Tetrarch, from left: Ryan Lerner, Diamond Rowe, Josh Fore, and Ruben Limas.
In ancient Rome, a tetrarch was one of four joint governors in one of four divisions in a country or province. Tetrarchy, as opposed to monarchy, represents shared governance. If there is any question as to which contemporary band can rule the borders and expand the boundaries of nu metal 25 years after its initial peak, Georgia’s Tetrarch might just hold the answer. Their latest release, The Ugly Side of Me, forms a uniquely unified musical front from four individuals who honor nu metal’s foundations with colossal choruses and maniacal guitar riffs, while also infusing the source material with post-modern industrial aggression and a healthy dose of socially conscious lyrical honesty. The Ugly Side of Meis a creative tour de force that should affirm Tetrarch’s status as one of nu metal’s most potent contemporaries, particularly among the genre’s faithful constituents.
Tetrarch was formed in Atlanta in 2007 by lead guitarist Diamond Rowe and lead vocalist/guitarist Josh Fore. As of 2025, the band is rounded out by bassist Ryan “Doom” Lerner and drummer Ruben Limas. Rowe and Fore initially played traditional metalcore before making a notable shift towards a more melodic sound on their independently released 2017 debut, Freak. Blending elements of nu metal and thrash, along with their metalcore influences, they honed in on a distinct sonic amalgamation and style, combining their signature creepy sounding guitar motifs with bone-crushing rhythms, melodic vocal melodies, and sub hooks.Unstable, released in 2021, drew greater comparisons to nu-metal progenitors like Slipknot and Korn, further entrenching Tetrarch within the hierarchy of that lineage.
Tetrarch’s third album, The Ugly Side of Me, features massive, needle-sharp production co-helmed by renowned producer Dave Otero, along with Rowe and Fore, and boasts a deftly executed combination of unrelenting brutality and undeniable charisma. The ’90s-industrial-infused single “Live Not Fantasize” is a real banger, featuring intense electronic flourishes, fast riffs, and Rowe’s dynamic, tantalizing guitar solos. An anthemic second single, “Never Again (Parasite),” balances monstrous grooves and massive atmosphere with incisive lyrics about facing our own darkest criticisms. The hypnotizing, metallic “Anything Like Myself” opens the album, while “Best of Luck” highlights the rhythmically nuanced interplay between Lerner and Limas.
YouTube It
Lead shredder Diamond Rowe takes the spotlight for a playalong to “Live Not Fantastize,” the first single off of Tetrarch’s new record.
Rowe and Fore have known each other since they were about 11 or 12, so it’s no surprise that they are musically so intimately compatible and completely in sync. “I feel like our playing styles melded into each other because we developed together,” explains Rowe. “We learned how to be in a band, how to play music, how to play shows, and how to play guitar together. When you’ve been playing and practicing with someone for so long, you just lock in, and our playing styles really complement each other. It was a natural progression.” Fore says that they would go to the library after school and instead of doing homework, they would play guitar. “We would print off books’ worth of guitar tabs and learn songs together,” he recalls. They’d also go to Guitar Center and “turn amps up way too loud and play for hours”–likely to the annoyance of the employees, he chuckles.
When it comes to their respective assignments within the band, Rowe plays more of the leads and single-note phrases while Fore, who is also the band’s frontman, plays more rhythm. “It’s very much rhythm and lead player roles,” affirms Rowe. “On choruses when Josh is playing big fat chords, I’ll play octaves or some melody lines, or on verses, if he’s playing some rhythm riff, I’ll do some weird creepy lead.” If it’s a riff-oriented rhythm part, they sometimes match up on those, but even then, Rowe often adds some kind of texture on top.
Fore and Rowe combine to create the band’s creative spark, and handle the bulk of the writing for new songs. For The Ugly Side of Me, they demoed material via their individual Pro Tools rigs and emailed files back and forth before jamming with the rest of the band. “Typically, it will start with me or Diamond coming up with a guitar riff,” explains Fore. “Sometimes one of us will come with a whole skeleton of a song and we’ll get in the room together and take it from there. Every song has its own way of coming together, but me and Diamond usually see it through.”
