Anchorage isn’t easy on bands. Scenes flare and vanish, venues come and go, and winter will test your commitment harder than any tour van breakdown. That’s why DECEPTICIDE matter. Formed on 1 January 2008 after a New Year’s blow-out, the Anchorage lifers have spent more than a decade and a half keeping Alaska heavy. Not as a nostalgia act either, but as the house band for stubborn grit.
Who They Are
DECEPTICIDE ARE:
Enzo Montana (Guitar)
Murat Demir (Bass)
Brian Harris (Drums)
Ryan Hull (Vocals)
Ryan Hull (vocals), Enzo Montana (guitar), Brian Harris (drums), and a bass slot filled by Murat Demir in 2023, Demir has also recorded and mixed ‘Immolation’ and the rest of their new EP (Expected Dec 2025 release). They did a brief East Coast push in 2010, then chose home when life (and fatherhood) called, a decision that turned them into anchors for the local scene rather than another name lost to the Lower 48.
The Sound
Call it thrash sharpened by death-metal teeth: Pantera swing, Lamb of God precision, Black Dahlia Murder bite. Montana’s riffs sprint and stomp; Harris plays like a factory press; Hull roars from the diaphragm, not the throat. They’ve evolved without sanding off the edges, heavier and faster, still recognisably DECEPTICIDE.
Essential Listen
‘Savage’ (2023) is the calling card: a lean, hostile full-length that captures the band’s live power without over-polishing it. If you want a more current snapshot, their 2025 sampler on YouTube (below) shows the engine still hot and idling.
Listen on Spotify or Apple Music
Why Alaska
Because bands like this keep a city’s pulse. Anchorage has wrestled with a lack of all ages spaces; DECEPTICIDE kept showing up anyway, bars, benefits, wherever the PA would hum, and treated every stage like the big one. They’re family men now, which only hardens the purpose: practice is where the brotherhood lives, shows are where it breathes.
Where To Find Them
Facebook: facebook.com/decepticide
YouTube: @decepticide
Merch: Etsy shop ‘DECEPTICIDE’
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/decepticide
Blunt Take:
DECEPTICIDE aren’t a novelty “Alaska metal band.” They’re a lifer level thrash/death unit whose choices to come home, to stick it out, to play hard, turned them into the scene’s steel rebar. If you only know Anchorage for 36 Crazyfists, widen the lens. Start with ‘Savage’ and turn it up.
Credit: Alaska Landmine
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