ETHAN KAHN of CHAINED SAINT On Performing With SLAUGHTER TO PREVAIL, WILLIAM DUVALL, And Praise From Legends: “It Was Pretty Mind-Blowing To Know ROB HALFORD Was Listening To Our Music And Liking It.”
Young, passionate, thrash blood doesn’t come around often – shit, it hasn’t for how many years? – so when there’s fresh meat on the scene, it’s hard to keep your eye off it. Especially when the band are both performing at Louder Than Life, Welcome To Rockville, and Van’s Warped Tour, all while attending college classes during the weekday.
Vocalist Sean Sterling unable to make our chat alongside guitarist Ethan Kahn due to a class running over, it’s been important for the band to continue pursuing an education no matter the success Chained Saint sees, with Kahn himself studying music and business: “I feel like the music path in school is a lot different than the way they teach you, you know, not exactly the way I learn music or kind of pursue it. It’s pretty much just like textbook theory stuff… and I feel like that limits it from being an art form, and more of a profession. I feel like people that go to music schools, they tend to be more music teachers down the line or a part of that same community.” Yet, for the average kid, that would be the community they end up gravitating towards – for Chained Saint, however? They’re as far from it as can be.
Hot off the heels of their 2024 debut LP, Blindside, Chained Saint has seen a lot in their short time as a band, with guitarist Ethan Kahn (18), bassist Sebastian De Avila (19), vocalist Sean Sterling (19), and drummer Cameron Cottrell (19) already receiving nods from the aforementioned festivals, as well as radio stations such as SiriusXM’s Liquid Metal Channel, publications like Guitar World, Revolver, and Loudwire, and some pretty legendary artists along the lines of Mastodon, Judas Priest, and Alice In Chains – with Alice In Chains‘ William DuVall becoming somewhat of a mentor to the band. It’s been just about a year, and it seems like only the beginning.
Taking time between classes and assignments, Ethan Kahn sits down with Metal Injection to talk about the insanity 2025 has been ahead of the band’s performance at Orlando’s Warped Tour.
So, how did Chained Saint come to be?
Kahn: We all went to school together and me, Sean [Sterling] and Sebastian [De Avila] all attended the same music school a couple of times per week and got to know each other there. Cameron [Cottrell] was in my high school guitar class, and we immediately bonded over taste in music and learned he was a drummer. The band played covers in my garage until one day we decided we wanted to write our own music. That’s when Chained Saint became a band.
You guys have had so much support in such a short amount of time. What have been some moments from metal legends that have stuck out to you?
Kahn: One of the most significant moments last year was when Rob Halford was being interviewed by Full Metal Jackie and talked about the band:
“I love songs that fly out from different bands. I was listening to a band today called Chained Saint from Florida. They just dropped a track from a recent album. And what it does, a single song can draw you in towards the album experience.”
It was very unexpected, especially a month after our debut album was released. I was still in high school last year when this was published, and I just remember walking into the kitchen and my parents asking me if I had seen what just happened. It was pretty mind-blowing to know that Rob Halford was listening to our music and liking it. It was like an adrenaline rush of motivation.
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With so many big-names taking such an interest in you – and William DuVall himself having such a pivotal role in the beginning – how has the band been taking on some of the advice you’ve been given?
Kahn: William is the consummate role model. He is a taskmaster and expects everyone in the room to be at the same level and up for the challenge, and most of all to be prepared. He taught us how to slow things down, which might sound funny for a thrash metal band already playing at a million beats per minute, but what he taught us was to serve the song, not just the riffs. He is willing to roll up his sleeves and get “in the weeds,” which was probably his most used phrase during the recording of the “Blindside” album. He is the one who insisted on recording 100% analog to tape, and we trusted him and trusted that we could pull it off. It really meant having to make decisions on takes and live with them on the record, because there was no “undo” button. As our engineer, Tom Tapley, said, “heavy balls.” The last thing I will say about William is that he is beyond passionate about what he does and doesn’t settle for anything less than perfect —at least as “perfect” as art can be.
Not only has DuVall taken a liking to you, it seemed so did Alex Terrible and Jack Simmons from Slaughter To Prevail, considering they invited Sterling on stage during Louder Than Life… what happened that day?
Kahn: We arrived at 9:00 AM for load-in for our 11:00 AM set at Louder Than Life last month. Of course, being a new band, we get the early slots and we’re grateful to be a part of these great festivals. We were all done setting up and ready to do a line check, and were going to get maybe half a song sound check when the stage manager, Kenny, came on stage – more to the Kenny story – and said we’re in a code red due to lightning and everything was on hold, go back to the van and shelter in place. At noon, we returned to the stage, and they were striking our gear. Our set had been canceled. To say this was disappointing was an understatement, especially given that this was the second time it happened to us in the past year in such a meaningful environment.
