Bay Area band Provoker makes post-punk that's heavily steeped in the influence of brooding '80s synth pop, horror movie atmospherics, and video game otherworldliness. Provoker grew from a conceptual solo project to a fully formed band on releases like their 2021 debut album Body Jumper, and their sound was smoothly refined by the time of their third album, 2025's Mausoleum. Provoker was formed in 2015 by Jonathan Lopez, originally conceived as a solo vehicle for Lopez to compose scores for yet-to-be-realized horror films. Lopez met vocalist Christian Petty (ironically enough at a screening of the 2016 dark comedy/horror film The Greasy Strangler), and Petty began contributing vocals to Provoker recordings. By 2018, the band had gone in a decidedly post-punk direction, adding bassist Wil Palacios and releasing their first EP, Dark Angel, that year. Early momentum was thwarted by setbacks and tour cancellations related to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, but the band spent the downtime completing their first album Body Jumper, which was released in 2021. Provoker continued to pair synth pop melodics with horror movie aesthetics on their sophomore album, 2023's Demon Compass, and they embraced heightened production values on 2025's Mausoleum. - Biography by Fred Thomas