About

Somebody needed to pick up the torch for hard rock and heavy metal with real grit and gusto and without a gimmick. Enter Who on Earth. The New Jersey outfit of Coosh [vocals], Pete Rizzi [bass], Johnny James Barone (guitar), Bruce Gatewood (guitar) and Howie Fallon [drums] — deliver a one-two punch of hard-hitting hooks and airtight instrumentation bolted down by pummeling grooves and piercing riffs. With Mike Orlando [Adrenaline Mob] in their corner as virtuoso guest guitarist, the musicians pay homage to rock’s past as they usher in its future on their independent, full-length debut, ‘BLAME.’

It all originated from a question…

“We wanted to fill in the blank of ‘Who on Earth is going to bring back original rock and metal?’,” explains Pete. “We grew up on the new wave of British heavy metal and classic rock. We went through grunge, hardcore and other great genres of metal. We wanted to resurrect the melodies, hooks, and guitar solos. We went back to our roots yet upgraded everything with modern production.”

For years the group made their bones through countless gigs across the tri-state area of NY, NJ and PA playing in every dive bar and concert hall with a stage. Along the way, Coosh and Pete tore up venues as part of MadHaus, performing nights of marathon covers.  In 2020, the longtime friends chose to forego covers, hunker down, and compose an original album. Pete invited Joe D’Aqui—the ever-versatile drummer of thrash band PIERCED—to join the fold in early 2021. Over the course of that year, the guys endured numerous COVID delays as they recorded with Orlando behind the board as producer, engineer, and mixer at his Sonic Stomp Studio in NYC.  Nodding musically to everyone from Sabbath, Maiden, and Skynyrd to Pantera, Alice in Chains, and Anthrax, they placed storytelling in the spotlight.

“Most of our songs are complete stories from start to finish,” notes Coosh. “We’re talking about our life experiences.”

“There’s personal vulnerability in the lyrics,” adds Pete. “It’s reflective and honest.”

After teasing “BLAME” with their first ever single ‘Monster in The Jar,’ in April 2022, Who on Earth unleashed ‘On the Brink’ a few months later.   With a head-nodding riff and trudging, stomp along groove, the song identifies the struggles of the everyday worker.  Coosh puts it simply, “It’s a working man’s song.”

“It is sung from the perspective of anybody who is in the middle to lower class,” Pete concurs. “It’s the 99% of the population who are constantly bombarded with fake news, manipulated media, misleading advertising, and who are suffering from inflation. Trying to make ends meet is becoming more difficult but we remind ourselves that friends and family are what matter the most.”

Other singles followed including ‘Down & Out,’ an all too real song about the rock bottom moment of an alcoholic drug addict and the agony that encompasses the lives of all involved followed by the catchy, hard driving ‘Black Swan’ in September 2022.  “A Black Swan event,’ is an event nobody could have seen coming, but in hindsight it’s occurrence is actually quite feasible” Pete explains. “Applying this to one’s personal life, you think you have the best vision for yourself, but often end up in a totally different place. We make plans, and the universe laughs. The reality is that everything in our life had to happen the way it did in order to for us to be where we are today.”

Who on Earth is a band with stories to tell and experiences to share which they deliver with groove and melody bringing back the lost art of the sing-along chorus, the ripping guitar solo and the crunchy, head bopping swagger of the rock of yester years!  Not only are they not afraid to pay homage to the great hard rock of the 70s/80s & 90s, Who on Earth wears it like a badge of honor and plays it boldly with a refreshing, modernized confidence.

On October 28th, 2022, the band proudly released ‘BLAME’ to the masses.  The album represents the triumphant return of fist pumping, guitar screaming, chorus shouting music with a modern sound that trumpets the revival of melodic power groove that's been somehow lost along the way.  

In the end, Who on Earth have set out to fill a void for rock ‘n’ roll.

“We just tried to write good songs,” Pete leaves off. “We’ve gone back to what we grew up on. It’s still valuable and relevant. It can’t die.”

“We want to inspire younger people to play this style,” concludes Coosh. “It would be nice to pass on the tradition.”

The album didn't take weeks, months, or years to make.   It took decades to make! 

And it’s just the beginning...."