Last May, we had just finished our sound check at Mohegan Sun and had our banner raised. We were going to be the only opener for Alice In Chains in an hour, and as we were finishing sound check, Jerry Cantrell and William walked on the stage, and Jerry told us the show was being canceled. We were numb at that moment, and there wasn’t much to say. Sean Kinney was taken to the hospital, and his well-being was the only priority at that moment. So we went to Johnny Rockets, had milkshakes, and stayed up all night. The next morning, as we were heading to the airport, we received a call letting us know that the following two shows we were scheduled for with Alice In Chains had been canceled. So guess who the stage manager was that night… Kenny. We haven’t had much luck with Kenny this far. He said he’ll be at Warped Tour Orlando. The good news is we don’t think he’s our stage manager.
Back to Louder Than Life, we headed to the artist compound and catering, and we hadn’t eaten breakfast yet. One of our publicists from Atom Splitter PR, Tori Kravitz, sat with us, gave us a pep talk, and told us to remain positive and take advantage of the media interviews we had scheduled. We arrived at the media tent, and Tori and Amy Sciarretto were talking to Alex The Terrible and Jack Simmons, and told them what had happened. They were like “fuck that” and told our singer, Sean, they were going to bring him on stage during their last song, “Demolisher,” to sing and then throw down with them. They didn’t have to do that. There’s no reason they needed to care about a new band like us, but they did, and it had a tremendous impact on us: our social media numbers doubled in one week, and new fans found our music. It’s a testament to the culture of heavy music and the support within the scene. We will be forever grateful to those guys.
[Sterling, post-interview]: It was disappointing learning that our set was being cancelled because of the weather. But it comes with the territory. It’s the business. Totally out of everyone’s control. We basically went and did interviews and ate some food and were just waiting to go to the airport, and Slaughter to Prevail was like “you’re coming on stage during our last song.” It was surreal because it was a sea of people and the most amount of people I had performed in front of ever. Must have been close to 15,000 people or more at that time. Alex was great and told me to give a shout out to myself and our band at the end. It was the first ‘viral’ moment our band has ever had and gave a big boost in our awareness.
Despite the experience at Louder Than Life, how did festival season go for Chained Saint?
Kahn: We were all really nervous before hitting the stage at Welcome to Rockville, as it was our first festival, and there was the anticipation of playing in front of such a big audience. Our set was great, and it was so great to see fans singing our songs back to us and wearing Chained Saint merch. The best word to describe it was surreal. The best part about it was looking around and just having that feeling of getting to do what we love with our best friends, which was a fantastic experience. That was followed by being able to be fans and enjoy the rest of the festival, and see bands we really like. The same could be said about Rocklahoma, which was another great experience, and about getting to meet the guys in Sunami, another band we all really like. We have video of them rocking out to our set, which was pretty cool too.
So, despite your debut being last year, you guys seem like you are no strangers to touring at all.
Kahn: We hit the road last summer on our first tour after we dropped “1000 Tons,” and it was an excellent experience for us as a band. We did 5,000 miles in a van. Played in front of 8 people to 100 people night after night, battled colds, avoided hitting deer in the middle of the night from Chicago to Kansas City, and we learned how important it is to have each other’s backs. We ended playing 15 cities and were completely self-contained, as it should be. We really got tighter as a band, both playing our sets and spending that much time together in close quarters. We also had our series of mishaps here and there with gear, sound, and things that happen with live music, but we powered through and can’t wait to do it again. You can check out the vlogs on our YouTube. There are six episodes chronicling the tour.
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And if I remember correctly, “1000 Tons” was also featured by UFC?
Kahn: [Yes!] UFC also featured “1000 Tons” on all of its broadcasts in July and August, which really gave the single a boost out of the gate. We’re really grateful for all of the support we’ve received.
So, with 2025 winding down after support from some of the biggest names in metal, what is Chained Saint hoping to get up to next?
Kahn: We’re working on new music that will be released as an EP at the beginning of 2026, and we’re releasing a live show EP in late November, along with the video from that show at the Whisky A Go Go, which took place on August 15th.
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Chained Saint are slated to take the stage at Warped Tour today – fingers crossed all goes well for the youngins’ – or hell, we may get another viral moment from the budding thrash band.