Tetrarch’s third album cements them as flagbearers of the new nu.
Diamond Rowe’s Gear
Guitars
- Jackson Signature Diamond Rowe Monarkh w/EverTune bridge
- Jackson American Series Soloist
Amps
- EVH 5150III EL34 100-watt head
- EVH 4x12
- EVH 5150III 50-watt head (for backup)
Effects
- Boss CH-1 Super Chorus
- Boss DD-7 Digital Delay
- Boss ES-8 Effects Switching System
- Boss RC-1 Loop Station
- Boss RV-6 Reverb
- DigiTech Whammy 5 Pitch Shift
- Dunlop KH95 Kirk Hammett Signature Cry Baby Wah
- Dunlop Volume (X) Mini
- Electro-Harmonix Small Stone Analog Phase Shifter
- Ibanez TS9 Tube Screamer
- ISP Decimator G String X Noise Reduction
- MXR Carbon Copy Analog Delay
- Strymon blueSky V2
- Two notes Torpedo C.A.B. M+
Strings & Picks
- Ernie Ball Beefy Slinky (.011–.054)
- Ernie Ball Skinny Top Beefy Bottom (.010–.054)
- Dunlop Jazz III black 1.38 mm
- Dunlop Jazz III black 1.35 mm
Josh Fore’s Gear
Guitars
- ESP E-II Eclipse
- ESP LTD EC-01FT
- ESP LTD AA-1 Alan Ashby Signature
- ESP LTD Eclipse
Amps
- EVH 5150III Stealth 100-watt head
- EVH 4x12
Effects
- Ibanez TS9 Tube Screamer
- ISP Decimator G String X Noise Reduction
Strings & Picks
- Ernie Ball Mammoth Slinky (.012–.062)
- InTuneGP GrippX 1.0 mm
For tracking, the guitarists mainly rely on plugins, “Mostly because of how easily you can change things on the fly,” explains Fore. For the new album, they leaned heavily on the Archetype: Gojira X by Neural DSP. The final product, what you hear on The Ugly Side of Me, was re-amped through the EVH 5150III. There’s no ego when they’re in the studio, so the decision of who plays which parts is simply a matter of who executes them the best. “Diamond will play some riffs, I will play some riffs,” says Fore. “We just swap the guitar back and forth. We’re like, ‘What’s the most efficient way? Who sounds better on this part?’ We just go with where the session takes us and try to get the best sounds and performances.”
The eerie signature sonic element that runs throughout all Tetrarch albums courtesy of Rowe’s inventive guitar-effects palette has helped establish the band’s identity. “When we first found it, Josh and I were playing around with POD Farm on the computer and it was just a sine wave chorus that nobody makes in a pedal,” recalls Rowe. “We were writing the song ‘Freak’ and looking for a weird sounding tone, and then it literally became a staple of our sound. For this album, we were like, ‘Alright, we’re not going to use that tone very much.’ We literally said that before making this record and yet here we are [laughter].”
As for their newfound status as the torchbearers of nu metal, Rowe says it’s not the label that matters most. “People could call us ‘progressive country metal,’ but what’s important is we’re writing the music that we really enjoy,” she attests. “Some of my favorite bands are Linkin Park, Slipknot, Disturbed, and Korn, but when I started playing guitar, Metallica was my all-time favorite band. And then, Zakk Wylde, Pantera, and Trivium—all of that was in there too, so I wouldn’t say nu metal was the only thing that I listened to, but it was a huge part of what I listened to.” Fore concludes with a similar sentiment: “People are going to perceive us how they’re going to perceive us. If they want to call us nu metal, then hell yeah, that sounds great.”
