The show must go on.
Internal Bleeding — the band Firefighter William Tolley joined when he was just 16 — will release their latest single “Final Justice” on Friday.
Members of the Long Island-based heavy metal band gathered on Thursday to grieve following Tolley’s fatal fall from a Ridgewood, Queens, rooftop and to stand in solidarity behind the decision to go forward with the release.
“‘You’ve got to carry on. You’ve got to make the band as big as it can be. If I can’t do it, somebody else has to do it,’ ” guitarist Christopher Pervelis said Tolley told him just hours before his death.
The two were discussing their upcoming tour and how Tolley’s busy work schedule with the FDNY might prevent him making all of the shows.
“When I think about it now, I can’t even process that,” Pervelis said. “Because when you think about fate and things like that, it’s just mind-blowing that he said that today.”
The 48-year-old struggled to comprehend the loss of his bandmate and best friend.
“If a guy could ever had a soulmate that’s not his wife, Bill was my soulmate, and he was the heart and soul of our band,” he told the Daily News. “He’s what drove the band and I can’t process the loss, that such a good person is gone.”
Tolley’s pounding rhythm behind the drum kit formed the basis of the band’s “slam” sound, Pervelis said.
The group gathered on Thursday to share memories, stories, and even a few laughs over the 14-year veteran firefighter who they knew as a rhythm machine behind the drum kit.
“Bill was one of the first people in the death metal genre to really introduce backbeats and groove into death metal,” Pervelis said. “And that was a contribution that I think influenced a lot of people in our musical scene.”
The quintet had also prepped to gear up for a twenty-one stop tour set to start next month.
Internal Bleeding got its start on Long Island in the early 1990s.
The band put out 11 releases and has toured extensively across the country.
The group’s Facebook page features clips of the band prepping for their upcoming run of shows and photos from a recent video shoot. There are also shots of the bands recent tour in Russia.
The page, which has more than 52,000 followers, was inundated on Thursday with messages and memories from friends, fans, and fellow musicians.
“Rest In Peace Bill. He’s an absolute legend. I always shook his hand at the merch table after IBs set and told him how much my band and I respect and take inspiration from him and the rest of the fine men in Internal Bleeding,” wrote Mario Mignella. “This is truly everyone on Long Island’s loss, everyone in death metal’s loss. May he live on in our memories for an eternity.”
Before joining the FDNY, Tolley was reportedly offered to play drums for Hatebreed while they were trying to get signed — but he passed on the gig.
“I was sick over it,” Tolley told All About the Rock in 2013.
“I should have just gone with my heart and gut feeling and went out touring with Hatebreed,” he said. “If I could go back in time I would have done it. It was an honor to be asked to do that.”
Tolley was destined to be a firefighter, Pervelis said, noting that he rushed into the city on 9/11 with other volunteers from their Hicksville station.
“He always wanted to be a firefighter,” he said. “If you look inside the liner notes of our ‘Driven to Conquer’ album that came out in 1999, there’s a picture of him as a 4-year-old child with a firefighter’s mask on and a firefighter’s helmet.”
Pervelis spoke to Tolley’s wife, Marie, earlier in the day and said she was beside herself with grief.
“She’s just devastated,” he said.
