ALBUM REVIEW and INTERVIEW: Moving Metal Mountains All Girls Rock Band PLUSH Are Anything But Soft

L to R: Bella Perron, Brooke Colucci, Moriah Formica and Ashley Suppa (Photo courtesy of Plush/Pavement Entertainment)

By Charlotte Alexander | Go Venue Magazine

You can’t open Pandora’s Box without expecting a little hellfire to be unleashed and Moriah Formica, lead singer, songwriter and guitarist of PLUSH, didn’t just pry it open, she owns the damn thing. She can’t really put those fiery powerhouse vocal chords back in any kind of a box to remain hidden from the world, Anymore.

And she may appear tiny with her 4-foot-11-inch frame, but her range rivals legends, and her presence shadows giants when she has something to say. This pint-sized belter is on her way to soaring past the limits of where Icarus burned his wings.

After dropping the single ‘Athena’ at the tailend of the year, it became obvious that a welcoming to the metal world was warranted. Executing the first song flawlessly, it’s evident that there are new rising masters in metal music and youth isn’t their only weapon. They actually possess the talents to dominate a legitimate climb to the top of Metal Mount Olympus.

Plush Debut Album Artwork

All the world is their stage right now with the Spotify streaming of their debut self-titled PLUSH album and the parts they’re playing are magnified by dispelling any preconceived notions about their abilities. Girls Can Play. Girls Can Rock. Girls can take the stage and blow an audience away, and these GIRLS, all four who are fierce in their forceful forward march, are unapologetic in how hard they rocked Rocklahoma last year.

“That was an awesome show to be on the same lineup as legends, some of our idols,” Moriah said. “That audience was freakin amazing.”

Delicate doesn’t describe them. They are not confined to fragility. The 3 New Yorkers and 1 Maine resident can be referred to as charming in an interview, but under-estimating them onstage or discounting the strengths of their skills in a studio would be your first mistakes.

These rising metal goddesses, just barely 21-years-old and under, know their crafts and they’ve pieced together an everlasting cobblestoned performance map in a live show that builds momentum, starting out subtle, almost like a teasing warm up, before igniting the stage on fire and releasing an impressive cloud of blazing volcanic rock permeating over an astonished crowd. The smoldering ash layers continue with every set offering higher octane, more furious fuel, unrelenting instrumental power and vocals that elevate to a stellar degree of difficulty, which Formica conquers, effortlessly with her incredible mountainous range. They know how to hook you in the beginning, keep you intrigued in the middle, and close out a show, saving the best for last, building the blistering blocks themselves.

Drummer Brooke Colucci, who was featured in the May 2021 issue of Modern Drummer, and was named as one of seven female YouTube drummers you must know by Grammy.com, said they’ve dealt with some misconceptions about the all girls metal group.

“One is, we’ll hear ‘wow, you were all really good,’ and another is that we’re miserable because we don’t smile in a lot of pictures,” she said, and she squashes them as myths.

“Those are the two biggest preconceived notions, that we’re not going to perform well and that we’re not having any fun. We’re having fun,” Brooke insists. “Even though I’m in the back, behind the kit, I see it, I feel it. When the crowd is into your music, there’s a certain vibe and I feel it,” she explained of a live audience. “There’s nothing like it.”

Brooke began her fascination with the skins at a birthday party when she was just 6-years-old. It was a Rock ‘N Roll themed party and the kids were invited to try various instruments. She went straight for the drums and hasn’t really set the sticks down since. She also said her father is a huge GODSMACK fan and that’s trailed in to her drumming skills some. She doesn’t slouch behind those beats. She’s hitting it hard and she claims it’s the styles of the greats that put her on the metal path of potential domination.

“Shannon Larkin of GODSMACK, Danny Carey from Tool, Neil Peart from Rush, Jon Bonham are definitely my top influences,” Brooke said. “Our goals, I’d say, hopefully, is that this sparks a wave of women in rock ‘n roll, that we inspire people to pursue rock. It is totally a male dominated thing and honestly, just to share our music with the world, connecting with people and to apply it to their life, that’s what we hope to achieve. Don’t listen to anybody else that says ‘you can’t do that, you’re a girl,’ – ignore them. If you love playing your instrument, just go with it. Don’t care what anybody else has to say, just do you and be yourself.”

It’s not just young angst that came screaming out of the PLUSH album released late last fall. The four-member all female metal group are proving they belong onstage, performing, recording and delivering a thrash lashing to any audience that appreciates talent, artistic expression, music.

Preparing to hit the stage to open for Doro, to make their debut, that first show was canceled due to a global pandemic, but it gave PLUSH some more time to perfect their performance and bond, being a brand new band that just began in 2020, with challenges in finding open venues due to shutdowns worldwide.

Slowly creeping back to an inhabitable atmosphere, doors began opening again and in 2021, they stormed every stage they could get on. Expect to hear a lot