Artist Bio
Suspyre's music has a wide range of influences and members with distinct personalities that make up the band's sound. All have a common interest in metal, while jazz and classical are also at the top of their lists. Suspyres current goal for the future is the push the musical boundaries even further by creating a fusion of the best music to date and then attempting to add new life to it.
It all started in the summer of 2001 with a jam session at former drummer Chris Myers' house with guitarists Gregg Rossetti and Rich Skibinsky. In 2002 some recordings of the songs I See, Perfect, and Father of Hate were done, but never actually completed. Suspyre's first show was May 31st, 2003, when bassist Kirk Schwenkler joined the band.
Raffaele Gerace was announced as Suspyre's first lead singer in April of 2004. He was recorded over the existing instrumental recordings of Father of Hate, I See, and Perfect, with Vernal Mist being left instrumental, and the demo was sent out to record labels, but releasing the debut album was priority.
In order to deliver the best possible debut album, changes needed to be made. Due to the direction in which the recordings were going, the abilities of some members were questioned by how they fit the new music. First was the replacement of Chris Myers with Sam Paulicelli, then the replacement of Raffaele Gerace with Clay Barton.
October 24, 2005 marks the release of the band's first full-length album, The Silvery Image. The recording process started in December 2004 and ended in July 2005. The band is very excited about making their debut into the progressive rock/metal scene with this album, which they believe is a strong collection of diverse musical compositions.
Response to The Silvery Image during this time period was overwhelmingly good. To follow up on a good album, the band tried to make an even better album in “A Great Divide.” The first half, “The Alignment of Galaxies” was composed in August of 2005, while The Silvery Image was still in its final stages of completion. The second half, “The Origin of a Curse” was composed in January 2006, when the band decided a full-length was a better idea than just releasing the first half as an EP.
During this time Suspyre parted with bassist Kirk Schwenkler. Bass extraordinaire, Noah Martin from Atlanta, Georgia was hired to record the album. The permanent replacement for Kirk is now Andrew Distabile, a friend of the band whom actually switched from guitar to bass in order to play.
A Great Divide is to be released in March of 2007 on Nightmare Records. This album is more diverse is every sense of the word: long pieces vs. short pieces, straight-forward rhythms vs. superimposing odd meters, microtonal clusters and just intonation vs. 12TET. There is a balance between heavy riffs, lush/flowing orchestral parts, dissonant/energetic orchestral parts, classic prog, and a tasteful use of pastiche.
