No Snow Days in Hardcore: Inside YAMALOKA’s Blizzard-Born Studio Sessions

“There are NO snow days in hardcore music.” – I wholeheartedly meant it when I typed it in the group chat on day three of tracking our debut EP, Sermons Of The Damned. At that point, it wasn’t just a statement—it was the reality we were living in. Snow was dumping outside, roads were getting worse by the hour, and somehow, that only made us push harder.

I play guitar in YAMALOKA, a five-piece, no-frills hardcore band rooted in the aggression of early Hatebreed and the chaos of The Acacia Strain. From the beginning, we knew exactly what we didn’t want: overproduced, drum sample-replaced, over-edited, computer-polished nonsense. We wanted something real—something that actually sounded like five people in a room, because that’s exactly what it was.

Finding the Right Studio

We ended up at Sense 2 Studio  (https://sense-2.com) thanks to our bassist. His other band, Cosmic Reaper, had tracked a killer doom LP there the year before, and once we heard it, the decision basically made itself. That’s how we met Blake Hobson.

Blake is one of those guys who doesn’t need to oversell anything. Extremely talented, Super humble, easy to talk to, and insanely detail-oriented. His studio has this perfect balance—completely professional but still comfortable enough that you don’t feel like you’re under a microscope. Every inch of the place feels intentional. We settled right in quickly.

What really sold me, though, were the conversations. During pre-production, we went deep—gear talk, tone chasing, recording philosophy. The kind of nerdy, detailed discussions that only happen when everyone actually cares. And Blake’s level of care is indescribable. I remember thinking, yeah, this is the right dude for this record.

Keeping It Real

We tracked everything the way it’s supposed to be tracked—well rehearsed and honest.

All-tube amps. Analog pedals. Passive pickups. Real drum takes. No sample hits. No replacements. Very reminiscent of my early ADAT days – very refreshing!

I ran my multi-watt Mesa Dual Rectifier, boosted with a Horizon Devices Precision Drive, and it absolutely ripped. For guitars, I switched between my Gibson Gold Top and ESP LTD SC-20, both loaded with MojoTone 44 Magnums. Blake had this killer ’90s Mesa slant 4×12 that just ate everything we threw at it—tight chugs, screaming leads, all of it. There was also a MojoTone 2×12 BV30 cab handy.

Four Days Against the Clock

We only had four days to track seven songs, so there was zero room to slack. Every take mattered. Every decision counted.

Then the snow hit – And I mean hit. We were measuring it with a broken drum stick periodically… until the stick disappeared.

Roads got sketchy fast. Cars started disappearing into ditches. At one point, Blake’s wife  posted a video joking about the situation—something like, “Look at the 12 inches of snow… and now listen to the bass rumbling in the studio”

If you read between the lines, it was more like: “look at these fucking maniacs driving through a blizzard when all I wanted was a snow day with my hubby”  Sorry Rachel 😬 But turning back wasn’t even a thought. Not for a second.

The Drive Home

After long tracking days, the drive home felt like its own separate adventure. My trusty Wrangler and I passed abandoned cars, trucked through stretches of highway that probably should’ve been closed, and at one point shared a solid 30 minutes of I-485 with just a single trucker.

It was eerie. Quiet. Completely surreal. It was beautiful.

And somehow, it all felt connected to what we were making—this raw, unfiltered, slightly unhinged record that refused to play it safe.

One for the Books

Looking back, the whole experience feels unreal. The time crunch, the storm, the energy in that room—it all came together in a way I know I’ll never forget.

Sermons Of The Damned isn’t just our debut. It’s a snapshot of exactly who we are: no shortcuts, no compromises, no excuses, no bullshit. Stay tuned!

Justin Driscoll – Guitar