Ephel Duath was an Italian

avant garde 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 ...

hardcore punk Hardcore punk (also known as simply hardcore) is a punk rock music genre and subculture that originated in the late 1970s. It is generally faster, harder, and more aggressive than other forms of punk rock. Its roots can be traced to earlier punk ...

band, formed in 1998 in

Padua Padua ( ; it, Padova ; vec, Pàdova) is a city and ''comune'' in Veneto, northern Italy. Padua is on the river Bacchiglione, west of Venice. It is the capital of the province of Padua. It is also the economic and communications hub of the ...

, Italy. They have had a constantly changing line-up, with guitarist and songwriter Davide Tiso being the only original member. To date, they have released one demo, five studio albums and two remix albums. Their most recent studio album, ''Hemmed By Light, Shaped By Darkness'', was released in 2013.

History

Ephel Duath was formed in 1998 as a two-man group and taking their name after the fictional mountain range in

J.R.R. Tolkien John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (, ; 3 January 1892 – 2 September 1973) was an English writer and philologist. He was the author of the high fantasy works ''The Hobbit'' and ''The Lord of the Rings''. From 1925 to 1945, Tolkien was the Rawlins ...

's book ''

The Lord of the Rings ''The Lord of the Rings'' is an epic high-fantasy novel by English author and scholar J. R. R. Tolkien. Set in Middle-earth, intended to be Earth at some time in the distant past, the story began as a sequel to Tolkien's 1937 children's boo ...

''.Lee, Cosmo (13 March 2006)
"Ephel Duath - Pain Necessary to Know - Review"
.

Stylus Magazine ''Stylus Magazine'' was an American online music and film magazine, launched in 2002 and co-founded by Todd L. Burns. It featured long-form music journalism, four daily music reviews, movie reviews, podcasts, an MP3 blog, and a text blog. Addi ...

. Retrieved 15 December 2011. Their debut release was ''Phormula'', on Code666. Following ''Phormulas release, they signed to Elitist Records (a sub-division of

Earache Ear pain, also known as earache or otalgia, is pain in the ear. Primary ear pain is pain that originates from the ear. Secondary ear pain is a type of referred pain, meaning that the source of the pain differs from the location where the pain i ...

), and repackaged the debut with three tracks from the 1998 demo, ''Opera'', and two remixes. The album was released in 2001 as '' Rephormula''. Founder Davide Tiso recruited a diverse set of musicians with backgrounds in

progressive rock Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog; sometimes conflated with art rock) is a broad genre of rock music that developed in the United Kingdom and United States through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early 1970s. Init ...

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...

,Selzer, Jonathan
"Italian Post-Black Metallers Paint a Masterpiece"

Kerrang! ''Kerrang!'' is a British weekly magazine devoted to rock, punk and heavy metal music, currently published by Wasted Talent (the same company that owns electronic music publication ''Mixmag''). It was first published on 6 June 1981 as a one- ...

Archived fro
the original
on 30 April 2004. Retrieved 15 December 2011.

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...

funk Funk is a music genre that originated in African American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African Americans in the m ...

and pop. The first album with this lineup was 2003's ''

The Painter's Palette ''The Painter's Palette'' is the second album by Italian avant-garde metal / jazz band Ephel Duath. Track listing # "The Passage (Pearl Grey)" - 4:11 # "The Unpoetic Circle (Bottle Green)" - 4:54 # "Labyrinthine (Crimson)" - 5:21 # "Praha (A ...

''. The album showcased an unorthodox combination of hardcore punk and

jazz fusion Jazz fusion (also known as fusion and progressive jazz) is a music genre that developed in the late 1960s when musicians combined jazz harmony and jazz improvisation, improvisation with rock music, funk, and rhythm and blues. Electric guitars, ...

