Joel Stroetzel and Michael Wyzik have played in plenty of bands: Stroetzel on guitar in Aftershock and Killswitch Engage, Wyzik on drums in Red Door Exchange and Storm the Ohio. They’ve just never played together—until now. The Massachusetts-based musicians have teamed up to create Brothers Born, a project developed out of shared musical tastes that finds a surprisingly dynamic and natural middle ground between Stroetzel’s heavy metal  roots and the folksy Americana of Wyzik’s past.

“Parachute,” a new track from their upcoming full-length debut, Knife Wounds, is a low-key, mellow head-bobber, yet it still pulses with a steady power that carries through the whole track. Gravelly pop-rock vocals find a smooth balance against laid back, heavy but not too heavy guitar, giving the song a fuzzy familiarity and an undeniable catchiness.

The duo takes their name from a song penned by Wyzik’s Storm the Ohio bandmate Jerry Brookman, but Brothers Born is a fitting moniker for other reasons as well: Stroetzel and Wyzik have an easy, familial chemistry that comes across on “Parachute,” and will certainly stir up excitement for what these Brothers have in store for us on Knife Wounds, slated for release on February 24th.