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The phoenix that rose from the ashes of the Ensamble project, began as a ten year reunion of the ensamble players. I was unable to locate mike stein the original drummer, Jeff Queener aka.G2 “the resonator” the guitarist who filled in for Tom Ebling after his departure was contacted but was not interested in a 3 guitar player band. Dave Ryker was at the time playing a lot of gigs with the now defunct death metal band Whore. Dave may be part of our touring lineup; I however sang all lead vocals in the studio. John Jackson the self proclaimed “nut on bass” returned to record the butcher act1 demo he did an awesome job. Tom Ebling is back and his playing is more tasteful and classy than ever. In addition tom has added a ton of technical expertise as a co-producer. The legendary Tim Donahue, drummer for Yngwie Malmsteen and the Cherry Poppin’ Daddies replaced Mike Stein. Tim’s stellar playing can be heard on butcher of Baghdad act1 demo version. Tim helped me greatly with the arrangement of riffs that were destined to become other songs; we planned to do the entire album together but due to his busy touring\teaching schedule I was forced to replace him. I respect Tim tremendously I look forward to playing with him again in the future on a different project, we simply did not have the luxury of time to wait for his schedule to even out.
As time progressed so did the songs, I went though them with a fine tooth comb they just kept getting heavier and faster and heavier still… more punishing. Then it dawned on me- this wasn’t Ensamble anymore and as much as I wanted to share this with my old band mates I was doing 95% of the work. Tom kept telling me “Rob this is your project you are killing yourself paying all the bills taking on all the stress you cant count on the others to do anything they say they are going to do, you are cutting yourself short” he was right, I hated to admit it but he was right. So this is my band now, a solo project and fuck the bullshit it will live up to my expectations and yours!
In the summer of 2005 I contacted Gregg Ocon, probably the most aggressive sounding drummer in central Oregon and asked him to record butcher of Baghdad acts1and 2. Gregg accepted my offer and I think most metal heads will like the results we got working together.
Todd Anson, a former member of ensamble has returned as of late 2006. Todd is an outstanding bass player and guitarist. Todd played bass on Aztlan: The cancer of racial hatred. As well as bass, he will also play baritone guitar on other tracks of the new album.
As I write this I am prepared to record the rest of the album expect it to be much more crushing than anything I have yet released. I am looking for a singer a real – Geoff Tate style power metal singer, if that is you get in touch with me.
-Rob Cook lead guitarist\ vocalist\musical director
Belligerent Apostle |
