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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 acts1 and 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 . 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.
Harrison Quinones stepped up to fill Greg Ocons shoes when Greg was unable to complete the album. Harrison is a studio musician of the highest caliber.
In late 2010 Brian Allen became the Belligerent Frontman . Brian has the versatility to handle any vocal style; he possesses fantastic dynamics and tremendous skill. We are honored that he chose to be a part of this project.
-Rob Cook lead guitarist\ vocalist\musical director
Belligerent Apostle |
