Benjamin James Verellen is an American musician and audio engineer from

Tacoma, Washington Tacoma ( ) is the county seat of Pierce County, Washington, United States. A port city, it is situated along Washington's Puget Sound, southwest of Seattle, northeast of the state capital, Olympia, Washington, Olympia, and northwest of Mount ...

Career

Musician

Verellen's first role was as bassist of the Tacoma

post-hardcore Post-hardcore is a punk rock music genre that maintains the aggression and intensity of hardcore punk but emphasizes a greater degree of creative expression. It was initially inspired by post-punk and noise rock. Like post-punk, the term has been ...

noise rock Noise rock (sometimes called noise punk) is a noise music, noise-oriented style of experimental rock that spun off from punk rock in the 1980s. Drawing on movements such as minimal music, minimalism, industrial music, and New York hardcore, a ...

group Harkonen which formed in 1995. Harkonen released their debut album in 1999 through Wreck-Age before signing to

Hydra Head Records Hydra Head Records was an independent record label that specializes in extreme metal music, founded in New Mexico by Aaron Turner (the frontman of Isis) in 1993. It had another imprint, Hydra Head Noise Industries, which specialized in experiment ...

in 2001. The group's final release was ''Like a Virgin''—a split release with

These Arms Are Snakes These Arms Are Snakes was an American post-hardcore band that formed in 2002 and featured former members of Botch and Kill Sadie. Before disbanding in 2009, they released three studio albums: ''Oxeneers or the Lion Sleeps When Its Antelope Go Ho ...

— before disbanding in 2005. He formed the

country music Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, ...

folk rock Folk rock is a hybrid music genre that combines the elements of folk and rock music, which arose in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom in the mid-1960s. In the U.S., folk rock emerged from the folk music revival. Performers suc ...

band

Roy Roy is a masculine given name and a family surname with varied origin. In Anglo-Norman England, the name derived from the Norman ''roy'', meaning "king", while its Old French cognate, ''rey'' or ''roy'' (modern ''roi''), likewise gave rise to ...

as a side project in 2002 with his brother

Dave Verellen Dave Verellen is an American singer. He grew up in Tacoma, Washington, and was the vocalist for the influential mathcore band Botch. He has since gone on to play drums for the folk-country band Roy with his brother Ben Verellen (of Harkonen). ...

and Brian Cook. The group released two studio albums and a few EPs and has been inactive since 2006. Verellen performed additional bass on These Arms Are Snakes' debut album ''

Oxeneers or the Lion Sleeps When Its Antelope Go Home ''Oxeneers or the Lion Sleeps When Its Antelope Go Home'' is the debut album by Seattle-based post-hardcore band These Arms Are Snakes, released on September 21, 2004, on Jade Tree Records. Track listing * "Idaho" ends at 5:35. An untitled hid ...

'', and was also briefly a touring drummer in 2005 until he abruptly quit without explanation and was quickly replaced by Chris Common. He is currently a member of the

experimental metal Avant-garde metal (also known as avant-metal, experimental metal, and experimental) is a subgenre of heavy metal music loosely defined by use of experimentation and innovative, avant-garde elements, including non-standard and unconventional soun ...

band

Helms Alee Helms Alee is an American rock band that formed in 2007. Based in Seattle, Helms Alee features Ben Verellen, former member of Harkonen and Roy. Helms Alee has released six albums, ''Night Terror'' (2008) and ''Weatherhead'' (2011) through Hydra H ...

Other avenues

In 2000, Verellen began working as an

audio engineer An audio engineer (also known as a sound engineer or recording engineer) helps to produce a recording or a live performance, balancing and adjusting sound sources using equalization, dynamics processing and audio effects, mixing, reproduction, ...

for many local Washington bands in his basement. He later earned a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering, and started his own business building and selling guitar

amplifiers An amplifier, electronic amplifier or (informally) amp is an electronic device that can increase the magnitude of a signal (a time-varying voltage or current). It may increase the power significantly, or its main effect may be to boost the v ...

called Verellen Amplifiers.

Personal life

Ben Verellen is the brother of

—member of Botch, Roy and

Narrows A narrows or narrow (used interchangeably but usually in the plural form), is a restricted land or water passage. Most commonly a narrows is a strait, though it can also be a water gap. A narrows may form where a stream passes through a tilted ...

Discography

As band member

With Harkonen * ''Harkonen'' (1999) * ''Grizz'' (2001) * '' Shake Harder Boy'' (2002) * ''Dancing'' (2003) * ''Like a Virgin'' (2005) With Roy * ''Tacomatose'' (2003) * ''Big City Sin and Small Town Redemption'' (2004) * ''Killed John Train'' (2006) With Helms Alee * ''Helms Alee'' (2008) * ''Night Terror'' (2008) * ''Weatherhead'' (2011) * ''Sleepwalking Sailors'' (2014) * ''Stillicide'' (2016) * ''Noctiluca'' (2019) * ''Keep This Be the Way'' (2022) With Constant Lovers * ''Experience Feelings'' (2014)

As guest musician

As producer or audio engineer

References

External links

Verellen AmplifiersBen Verellen
on

Discogs Discogs (short for discographies) is a database of information about audio recordings, including commercial releases, promotional releases, and bootleg or off-label releases. While the site was originally created with a goal of becoming the la ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Verellen, Ben Year of birth missing (living people) Living people American heavy metal drummers American male bass guitarists American audio engineers Musicians from Tacoma, Washington Guitarists from Washington (state) Record producers from Washington (state)