NEFARIOUS, Featuring DEATH ANGEL And Ex-EXODUS Members, Releases First Single With New Vocalist SEAN RIVERA

NEFARIOUS, which features Rick Hunolt (EXODUS, DIEHUMANE) and Doug Piercy (HEATHEN, ANVIL CHORUS) on guitar, Tom Gears (BLIND ILLUSION, ANCIENT MARINER) on bass and Will Carroll (DEATH ANGEL) on drums, has announced the addition of vocalist Sean Rivera to the group's ranks. Rivera joins the group as the replacement for Katon W. De Pena (HIRAX),who sang on NEFARIOUS's debut album, "Addicted To Power". Rivera brings an unlimited vocal range, a larger-than-life presence, and pure stage fury. His energy pushes everything harder, faster, louder.

From the start, NEFARIOUS has sought someone fully committed, present, and ready to grow with the band.

Piercy states: "We wanted someone who could be in the room with us — creating, rehearsing, and ready to play. It's hard to get tight as a band when they can't rehearse on the regular. The Bay Area has always thrived on that energy, and now we've got it. Long-distance situations can get complicated when there's simply no communication."

Hunolt adds: "Sean Rivera has brought NEFARIOUS to the next level. The metal gods gave us a true musical wizard. Not only is he an amazing singer, and absolute stellar musician (guitar, keyboards),but he is an amazing human to work with and I can't wait for you all to hear this man sing. C'ya on the road in '26 .. Lfgoooooo!"

Rivera comments: "When Doug and Rick reached out to me and asked if I wanted to try out for NEFARIOUS on vocals, I was excited and nervous. Everyone in the band are fantastic players and have such seasoned musical histories, and stepping into that felt really significant to me. After listening to the album I thought the songs were great and knew it was a project I wanted to be a part of. Thankfully, everyone liked what my vocals added and I was really stoked when they asked me to join. They're all really great people and have been super supportive with the whole process of learning the songs and becoming a part of the band. I feel really fortunate to be given this opportunity and I'm really excited for all we can accomplish together on the road ahead!"

NEFARIOUS will play its first show with Rivera at the DNA Lounge in San Francisco on Saturday, January 3, 2026. More dates will soon be announced, followed by a full European tour in August/September 2026, kicking off at the legendary Alcatraz festival in Belgium.

A new version of the previously released NEFARIOUS song "Day After", featuring Rivera's vocals, can be heard below.

During a recent livestream, De Pena stated about his departure from NEFARIOUS: "Yeah, NEFARIOUS was great. I'm glad I did the record. I'm very proud of the record. And I did one show with them. That was awesome too. But I have to focus on HIRAX. That's my band. It's been my band for 40 years, and that's where my heart's at and that's what I gotta do. But I wish NEFARIOUS all the best. Great band and great musicians."

Carroll discussed the NEFARIOUS singer switch during a recent appearance on Zetro's Toxic Vault, the YouTube channel of former EXODUS frontman Steve "Zetro" Souza. He said in part: "Things didn't work out [with Katon]… HIRAX is touring, and they're pretty busy. So that played a part in it. But it was a communication thing that was really the problem. He would not talk to us for months at a time… He just broke off communication with us. So we took that as he didn't wanna be in the band… And we did waste some time waiting and sitting around… But we had to move on. And that's where Sean comes in."

Regarding NEFARIOUS's new vocalist, Will said: "His name is Sean Rivera. And he sings for a band, or he's in a band called COFFIN HUNTERS. Not to be confused with the [side band of EXODUS bassist] Jack Gibson, COFFIN HUNTER. This one's plural, COFFIN HUNTERS, and they're more of a traditional heavy metal band. They play a lot in Santa Rosa. Rick discovered him. Rick went to one of their shows and saw him sing. And we knew things were kind of going south with Katon."

In a social media post, Carroll stated about his appearance on Zetro's Toxic Vault: "I didn't say anything out of line or untrue. In fact, I gave a very vanilla version of the whole Katon thing."

The Katon-fronted version of NEFARIOUS played its first — and only — show on July 19 at the DNA Lounge in San Francisco.

"Addicted To Power" came out on July 18 via Relentless "Metal" Records, with the collector vinyl available through Hectic/Bleeding Priest Records.

Regarding how NEFARIOUS came together, Katon told The Metal Crypt: "I think it was going to be a solo record for Doug Piercy at first. We had all run into each other from years of playing in the same scene. It seemed like the timing was really what it was. I did a couple of benefits. I did one for Tom Hunting from EXODUS where we raised money for his hospital bills. We did another one for Sean Killian, the singer from VIO-LENCE. At those benefits, I saw a lot of these musicians. We talked to each other and obviously talked about music. Then it came around to where we played some shows together. I think that's what made us all notice each other a little bit more, like, 'Hey, I wonder what it would be like to play with those guys.' Even though I live in Los Angeles, I go up to San Francisco quite often. It's been working out pretty well. We're just going to keep writing music. The one thing that we all have in common is we love writing music. I think that's what keeps us so motivated to do this."

On the topic of NEFARIOUS's musical influences, Katon said: "We all listen to a lot of music. Some of it would surprise people. Obviously, there's going to be heavy metal influences in there because we all grew up on DEEP PURPLE and early SCORPIONS. We love Uli John Roth, obviously, BLACK SABBATH and THIN LIZZY, bands like that. You can't help it. When you play music for as long as we have, other styles of music are going to come into play, whether it's classical music or jazz. Myself, I love stuff like Luciano Pavarotti. There's going to be those things. It also helps the songwriting because you take from some of your heroes, like Jimi Hendrix or, like I said, back to opera music or classical music, you can't help but intertwine some of that in the music. That is in the roots of the music. Then, obviously, thrash metal plays a very big part of it, because we all came from a lot of the early bands. There's going to be some of those influences. People will hear a little bit of the EXODUS thing; they will hear a little bit of the HIRAX thing. Even with Doug, he's just a well-rounded guitar player, and his songwriting skills are majorly off the charts. This guy's got a big brain, and he really has a great way of looking at music. People are going to hear the stuff that we grew up on, whether it's BUDGIE or any of that kind of stuff. They're also going to hear thrash metal mixed in with elements of classical music."

Describing NEFARIOUS's sound, Katon said: "I think we're a cross between, obviously, early thrash metal, but also a lot of the heavy metal influence is there as well. You will hear some harmonies, bands like [IRON] MAIDEN and THIN LIZZY. We'd be lying if we said that wasn't there, because we grew up on that stuff. DEEP PURPLE's a big influence. RAINBOW. Obviously, Ritchie Blackmore, stuff like that. It's going to be in there. I think we also have a different way of looking at it, because we've been doing it for so long. We're not trying to be like a lot of the other bands, and we're not trying to be modern. There are modern sounds, because we're recording in modern studios. The music's definitely coming from the right place. I think that people hear that when they listen to this new song 'One Nation Enslaved', you can hear that we definitely have stuck to our guns. We're not trying to do commercial music, but we also are writing songs that are memorable."

The music for "Addicted To Power" was recorded at Subterranean Studio in Oakland, California and Pyramid Studio in San Francisco, California. It was mixed by Damien Rasmussen of Smoke And Mirrors Productions.

De Pena previously stated about NEFARIOUS: "We're not a band. We are a gang ready to crush skulls and make eardrums bleed ... Necks will be sore ...!!"

Press photo courtesy of Freeman Promotions