Rockin’ Warriors: The Bands of WGHS

Metro Atlanta is a prime cultural center, ripe with the arts, and Walton County is no exception, with numerous artists calling it their home. WGHS specifically hosts an abundance of musical talents. Here, we spotlight a few warriors who have made names in the local scene.
by Emery Brown and Beckett DeWitt

Metro Atlanta is a prime cultural center, ripe with the arts, and Walton County is no exception, with numerous artists calling it their home. WGHS specifically hosts an abundance of musical talents. Here, we spotlight a few warriors who have made names in the local scene.
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Jack Henrich (11), known for his incredible drumming, joins Owen Locke and Nova Miller in Summer in the Psych Ward, a band whose sound Jack describes as “melodic, yet simple, and heavy, very very heavy.” Jack’s history with drumming is extensive, citing heavy metal band Dio as his first inspiration in a long list that includes grunge acts like Pearl Jam to more experimental groups like Dance Gavin Dance. Despite marking his place in SITPW, he wasn’t a founding member. In fact, SITPW was a side project of Owen’s during his tenure in Out of Order, another local group. Then, “. . . on December 14th of 2024, he called about four people including me and Nova. . . I was in a band called Hybrid of Hymns at the time that was, y’know, just got their first show, and he heard about me through my last talent show that I did at Walnut Grove. And then I hit up his house. . . He did a Dave Grohl and made a whole album by himself, the vocals, bass, drums, guitar. . . we were just amazed at what we were seeing.” SITPW would play their first show in December 2025, playing plenty more since, yet for them, it isn’t just about the music. “. . . we try to connect with people who are dealing with all sorts of things. Stuff that we can agree on, stuff that we are familiar with during life, and we try to get away from politics and things that tear us apart. . . because this world is filled with so much hate, and people are so ugly to each other. . . we try to connect to people as much as possible with this music that we are making. . . it’s all about the room, it’s all about the people, it’s all about connection.”

Ivy Anderson (11) leads the Cellar Lantern Hymns, a group whose sound she points to a review of their latest album to explain: "The lyrics drip with pathos, but are never cloying, or drowning in self pity, and the music itself is very well performed in the recording. But it's the intensity of the intent that will stay with you when the album ends." Ivy’s music has shifted dramatically since she began in 2022, claiming “I started with experimental electronic music and then moved onto black metal.” Interestingly enough, “Cellar Lantern just started with a dream [she] had about Anne Frank and then [she] wrote a song about it.” Inspired by her friends in the Athens music collective known as Elephant 6, we can expect plenty of new shows from Ivy and CLH, as well as a new record entitled Nowhere Girl, set for release May 1, 2027.

Finally, Hornet’s frontman Sully Gouge (12) describes the upcoming hardcore group’s sound as “a bunch of hooting and hollering. Loud, fast, and angry, like setting off firecrackers in a hornets’ nest.” A fan of hardcore since a very young age, Sully attributes his brother, a member of the Atlanta hardcore group KONGSTYLE, for his exposure to and love for the scene. “My biggest inspirations are my brother and his band KONGSTYLE personally.” Hornet as a group has existed under numerous names and genres over the years, but “it’s really been locked down for about six months with the style and name.” Sully hopes to play a few shows during the summer, and claims that the group already has a demo tape nearing its release. “Hopefully it will come out in fall or early winter. Expect big things soon.”

The growth, passion, and attitude of these bands are inspiring, yet the main intention behind all of them is best summarized by a final quote from Jack: “I would just say if anybody’s going through it, I promise, you’ll be okay. And if you don’t like us, you don’t have to listen to us. But if you do like us, come and join us in the Psych Ward, you know what I mean?”