Matt Riena Lets the Music Do His Talking

By Juan Ysaguirre

Matt Riena is from the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community and cares deeply about the music he creates. His band, Necrambulant, is a slam/brutal/death-metal band on the rise and primed for major success.

Slamming brutal death-metal is a musical genre which features a strong emphasis on speed, heaviness, and complex rhythms. The genre originated in the 1990’s out of New York’s death metal scene thanks to bands like Internal Bleeding, Pyrexia and Afterbirth.

Riena is Necrambulant’s drummer and contributes to the band in other ways by collaborating on the songwriting aspects. Along with bandmates Andy York, Ron Clark, and Trent Pittard, the band has been active since 2008 but took a break in 2015. Riena joined the band in 2011 after the group contacted him thanks due to a Craigslist posting he published. A few years later, Reina was removed from the band and the remaining bandmembers would ultimately break up soon thereafter.

However, fate intervened a few years later.

“In 2021, I ran into Ron at a show,” said Riena. “We exchanged contact info and maybe a few weeks after talking, I brought up the idea of, ‘Hey, what if we got the band back together?’ Clark said, ‘Wow, I never thought I would bring the band back,’” shared Riena.

With Riena on drums and Clark on guitar, it was easy for the duo to pick up where they left off and restart the new era of Necrambulant. “He and I both decided, ‘why not?’” said Riena.

The rejuvenated era of the band allowed for Riena to showcase his other artistic talents even further. For their latest music video, “Sentenced to a Gluttonous Pit,” Riena not only is in the video playing the drums, but he also created the pre-production music video notes which feature the band playing live in SRPMIC. “We filmed around by the Beeline gas station,” said Riena.

The gritty, black and white video showcases the band playing their slamming, brutal, death-metal style of music they’re famously known for. The video has already garnered thousands of views since its debut this January as their legion of dedicated fans continue to grow with each project and video they release.

Recently, the band accomplished a major feat by signing to a major independent music label, Gore House Productions. By signing to the label, the band’s music can now be purchased in compact disc or cassette-form via the label’s website directly.

A self-taught musician, Riena remains as humble as he is talented. He remains focused on the music first, an attribute he’s had since he was an air-drumming teenager with the desire to play music. “I didn’t have anybody teach me [how to play music]. I didn’t look at any books. It wasn’t perfect the first time I started playing, but over the years, the more and more I played, the better I got,” he added.

As he looks towards the future, Riena has his eyes set on continuing to play the type of music he loves while simultaneously being proud of SRPMIC roots. “I would like to play here in Salt River,” he shared. Riena has a goal of one day creating a music festival here in the Community, which could allow for his band and similar acts to rock the stage, potentially inside of the Community Building.

Mentioning “The Day the Rez Stood Still,” an annual horror-themed event that featured a record-setting turnout of attendees last October, Riena envisions musical acts performing during a future event or perhaps one day creating a separate festival unto its own in the Community. “They [Woodenhead Collective] had a huge turnout at the Community Building. I went to the first one they had,” said Riena.

He also shared that he would like to see more Indigenous musicians experiment with different musical genres.

“I would like to see more members, really just Indian people across the country, play some more heavy stuff that we’re doing. There’s a lot of bands in Indian communities out there that play in other genres, like hardcore. I hope that people in the Community and elsewhere, listen to our stuff, like it and I hope it inspires them to play some heavy stuff too.”

Necrambulant’s latest album, “Upheaval of Malignant Necrambulance,” releases on March 7 via Gore House Productions. Riena and the band will be performing at an all-ages album release concert on April 26 at the Nile Theater in Downtown Mesa.