In early 2007, after a career spanning more than 13 years including the release of 6 studio albums and playing in 17 different countries (including some in Europe), Chicago's legendary Thrash/ Black/ Speed Metal band Usurper threw in the towel.
The band's singer/ guitarist Rick Scythe decided to explore some different musical ideas, and started the Horror Metal/ Experimental Art Rock project Nightshade with a friend named Mr. Faust, intending to take the more experimental and haunting elements from Usurper's 1998 album Skeletal Season to even darker musical territories. But after recording an album's worth of material, members were added to allow the music to be brought onto stages. So in came bassist Dan Geist and drummer Tim Pearson (formerly of Mordrid, now also playing in the bands Relentless and Deathcult), and the band played some 2008 shows, dropping a lot of the theatrics and gearing more towards Classic Metal. The band was however shortlived, as they split up during Summer 2009.
Shortly after, Rick Scythe decided to start a “solo” band called Scythe, which would play some of the classic Usurper songs, and record the songs he was working on for that band before its split in 2007. The original line-up of that band included lead guitarist Joe Martinez and drummer Ben Mulvey, but before the band could start rehearsing with bassist/ backing singer Dan Geist, they lost their rehearsal place. This first caused the band to go on hiatus, then for the members to split up.
In late 2010, Geist got back in contact with Scythe, asking to form a new band together, and with the duo enlisting Tim Pearson to play drums, the band Scythe was reborn. The members' common goal: to create heavy, ass kicking, head banging, thrashing Metal! Consolidating their set with reworked Nightshade material, some Usurper classics, and new material, the band began recording material for its debut album Beware The Scythe at its own studio, and played its debut show on June 4th, 2011, opening for German Black Metal act Desaster, along with the bands Malas and Superchrist. As the year went on, the band not only continued to gain notoriety in the Chicago Metal scene, but also recorded more material for their album, which was eventually released on vinyl through Chicago based RIP Records and on CD through Finland's Primitive Reaction imprint in April 2012. Late that same month, the band played a record release show (which also featured Stone Magnum, Gates Of Slumber and Midnight), which would prove to be Pearson's last gig with Scythe.
The band swiftly finds a replacement in Joey Contreras, of the then recently defunct Chicago act Mordrid (the world IS small, isn't it?), who became a major asset to the band with his bombastic drum play, his professional attitude, ànd the fact that he mastered the album's 8 songs in the first audition session! Beware The Scythe became an instant Underground Metal classic, gaining positive reviews and interviews in magazines and webzines the world over, and even made it to the “Top 10 Albums Of 2012” list of German magazine Voices From The Darkside!
With the sophomore Subterranean Steel, Scythe can only expect to see its reputation grow to an even bigger audience, and indeed the band will do its best to help promoting the album, playing gigs throughout North America (which will include – or hàs included...I'm not certain of the time-line here – direct support shows to Japan's Sabbat), and plans for a South-American tour in early 2014 are already in the make. By all means, here's a band which should also make it in Europe. To convince yourselves of the righteousness of that statement (and the fact that one might consider Usurper as having risen like a phoenix from its ashes), all you need do is check out the songs (no less than 5 off the debut, and 4 off the current album!) posted in the “Listen” section of the band's own site (www.) scythe.us.