To most people, WWJD spells out “What Would Jesus Do?” But in the case of sworn shred disciple Diamond Rowe of Tetrarch, it stands for “What Would James (Hetfield) Do?”
“The longer you talk to me, you’re going to find out that I’m super old school with my rig,” admits Rowe. “We’ll go on tours and play festivals and people will approach us and ask, ‘why aren’t you doing this’ or ‘why aren’t you doing that’ and I’m just like, I don’t know … because Metallica did it this way [laughs].”
Tetrarch was founded in Atlanta during 2007 by friends (and guitarists) Diamond Rowe and Josh Fore. (Fore is also the band’s lead singer and handled drums for their 2013 EP Relentless). Ryan Lerner has been locked in at bass since 2009 and drummer Ruben Limas has been onboard since 2015.
The band hustled and self-released three EPs and their debut album Freak over the course of 10 grinding years. During that time, their thrashy roots broadened to incorporate nu-metal sounds delivered in a polished, more melodic, hook-laden package. That growth resulted in a deal with Napalm Records, where they released a LP (Unstable) and EP (Addicted) last year. The evolution of their sound and songcraft also saw a progression in gear.
“On the [early] EPs, I never did anything with delay pedals, phasers, or whammys—nothing—and I really wanted to try it,” Rowe told PG in 2017, around the recording of Freak. “Some of my all-time favorite bands have textural stuff like that. A lot of it came out sounding cool and we kept it. I was pretty happy about that. It’s fun to do live, too.”
Ironically, as the size of stages they played grew, Rowe’s gear footprint decreased. “I am one of those types of people,” she told PG. “I get emotional connections to my gear. The idea of switching my rig around gives me so much anxiety.”
The simplification of their rigs has only helped sharpened Tetrarch’s collective blade. And, specifically, Rowe’s reduction in pedals onstage has allowed the young flamethrower to torch crowds with a more immediate, powerful, direct punch to the gut.
Before Tetrarch’s opening slot for Sevendust at Nashville’s Wildhorse Saloon, PG’s Perry Bean stopped by to inspect the condensed-but-crushing setups of guitarists Rowe and Fore. Rowe shows off a sneaky upgrade—you’ll get plenty of clues in these captions—to her ESPs, allowing them to handle severely dropped tunings. Fore reveals how straight-forward his setup is so he can pull off riffing and singing. And both pile on the praise for their EVH bedrocks of gain.
[Brought to you by D’Addario XPND Pedalboard.]
Import Incinerator
Diamond Rowe has been a longtime endorsee of ESP guitars. She typically locks in with their single-cut 6-string models, but for Freak she went even heavier.
“The 7-string I liked was the Carpenter,” Rowe told PG in 2017. “It’s a beautiful guitar. It has a big body. It is heavy weighted like I like guitars to be. It’s a perfect fit for me. I love that guitar.” Since then, the band has evolved into using drop-A and drop-B tunings while shifting back to the standard 6-string format. The above shred machine (ESP LTD Deluxe EC-1000ET) helps facilitate familiar tension thanks to its EverTune bridge. Its voice comes to life with a set of EMG 81/60 active pickups. She puts on either Ernie Ball Skinny Top Heavy Bottom (.010–.052) or EB Skinny Top/Beefy Bottom (.010–.054) strings. She attacks the strings with Dunlop Jazz III and Tortex 1.14 mm picks.
Flamethrower
Here’s another one of Diamond’s ESP LTD Deluxe EC-1000ETs. This one is rocking a pair of EMG (57/66) active pickups, too. It rides in drop-B [B–F#–B–E–G#–C#] for the song “Take a Look Inside.”
Go for the Gold
Diamond started her playing career on a Gibson Les Paul Standard. All the guitars that followed had to pass her “toy test.”
“It’s probably because my first main guitar was a Gibson Les Paul Standard and it’s a heavy-weighted guitar,” Rowe admitted to PG. “Anytime I pick up anything lightweight I feel like I’m playing with a toy. It’s just a preference. I like feeling like I have something around my neck.”
