Behold... The Arctopus is an experimental metal band from Brooklyn
, New York
, United
States
.
Biography
Behold... The Arctopus was formed by Colin Marston and Mike Lerner,
who had been playing guitar together for over a year-and-a-half by
the time they found a drummer. Their demo
We Need a
Drummer (on which a drum machine was used) was picked up by
drummer Charlie Zeleny. Zeleny met Lerner and Marston and impressed
the duo. He was immediately asked to join the band.
After releasing two EPs and a split, Behold... The Arctopus
released their first full-length, entitled
Skullgrid, on October 16, 2007. The band went
on tour with
Genghis Tron and
The Dillinger Escape Plan to
support the album, but it was cut short by an injury of one of the
members of The Dillinger Escape Plan. To help them recoup financial
losses from that tour,
Between
the Buried and Me have taken the band on their current
headlining tour, supported by
August
Burns Red.
On
December 30,
2008
drummer Charlie Zeleny posted a statement on
his
MySpace page stating that after five
years with Behold... The Arctopus, he would be leaving the group to
focus on his career as a
session
musician. On November 25, 2009,
Weasel
Walter announced that he was moving to New York City to join
the band on drums and will be writing "new, more extreme material
from scratch."
Style
Behold... The Arctopus play instrumental music inspired by both
metal and 20th century classical music. This technical and
progressive style is executed on a regular electric guitar and drum
kit but involves a 12-string
Warr
guitar, an instrument that covers the range of a bass and
guitar and is generally played by
tapping.
Influences on their music range from
heavy metal,
fusion to
classical
music, amongst other genres. Influential heavy metal bands
include
Cynic,
Ulver,
Death,
Neurosis,
Darkthrone and
Meshuggah,
Voivod and
Gorguts. Composers
Béla Bartók,
Luciano Berio,
Arnold Schoenberg, and
Krzysztof Penderecki have all
influenced the band.
Marston has explained the Behold... The Arctopus' recording process
in an interview: "The songs written by one member were all scored
out on paper and learned by the band. The first couple songs only
had a few notated parts, the majority being written on the
instrument and never written down. The trend has definitely been
going more towards writing everything out."
Discography
Members
Former Members
References
- allmusic.com
- http://www.myspace.com/charliezeleny
- Marston Interview
External links
Wikis
Quiz
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