User:Metalmusicscene/Throes of Sanity

Throes of Sanity is a progressive metal band located in Seattle, Washington. Throes of Sanity's music has been played and the band has been interviewed on Seattle's largest local rock radio station KISW's Metal Shop. Throes of Sanity has also been written about and given positive reviews by the underground metal community throughout the world in numerous published noteworthy web based articles such as NME.com, Progressive World.net , Last.fm ,  Forgotten-Scroll , Rapid4me.com , Metal to Infinity , Metal Melts the Ice , and Metal-Rules.de to name a few. Throes of Sanity is currently scheduled to play the “Swordbrothers Festival IX” in Andernach, Germany on September 11, 2010.

Biography
The origins of the band began in the early 1980s when lead guitarist, Erik Peterson, bassist Phil Tsai, and drummer, Jeff Winston began playing progressive metal instrumental songs (influenced by old Black Sabbath, Rush and Iron Maiden cover tunes) while attending secondary school in Tacoma, Washington. The three members went to primary school together and have known each other almost their entire lives.

The essence of the band was created when Erik, Phil, and Jeff met guitarist, Marc Wallace, who was attending college at the University of Washington. Marc was an especially creative song writer and an exceptional lead guitarist. All members of the band had the same love for progressive power metal along the lines of Queensryche, Rush, Iron Maiden, Dream Theater and Black Sabbath. However, the existing band members knew they needed a powerful and melodic lead vocalist to complete the lineup.

That role was more than realized when the band met singer Scott King. Scott had played and performed in other original heavy metal bands such as Devastationwagon in Seattle the 1980s. However, the band recruited Scott in 1992 to form all original members and the current lineup. Scott’s unique sounding voice and operatic wide ranging vocals pulled the band’s sound together. His ability to write epic lyrics (read the lyrics on the Upheaval's “This Side of the Grave”, “Content Within” and “The Abstract”) also added to the band's prowness.

Studio Recording "The Upheaval" and Genre
Once the final lineup of the band was formed, in the early 1990s Throes of Sanity hit the scene and toured the local music venues in the Pacific Northwest for several years before recording their self produced 10 song CD, “The Upheaval”. With the assistance of Roger Fisher (guitarist) (formerly of Heart) the band recorded the drum tracks at Mars Studio in Redmond, Washington. They recorded the bass, vocal, guitar and keyboard tracks at Mirror Sound in Edmonds, Washington. In 1995, the band was fortunate to have Tom Hall (who mixed Queensryche’s first 4 song EP) mix The Upheaval at Triad Studios in Redmond, Washington.

Throes of Sanity's sound is definitely a mix of power and progressive metal as opposed to speed metal, thrash metal or death/black metal. The band relies on harmonic guitar lines and melodic vocals along with a moving rhythmic kick. The listener can hear the progressive influences in the song writing. However, the song structure and length is unconventional on specific tracks.

At the time Throes of Sanity was playing melodic and progressive metal in Seattle, the Grunge scene was taking over. Most record companies were not interested in signing metal bands at this time and the metal scene began going underground. However, Throes of Sanity continued to play their progressive style of heavy metal at Seattle venues such as The Off Ramp, Rock Candy, Mad Dogs and Under the Rail. Throes of Sanity was also featured in KNDD 107.7 Battle of the Bands where they set an attendance record at a local night club in Tacoma, Washington. They were specifically featured in an article discussing popular Grunge bands Nirvanna and Pearl Jam in The Tacoma News Tribune.

Brief Line Up Changes
Shortly after the band recorded The Upheaval, in 1996, they had some brief line up changes including the addition of percussionist Pavel Konvalinka (currently drummer for Austrailian Power Metal band "Black Majesty") and guitarist Peter Dixon (Musicians Institute graduate and current guitarist of Seattle Progressive Metal Band "Judas Wake"). The band temporarily disbanded until reforming 14 years later in 2009 when all original members of the band resumed living in the Seattle area.

Current Events
Currently, Throes of Sanity is playing the local music scene in the greater Seattle area and is scheduled to play the 2010 Swordbrothers Festival in Andernach, Germany with other noteworthy progressive metal bands such as Cloven Hoof (band) (UK) Cage (band) (USA) Ruthless (USA) ASKA (USA) Paragon (band) (D) Eternal Winter (USA) Widow (USA) Desert Sin (A) and Hurlement (F).