The above ESP LTD Deluxe EC-1000T CTM is the heaviest, mightiest single-cut on tour with her. The gold-capped EMGs are still her preferred 81/60 combo. This sees the stage for songs from the band’s earlier EPs, when they lived in drop-C or D-standard tunings.
Mean Green
Rowe’s latest acquisition is this ESP E-II Eclipse Full Thickness that came to her stock with a set of EMGs (57TW/66TW) that offer coil-splitting for each pickup with individual push-pull controls on each volume knob.
Super-Smooth Smasher
Rowe had done several tours with her reliable Mesa/Boogie Triple Rec. However, whenever the band hit the studio, they’d track with a Peavey 6505.
“[For Freak] we used a Peavey 6505, and that’s the secret to studio tone for metal,” stated Rowe. “That or an EVH. That’s the tone that’s flawless for metal records and that’s predominantly what we used on this record. I think that’s on every recording we’ve ever done.”
So, when she was approached by EVH/Fender to try out some amps, she already knew things would get cooking. She tested the 50W EVH 5150 III alongside her Boogie for a few tours. But her world got rocked once introduced to the 100W EVH 5150 III 100S EL34. “I started playing it and immediately loved it,” said Rowe. “It has a smooth, saturated, high-gain tone that just meshes with Josh’s 50W 5150 III.”
Dirt and Dive Bombs
Diamond keeps things succinct on her pedalboard. For now, she only has two effects living in her stage setup: an always-on Ibanez TS9 Tube Screamer and a DigiTech Whammy for pure fun and note obliterating. A pair of Boss utilitarian stomps—NS-2 Noise Suppressor and TU-3 Chromatic Tuner—keep the guitars clean. Voodoo Lab has her pedals running and organized with a Pedal Power ISO-5 and Ground Control Pro MIDI switcher.
“Freak Tone”
Diamond has a rack that holds the pieces that make up her “freak tone” patch. It engages a Boss RV-6 Reverb, Boss DD-7 Digital Delay, Boss CE-5 Chorus Ensemble, and a MXR Uni-Vibe. Around back she has a pair of MXR Carbon Copy delays, too. The rack goodies are juiced with a Voodoo Lab Pedal Power 2 Plus.
Simple Screamin’ Demon
“I’m so simple as a guitarist, man” concedes Tetrarch frontman Josh Fore. “I never use the neck pickup and I might have tried the coil-split once [laughs].” Josh Fore’s go-to stage ace is an ESP LTD Deluxe TE-1000 EverTune that has a duo of EMGs (60TW-R and 81) and is finished with stealthy charcoal metallic satin. This one stays in drop-A tuning. All of Fore’s instruments take Ernie Ball Mammoth Slinkys (.012 –.062).
The Bee’s Knees
His first T-style from ESP was this honeycomb burst LTD Deluxe TE-1000 EverTune that barks with EMGs (57/66) and typically lives in drop-B tuning.
Bonded in Blood
Fore’s newest score is this slick ESP E-II Eclipse EverTune that is loaded with passive Seymour Duncans—Pegasus (bridge) and Sentient (neck)—and decked out with 22 jumbo frets, Dunlop Straploks, Gotoh locking tuners, and a graphite nut. If you look closely down by the controls, you’ll notice a darkened smudge on the binding that’s actually Josh’s blood from a rowdy show in Santa Ana. He sliced his finger during the second song of the set and, with a true showman’s attitude, continued playing while also personalizing his new prize. The bloody bomber hunkers down in drop-C tuning for Tetrarch’s earliest material.
Take Your Pick
Matching Rowe’s sonic swarm, Fore totes around a couple of EVH heads. Currently, he’s been preferring the 50W EVH 5150 III, but when additional sting is needed, he’s got the 100W down below. The only pedals in his entire chain are a duet of Boss NS-2 Noise Suppressors—one in front of the amp and one after—that kills any unwanted buzz and hiss.