. In an interview in May 2003,

magazine described the band as "supermodels playing Dillinger Escape Plan". A new album, '' Pain Necessary to Know'', was released in late 2005. After recording the album, drummer Davide Piovesan quit the band, and was replaced first by Sergio Ponti in 2006 and then by Andrea Rabuini in 2007. Ephel Duath later dismissed bassist Fabio Fecchio, with the band stating that they intended to remain a trio to "explore more experimental music dimensions". On November 27, 2008, Ephel Duath announced that Luciano George Lorusso had quit the band and had been replaced by professional poker player Guillermo Gonzales. They also released a new song, "Guardian", on their MySpace webpage. In January 2009, Ephel Duath released '' Through My Dog's Eyes'', featuring drummer

Marco Minnemann Marco Minnemann (born 24 December 1970) is a German drummer, composer, and multi-instrumentalist. Career Marco Minnemann has released over a dozen solo albums as drummer, multi-instrumentalist, and vocalist, and performed on over 100 studio alb ...

and Dillinger Escape Plan's

Ben Weinman Benjamin A. Weinman (born August 8, 1975) is an American musician, film composer, and music manager, most notable for being the lead guitarist and primary songwriter of the metalcore band The Dillinger Escape Plan. He was the founder and sole con ...

. Weinman composed "electronics" on the song "Bark Loud". On June 4, 2009, Davide Tiso announced that Ephel Duath had parted ways with Earache Records and that he was "thrilled" to be off the label. From the band's departure from Earache until late 2011, Tiso was the sole member of Ephel Duath. He explained that this was due to the cost of hiring musicians out of his own pocket. He claimed to have received only $400 from his record label. Regarding how the financial difficulties affected the band, Tiso said that the former members of Ephel Duath "were often complaining, without even realizing how many problems I was hiding in front of their eyes. Now it's just me, and I'm pretty comfortable like this." In November 2011, Tiso announced (via

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...

) that Ephel Duath signed with Agonia Records (Poland) for the release of an EP and two full-length albums. The EP, called ''On Death And Cosmos'', was recorded in January 2012 at Sharkbyte Studios in Oakland, California, and released in summer 2012.

Erik Rutan Erik Rutan (born June 10, 1971) is an American heavy metal musician and producer from New Jersey. He is the guitarist and lead vocalist of death metal band Hate Eternal and lead guitarist for Cannibal Corpse, who he fully joined in 2021 after ...

mixed the album at his Mana Recording Studio and Alan Douches mastered it at West West Side Music in New York. In December 2011, a new line-up was announced consisting of Karyn Crisis (Tiso's wife),

Steve Di Giorgio Steve Di Giorgio (born November 7, 1967) is an American bass guitarist. He is known for working with numerous heavy metal bands such as Sadus (of whom he was one of the co-founders), Death (metal band), Death, Testament (band), Testament, Megade ...

and

(who has previously worked with the band). The band completed their fifth full-length album, ''Hemmed By Light, Shaped By Darkness'', again with producer Erik Rutan at Mana Recording Studios, and released it in late 2013. The black and white cover artwork was completed by artists Dehn Sora and Aeron Alfrey. In December 2014, front man Davide Tiso announced the end of Ephel Duath.

Members

Final Lineup

* Davide Tiso – guitar, bass, keyboards, backing vocals (1998–2014) *Karyn Crisis - vocals (2011-2014) *Bryan Beller - bass (2012-2014) *

- drums (2008–2009, 2011–2014)

Former members

*Demetrio Scopelliti - live guitar (2012–2014) *Giuliano Mogicato – vocals, bass, guitar, keyboards (1998–2002) *Davide Tolomei – vocals (2003–2004) * Davide Piovesan – drums (2003–2005) *Fabio Fecchio – bass (2003–2006) *Riccardo Pasini – keyboards (2003–2005) *Sergio Ponti – drums (2006–2007) *Luciano George Lorusso – vocals (2003–2008) *Guillermo Gonzales - vocals (2008–2009) *Andrea Rabuini – live drums (2007–2009) *

- bass (2011-2012)

Timeline

Discography

Demo albums

* ''Opera'' (1998)

Studio albums

* '' Phormula'' (2000) * '' Rephormula'' (2002) * ''

'' (2003) * '' Pain Necessary to Know'' (2005) * '' Through My Dog's Eyes'' (2009) * ''Hemmed By Light, Shaped By Darkness'' (2013)

Extended plays

* ''On Death and Cosmos'' (2012)

Remix albums

* ''Pain Remixes the Known'' (2007)

Singles and Music Videos

* ''The Embossed'' (2002) * ''The Passage'' (2003)

References

External links

Ephel Duath
on Myspace
Interview on Avantgarde-metal.com
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ephel Duath Avant-garde metal musical groups Italian progressive metal musical groups Musical groups established in 1998 Earache Records artists Things named after Tolkien works