OTTTO, courtesy Justin Mohlman. Performance photos: Adam Pardee/STAFF.

NAPA — We first meet our protagonists at BottleRock Napa Valley. The fest is known for bringing in acts on the verge of breaking, who are likely to be well known by the time the following year’s festival season comes around. Case in point: young SoCal thrash metal band OTTTO, an unorthodox pick for a typically tamer bill.

“We knew that we were going to be one of the fastest bands up there that day,” guitarist and vocalist Bryan Noah Ferretti said. “So we just wanted to connect and say, fuck the genre, let’s just have fun.”

Have fun they did, delivering face-melting riffs that got the wine country crowd moshing, even closing out with a Slayer cover. The band recalled playing Chicago’s Lollapalooza just a few weeks before, delivering hard rock to the typically younger fanbase there as well.

It’s an exciting time for the band, which also includes bassist Tye Trujillo, as it mixes in tour dates along with finishing up work on a debut record.

“We’re going to drop some singles, then most likely end up dropping the record early next year,” Ferretti said. “There’s been a couple changes within the group and the writing is going really well.”

With the singles ready, Ferretti said OTTTO isn’t feeling pressure to move quickly to get material released. The band is instead using the time afforded by the singles to make sure the final album is right. The writing process began pre-pandemic, before taking an extended pause. Ferretti said that extra time allowed the band to sharpen its writing and performing, ultimately leading to better songs.

Ferretti and Trujillo have a musical history going back to The Helmets, in which the played together. That connection led them to OTTTO.

“After The Helmets, we formed a band with the original drummer,” Trujillo said, “We wanted to be a three-piece, we just started writing out own stuff, that was about four years ago.”

OTTTO performs at BottleRock Napa Valley at the Napa Valley Expo on Sept. 4, 2021.

Inspired by predecessors like Meshuggah, Helmet and Jane’s Addiction, the band has an authentic heaviness not often heard in young bands now. Ferretti said the pair have come a long way from their earliest days.

“We want people to start taking us more seriously as songwriters and musicians,” Ferretti said. “That’s what we love doing most; writing music.”

Part of that growth is evolving from becoming a band known more for covers, which the group feels was more of a focus in The Helmets when they wee in that band.

“We really like experimenting with different genres of music,” Trujillo said. “We wanted to kinda branch out and do that as well, instead of one-sided. We definitely have grown in that since then.”

Trujillo is the son of Metallica bassist Robert Trujillo, but despite the familial connection, Ferretti said the elder Trujillo gave OTTTO the space to learn on its own without offering too much guidance.

OTTTO performs at BottleRock Napa Valley at the Napa Valley Expo on Sept. 4, 2021.

“He’s really keen on just letting us do our thing,” Ferretti said. “He knows it’s our band and really encourages us to own that and make it our band.”

Trujillo said he often hears comparisons about his own style and his dad’s bass playing. It’s become something he lets roll off his back.

“I’m all good with it. It’s just that I feel like everyone is an individual and doesn’t need to be compared with someone else,” Trujillo said. “People are their own kings.”

Ferretti says he and Trujillo have become more collaborative in the songwriting process, yet another aspect of the band they’ve been encouraged by in their personal growth.

OTTTO performs at BottleRock Napa Valley at the Napa Valley Expo on Sept. 4, 2021.

“We’ve started collaborating and writing about stuff we find interesting and things that happen to us,” Ferretti said. “I know I want to start writing about surfing experiences, finny shit that happens, and be creative with it.”

As the band finishes up work on its forthcoming record, Ferretti already has his eyes on the next. Getting more time in the studio will bring more confidence for him in his abilities.

“We want to just keep writing music and getting music out,” Ferretti said. “We just want to make it a regular thing.”

“It’s just about painting that full picture that I hear and that Tye hears,” Ferretti added. “We want it to be pitch perfect.”

Editor Roman Gokhman contributed to this story. Follow writer Mike DeWald at Twitter.com/mike_dewald.