Once Dead is a

Christian metal Christian metal, also known as white metal, Jesus metal or heavenly metal, is heavy metal music distinguished by its Christian themed song lyrics and the dedication of the band members to Christianity. Christian metal is typically performed by ...

band that originated in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

, California. The band has played at Festivals such as Up From The Ashes, Elements of Rock Festival and Nordic Fest.

History

The band started as a reunion for

Vengeance Rising Vengeance Rising was an American Christian thrash metal band from Los Angeles, California. Fronted by vocalist Roger Martinez, they originally formed as Vengeance in 1987, but changed their name in 1989 to avoid conflict with another band from t ...

a band that original members,

Larry Farkas Larry Farkas (born May 2, 1966) is an American musician who primarily performs thrash metal. Farkas was a member of Christian bands Vengeance Rising, Deliverance, Holy Soldier, and Once Dead, many of which he started. History Farkas presumably ...

, Doug Thieme, Roger Dale Martin and Glen Mancaruso had all performed in. All the members quit Vengeance at the same time and formed the band Die Happy. The members decided they wanted to reunite the band minus original vocalist Roger Martinez, who threatened to sue over the reunion. Soon after those two shows as Vengeance, the band changed their name to Once Dead after one of Vengeance's

album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early 20th century as individual 78 rpm records co ...

. In 2005, the band released a DVD titled ''Return with a Vengeance''. Soon after the release, Glen Mancaruso departed from the band and was replaced by

The Crucified The Crucified is an American Christian hardcore and crossover thrash band from Fresno, California that formed in 1984. Its lineup is vocalist Mark Salomon, guitarist Greg Minier, bassist Jeff Bellew, and drummer Jim Chaffin. The band are considere ...

drummer,

Jim Chaffin Jim Chaffin is the original drummer for the Crucified and Fasedown and has played with many other acts, such as Deliverance, the Blamed and Left Out. History Jim Chaffin was born in Madera, California and began playing drums at the age of ...

. In 2006, Former

Deliverance ''Deliverance'' is a 1972 American survival thriller film produced and directed by John Boorman, and starring Jon Voight, Burt Reynolds, Ned Beatty, and Ronny Cox, with the latter two making their feature film debuts. The screenplay was adapt ...

and Vengeance guitarist

Glenn Rogers Glenn Alan Rogers (born 12 April 1977) is an Australian-born former cricketer who played international cricket for Scotland. A slow left-arm orthodox bowler, his ODI debut was in Chittagong against Bangladesh Bangladesh (}, ), offi ...

joined the band and quit the band

Hirax The Hydrogen Intensity and Real-time Analysis eXperiment (HIRAX) is an interferometric array of 1024 6-meter (20 ft) diameter radio telescopes, operating at 400-800MHz, that will be deployed at the Square Kilometer Array site in the Karoo regi ...

. In September 2006, Once Dead announced the departure of vocalist Scott Waters because of the distance in between where he and the other members lived. After Waters departure, the band announced that Devin Shaeffer, of the

Christian metalcore Christian metal, also known as white metal, Jesus metal or heavenly metal, is heavy metal music Heavy metal (or simply metal) is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the United Kingdom and U ...

band

Fasedown Fasedown are a Christian hardcore band from Fresno, California, that formed in late 1998. Members have also been in Once Dead, The Blamed, Deliverance, The Sacrificed, and many more. In 2015 vocalist Devin Shaffer had "throat setbacks" accord ...

, would be taking over. In 2007, the band announced an update on the recording process. In April 2007, the band announced signing to Open Grave Records. In the announcement, it was mentioned that Angelo Espino was the new bass player, hinting that bassist Roger Dale Martin had quit. In May 2007, the band announced the departure of original lead guitarist Larry Farkas. Farkas stated that he quit the band as he refused to work with Open Grave Records. Shaeffer stated that the band had to rewrite all the parts that Farkas had written. After Farkas left the last known lineup was vocalist Devin Shaeffer, guitarist Doug Thieme (the only remaining original member), guitarist Glenn Rogers, bassist Angelo Espino, and drummer Jim Chaffin. In April 2008, the band announced that Farkas had rejoined the band. In June 2008, the band announced the completion of their album, ''Visions of Hell''. After the album release, the band has been inactive with members performing in

, and

Ultimatum An ultimatum (; ) is a demand whose fulfillment is requested in a specified period of time and which is backed up by a threat to be followed through in case of noncompliance (open loop). An ultimatum is generally the final demand in a series ...

. In 2017, Once Dead reunited as

for the So Cal Metal Fest, with the original lineup, minus Roger Martinez. The band hired Jim Settle ( Hand of Fire, ex- Tantrum of the Muse) as their vocalist. After the show, the band began working on changing their name. However, they went back to the name of Once Dead, which meant that Espino, Schaeffer, Rogers, and Chaffin were no longer a part of the lineup. The band is currently recording another album with Producer Juan Urtega. It was later announced that Roger Sampson of Precious Death would be taking over on drums.

Members

Timeline

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Discography

Studio albums * ''Visions of Hell'' (October 28, 2008) EPs * ''Ghost Tribe'' (2019) DVDs * ''Return with a Vengeance'' (2005)Beck, Chris (June 2005). "Once Dead - ''Return with a Vengeance''".

Heaven's Metal ''HM Magazine'' is a monthly, digital and print on demand publication focusing on hard music and alternative culture of interest to Christians. It is headquartered in Houston, Texas. The magazine states that its goal is to "honestly and accurate ...

. Retrieved on April 26, 2016.

References

{{Reflist, 30em Musical groups established in 2004 American Christian metal musical groups