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Psychotic Waltz - Biography


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1988-

Biography

Back in 1983 friends from high school founded a band called Aslan. The name was taken from the prose of C. S. Lewis. After they had got enough money from local concerts and selling T-shirts they released a self-titled demo which was included on the "Live and Archives" compilation a dozen years later. Having found another band called Aslan, the band changed their name to Psychotic Waltz a few months later. In 1988 they released another 4 track demo, where they found their own recognizable style, showing great potential. Their intensive promotional work brought them underground success and finally a chance to release their first professional work.

Their debut album "A Social Grace" released by German label Rising Sun Productions was noticed all over Europe, many Metal magazines awarded it the status of the "album of the month." However, in US this album wasn't received well at all, mainly due to the lack of promotion and poor distribution. This album proved that with its unique dark progressive style, complex song structures, good lyrics, trashy riffs, psychedelic influences, and even classical Prog Rock inspirations taken from Jethro Tull, Psychotic Waltz was getting onto the list of the most talented and innovative Progressive Metal bands of the time. They even played on Dynamo Open Air Festival in 1991. After the tour guitarist Dan Rock had an accident while rappelling but fortunately nothing really serious happened to him.

In 1992 they released their second album "Into the Everflow." It was recorded at Phoenix Studios in Herne and produced by Mekong Delta's bassist Ralph Hubert. Released by Dream Circle Records the album was a great follower to their debut. It was well received in Europe, again gaining appreciation of music magazines and respect of many fans and musicians. As a result, their third album "Mosquito" was produced by famous Metal producer Scott Burns and released by Ralph Hubert's own label, Zardoz Music. This album was a surprise for many people, the band preparing die hard fans for a real trial. Their music became slower, groovier and less complex whiel remaining in the style characteristic to the band's earlier sound.

After releasing "Mosquito" the band changed its line-up replacing bassist Ward Evans by Phil Cutino. Their fourth album "Bleeding" was released in 1996. Scott Burns did the engineering while album was mixed by Dan Rock and engineer Woody Barber. After that, the guitarist Brain McAlpine left before the two European tours could start and was replaced by Steve Cox. The album as a whole was a step further in decreasing complexity, the band recording slower and more groovier pieces. They also filmed two videos for this album: "Faded" and "My Grave."

A few months later the band split up and musicians went their own ways. In addition to the official releases they also left some bootlegs. In the mean time Buddy Lackey recorded his solo album "The Strange Mind of Buddy Lackey." After the split the musicians got involved in their own projects: Deadsoul Tribe was founded by vocalist Buddy Lackey (now known as Devon Graves) and two instrumental albums Darkstar were recorded by guitarist Dan Rock; Norm Leggio and Steve Cox created a band called Teabag.