Back in 1989 Tom, Lawrence and Patrick started up a band called Bacterial Disease. They were playing traditional grind/hardcore, heavily influenced by Napalm Death and Carcass. They wrote some songs like "War With Strings", "Chemical Huppeldepup", and "Going Up, Going Down". Much fun, indeed, but after a while that didn't seem satisfying or challenging enough to go on with. With the release of albums such as "Severed Survival", "Lost Paradise", "The Key" and "Piece Of Time" (these are classix - you know the bands who put these out!), the band got really inspired and so the first steps towards PHLEBOTOMIZED's own style were set: combining brutality with melody...
Late 1990 Barry (vocals) and Ben (keys) joined the band. Their first gig was in April 91 and in July 91 another gig was recorded. The band distributed these recordings as the "Live-tape" among friends and venues to get more gigs... Late 1991, a good friend of the band - Jordy - joined as the 2nd guitar player. Satisfied with this line-up, PHLEBOTOMIZED recorded the demo "Devoted To God" in February 92 (a title that wrongfully labelled the band as a white metal band - Whoops! - read the lyrics folks!)...
The tape was sent to all kinds of labels, and soon MMI Records from Germany offered to release some songs from the demo on a 7-INCH EP. The band agreed... This collaboration first resulted in the "In Search Of Tranquility"-EP on red vinyl (3,000 copies were pressed). Next, in August 92, PHLEBOTOMIZED hit the studio once more to record new material, initially for Cenotaph Records. These songs were to be put on another 7-INCH, but due to the length of the songs (we were never able to keep things short) and things didn't work out with Cenotaph, MMI released "Preach Eternal Gospels" as a 5-track mini-CD. During these recordings, the band experimented with a violinist named Maarten. Initially this was to be a mere studio thing, but during the rehearsals the band began to appreciate his melancholic tunes more and more... A little later Maarten became PHLEBOTOMIZED's seventh permanent member...
Late 1993, Barry left and the band recruited another member of the legendary PLOINK, the band in which Maarten played bass at the time... Dennis joined in March 94. The band signed up with Cyber Music and recorded their debut that very hot summer. "Immense intense suspense" was released in September 94 at the Overkill Festival in Hoorn. Consequently, the band had a lot of press coverage and did a lot of gigs in 1994-1995. These were very, VERY happy times for the band... if not the best!...
Summer 1996, the guys recorded "Skycontact". By that time, Maarten and Patrick had already left the band. Jordy would soon follow, but not until after the recordings. Jaro had already replaced Patrick on bass, and ended up as Maarten's replacement on violins as well (this was only in the studio, folks!). After the recordings, but before the release of "Skycontact", Peter joined and this explains why he is on the photos of the album. It took months before the album was released in February 97, after which we did 8 more shows. Jaro left and we found Ivar to be our new bass player. He might have been a stayer, but several months later we disbanded. Our final gig was in Roermond on 17 October 1997... |
Style: Metal / Death Metal / Progressive 