This band stayed criminally obscure, despite having a fairly original sound and releasing two albums in the early 2000s. Unfisted came to us from north-central Florida, near Ocala, and played a form of post-hardcore that had ties to both groove metal and nu metal. I remember hearing them at the time (having come into contact with them through my distro during the era), and finding them really hard to peg. They had elements of hardcore, indie rock, and metal, but the song structures and tempos were different than most of what I was hearing from those genres.
Listening back now over two decades later, I hear some overlap with bands like Deftones, Quicksand, or even Hum. There’s definitely a slight nod to nu metal, but without any hip-hop influence, a clear trademark of the genre.
They released two albums. The first was on their own label Outlet Records, and entitled In Front of the Innerside, and the second was on Ohio-based Burning Records, and called Define Strength. The albums were issued in 2000 and 2001 respectively.
I had developed a long-distance friendship with guitarist Ernie (by email), who was actually responsible for helping me rename my distro at the time. We lost touch sometime after that, and I assume Unfisted disbanded, though I remember reading hints online that members had continued making music in other forms.
If you have any leads on where they ended up, let us know in the comments!
“Pull” comes from the band’s 2000 independent debut, and illustrates most of what was great about the band’s output: textured playing met with heavy riffs, and emotional real-life lyrics:
Stop pulling me down
Stop pulling
I won’t ask again
