamentally wrong.
As Vince put it, “We’re not afraid to go, ‘That’s fucked up. Stop doing that.’”
Symetria Step Onto a Bigger Stage
Symetria’s next major opportunity arrives on Saturday, July 25, when the band joins Metal Church, Heathen and All Sinners at Reverb in Reading, Pennsylvania. Tickets are available through Ticketmaster.
For Vince, the show carries another sense of things coming full circle. He remembers the musicians involved in earlier projects and now finds Symetria sharing a bill with a band carrying one of American metal’s most enduring names.
The group also has an upcoming appearance at Smokin’ Cole’s Bike Rally in Ohio, where Symetria will perform alongside Lita Ford, as well as further festival appearances across Pennsylvania.
There is already enough additional material for the band to consider recording a full length album. The practical challenge, as it is for so many independent bands, is finding the money to make that next step possible.
Symetria are also developing a new website where listeners will be able to purchase physical copies, shirts, patches, stickers and other merchandise. Until then, the best place to find merchandise is directly at the band’s live shows.
Vince summed that independent reality up perfectly during our conversation.
“Look, we got T shirts and everything! Buy one so we can get home, please!”
Still Here and Still Kicking
Our quickfire round revealed that the first album Vince bought with his own money was Metallica’s Ride the Lightning. His first concert featured Ozzy Osbourne, Korn and Life of Agony, while Overkill’s The Years of Decay remains his all time favourite thrash album.
Ronnie James Dio is his greatest vocal influence, with Overkill’s Bobby “Blitz” Ellsworth running a close second. If Symetria could open for any band in history, Vince would choose Led Zeppelin.
Those answers connect the different pieces of his story. Classic rock, traditional heavy metal and thrash have all shaped Symetria, but persistence is what has kept the band alive.
This has not been a clean or comfortable ten year rise. It has been a fight through collapsed projects, personal upheaval, lockdowns, lineup changes and the financial reality of creating independent heavy music.
Vince Santonastaso is still here. Symetria are still kicking, and with All or Nothing, they are not interested in stopping now.
Watch my complete conversation with Vince above and blast “The Game” now.
All or Nothing is due later in 2026 through Curtain Call Records.
Stream “The Game”:
https://orcd.co/pnqdaow
Symetria on Bandcamp:
https://symetria.bandcamp.com/
Symetria on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/@symetriaband
Follow Symetria on Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/_symetria_band/
Follow Symetria on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/Symetriametal/
