Sematary

Sematary
Sematary performing in 2024
Background information
Birth name	Zane Steckler
Also known as	Sematary Grave Man,[1][2] DJ Sorrow
Born	(2000-12-22) December 22, 2000 (age 23) California, U.S.
Genres	Horrorcore underground hip hop trap Witch House
Occupations	Rapper songwriter record producer
Years active	2019–present
Member of	Haunted Mound

Zane Steckler (born December 22, 2000), known professionally as Sematary, is an American rapper, songwriter, and record producer. He is the founder and frontman of the underground hip hop collective Haunted Mound, which he started in 2019. He began releasing music in 2019. His distorted, black metal- and witch house-inspired horrorcore songs and deep-fried Internet aesthetic have garnered him a cult following online.^[3]

Zane Steckler was born on December 22, 2000^[4] in Northern California. He has described his hometown as "redneck-y". His mother is a painter and his father is a record producer who worked on various film scores, including writing a song for the soundtrack to the 1999 film Pokémon: The First Movie while working as a jingle writer. He has one younger brother. Steckler's upbringing, according to him, was "normal", and he has expressed that he hated school.^[5] He first began experimenting with music at the age of 11 through the use of GarageBand and Logic Pro.^[6]

Steckler began releasing music as Sematary in 2019 after he graduated from high school, releasing his collaborative debut mixtape Grave House with fellow rapper and childhood friend Ghost Mountain in August^{[citation needed]} of that year. Following Grave House's release, Sematary released his solo debut mixtape, Rainbow Bridge, in November of 2019.^{[7][non-primary source needed]} Also in 2019, Sematary formed the underground hip hop collective and record label Haunted Mound, becoming the group's frontman.^[8] He released a follow-up mixtape to Grave House with Ghost Mountain, Hundred Acre Wrist, in 2020.^{[citation needed]} His mixtape Rainbow Bridge 3 was released in April 2021^[9] and was listed as one of the best hip hop albums of that year by SLUG.^[10]

Sematary released the mixtape Butcher House in January 2023, with its namesake tour taking place in early 2023.^[11] Upon its release, Paste praised it as "easily the hardest-hitting rap record of the year right now", while Revolver's Eli Enis called it "beautifully belligerent".^[12][13] Eight months later, Sematary's extended play (EP) King of the Graveyard was released.^[14] He also appeared as a guest on Suicideboys' Grey Day Tour in the fall of 2023.^[15] His album Bloody Angel was released in March 2024 and his second headlining tour, the Haunted Mound Angels Tour, commenced a month later. Bloody Angel was preceded by the post-punk single "Wendigo", released in January 2024.^[16] That same month, "Fuck the World", a collaborative single between him, Chief Keef, and fellow Haunted Mound member Hackle, was released.^[17]

Sematary has named rappers Chief Keef (left) and Yung Lean (right) as two of his biggest musical inspirations

Steckler was inspired by witch house band Salem and rappers Chief Keef, Black Kray, and Yung Lean to start rapping, with the latter motivating him to pursue a career in music after he saw him perform at the Warlord American tour.^[5][6] Sematary's music is horrorcore with elements of cloud rap, trap, and drill music.^{[5][12][10][8]} He has described his songs as "crunchy" and largely inspired by black metal and witch house. His vocals are typically layered and distorted with Auto-Tune.^[10] For Stereogum, John Norris called Sematary's vocals "snarling" and "slurry" and described his lyrics as nihilistic. Paste wrote that his music was "loud" and "abrasive" with "a ton of distortion" and lyrics that "vary from creepy to ridiculous".^[12] Paper's Ivan Guzman called his and Haunted Mound's lyrics "slasher film-esque" and their production style "blaring" and "blown-out".^[5] His sound was called "distinctly post-internet" and a "[fusion] of psychedelic SoundCloud-era rap à la Bladee and Yung Lean with menacing horrorcore drums and spooky witch house synths" by Eli Enis of Revolver.^[15]

As of 2024^[update], Sematary had recorded a majority of his music in the "Butcher House", an abandoned slaughterhouse built in 1905 in which he currently resides and films most of his music videos. Günseli Yalcinkaya of Dazed compared his music videos to B horror movies. His online aesthetic has been described as deep-fried and defined by its horror influences, including his often holding a chainsaw; he has compared it to that of Chief Keef.^[5] Sematary helps design Haunted Mound's merchandise—which, as of 2024^[update], make up most of the collective's revenue—and its mascot, a screaming tree named Harold.^[16] He has stated that his marketing of the group is inspired by that of other underground hip hop groups, such as Sad Boys and Goth Money.^[18] He has been vocal against the presence of the alt-right in underground hip hop.^[5][19]

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