Unus Mundus: It means “one World.” Whatever…

Unus Mundus: the band’s music has been called dark punk, doom metal, sludge metal, southern metal, hard rock, space metal, art metal… Again, whatever! We’re all influenced by what we listen to… You may as well add jazz, blues, psychedelic, experimental, folk, classical, and industrial to the list! Crank it up!

So what the hell is an “Unus Mundus?”

Unus Mundus

Unus Mundus: it’s the Latin word meaning "one world.” It’s a word that explains “the concept of a fundamental unified reality from which everything emerges and to which everything returns.” Renowned psychologist Carl Jung coined the term.

Sure. Cool. Jung was incredible. Anyway, here’s the real definition (laugh-out-loud emoji)! Unus Mundus is a heavy metal/hard rock/heavy-ass rock band from Northeast Georgia, U.S.A. The band’s sound has been described as “Killing Joke on a roid rage” as well as “industrial sludge metal” and “space sludge”. Again, sure. Cool.

Andreas Holma, of the band Road to Jerusalem, says… “That was fuckin' raw! I like it! You totally captured the essence of what Rock'N'Roll is all about.”

Dale Hilton, “The Heavy Metal Comedian,” says… “Dude, that's angry monster metal!!! Fuck yeah!!! I love it. The solo smelled a little like GWAR. You guys sound like HIGH ON FIRE & MOTORHEAD got into a fist fight in the mud. It sounded like it should be in a MAD MAX movie.”

The History

Unus Mundus was founded by Steve Houston (Sky City, radio: Tahiti, Autoscope, Dudeman, Aftermath, Cave Paintings, and Support Group) years ago as a one-man project. A few recordings were done, as well as a few live shows. There’s even an album that Steve put out, which went straight to the Internet and total obscurity. It’s called “Idyls and Musings,” look it up. Soon, Steve was joined by long-time collaborator Rob Fluhr (F.M. Bolding, Dudeman, Cave Paintings, Autoscope, and Altruizine) on bass, harmonica, and percussion. For a few years, Unus Mundus saw musicians come and go, Leslie Grove (Sky City, Species, and Altruizine) on drums, keyboards, electronics, and bass; Jim Panebianco (Electric Coffee) on guitar; Johnny Panebianco (Electric Coffee) on vocals; and Josh Massey on drums. Many lost recordings were made, in addition to live shows performed, including one for “Sound of the City” on Athens’ WUOG 90.5 FM. People left. Eventually, it came down to Fluhr, Grove, and Houston.

Cary Whitley joined the band shortly afterward on saxophone and electronics. This four-piece Unus Mundus did some gigs in Athens and Atlanta, Georgia, and released a self-produced, full-length album of Krautrock-like ramblings, psychedelic pop, off-kilter industrial music, and noise rock called “Type V Civilization” before folding in 2013.

Fluhr and Houston got back together in 2017 to renew Unus
Mundus. They were rejoined by Massey and started writing and
performing the harder, louder, more visceral music that was
starting to congeal between them. The sound was
brutal yet ferociously expansive. It could have easily been
called “sludge metal,” “doom metal,” “extreme metal,”
“hard rock,” and/or “hardcore punk rock.” It didn’t matter, the
intensity was ramped up and it stayed that way! Motorhead’s
Lemmy called it “rock n’ roll.” That works.

Starting in 2017, Fluhr, Houston, and Massey, as Unus Mundus,
performed live quite a few times, releasing one full-length album
(LP) and one EP, electronically, along the way: “Staring at the
Sun,” and “This Goes With It,” both produced by Tom Ashton (March Violets and Clan of Zymox). Massey left, agreeably and with best wishes, in December of 2019, right after the recording of the This Goes With It EP. Right after that, Fluhr and Houston performed a live set at Atlanta’s fabled underground bar, The Highlander, on February 22, 2020, using electronic drums and the live help of longtime collaborator Jon Lester. A few weeks later, everything… Ended… For a while.

In odd isolation, Fluhr and Houston eventually started jamming again and cooking up new songs. When things changed back to “normal,” they had seven new songs ready to perform and record. Using pre-recorded electronic drums, they released “One World” in 2022, again produced by Tom Ashton, and this time mastered by Jason NeSmith, of Chase Park Transduction. Many gigs followed until a significant one in August 2024.

Rob and Steve performed at Atlanta’s legendary Mayhem House in
August 2024. It was a Black Blood Production, another legend helmed
by the equally legendary Slayla. Among the many bands that performed
that day and night was Beat Up, Athens’ punk rock stalwarts. Both
Slayla and Nathan Flogamocker, lead man for Beat Up, suggested that
Beat Up’s drummer, Peter, might be interested in playing with another
band because he was only in one band. Rabid to play with a live
drummer, Rob, and Steve took note because live drums are the best.
Steve contacted Peter on social media a few days later.

In September 2024, Peter jammed with Rob and Steve, showed up
for practice, and became the Unus Mundus drummer! The band had
solidified. It took less than half a year for Unus Mundus to become
ready to do live gigs with close to a dozen original songs and be poised to release a 7” vinyl single. There’s enough material to also record a full-length album! Which is exactly what they aim to do. /

The Band

Unus Mundus is three guys who’ve played music
since forever, with a lot of influences, both
musical and otherwise. All of them have some
sort of visual arts background, among other things…

Peter McCarron: drums, vocals
Rob Fluhr: bass, vocals
Steve Houston: guitars, vocals

The World

Unus Mundus has received coverage in both
underground and mainstream media. For
instance, here’s an interview on
Doom-metal.com. The band has also gotten
coverage in Record Plug Magazine, out of
Atlanta, and quite a few times in Flagpole
Magazine based in Athens, especially in Gordon
Lamb’s “Threats and Promises” column.

And hey! Check out this interview with
the band on JOKERJOKERtv, April 24, 2025!

On the subject of what the music is all about, it’s about… The music… And music is art, so it’s also about art. Expression. Sure, the act of playing music live and recording, creating original music, has to sustain itself, but passion is the key. There are some messages in Unus Mundus’ music, too. Things are tough right now and a lot of those things piss us off, maybe they piss you off too! There’s also the ugliness and inanity of tyranny: back by (un)popular demand. Change is constant, and that goes for our planet as well. Hell, the entire Universe! These are some of the ideas in the lyrics to the music. Here are some more: nightmares, technology run amok, idyllic landscapes, the challenges of and absurdities of everyday life, dreams, war, love, science fiction concepts, weirdness, horror, joy… Even the idea, and act, of playing music and rocking out for the sheer sake of just playing music and rocking out!

The Music

This site has Unus Mundus discography on it, as does the Unus Mundus Bandcamp site. The Fluhr/Houston/McCarron line-up is a different animal than the others, though. For the real deal, what Unus Mundus truly is doing right now, you’ll have to listen to and watch the following videos for now, both from the April 24, 2025, show on JOKERJOKERtv. Peter, Rob, and Steve will have some new material available soon, right here! Stay tuned!

The Contact

To contact Unus Mundus for live performances, recordings, and any other reason, use the contact section of this website, or simply email the band at theeunusmundus@gmail.com, or use the “sign up” window.