Descent Into Madness (Band)

Infobox Musical artist
Name = Descent Into Madness

Landscape = Yes
Background = group_or_band
Alias =
Origin = Houston, U.S.A.
Genre = Thrash metal, Power Metal
Years_active = 2000-present
Label = Unsigned
URL = [http://www.descentintomadness.com/ Official site]
Current_members = Alexander Kamburov Claudio Lassala Jennifer Lazure
Past_members = Andrew Sutton
Tom Spencer Bruce Godzina Chris Peterson Courtney Claibourne Deanna Haughey Marco Bayarena Derek Brown
Jason Ward

Descent Into Madness are a US thrash & power metal band from Houston, TX, USA. They started their career in 2000. They originally played gothic & power metal, with a sound shift in 2003 towards more progressive power and thrash metal influences.

History

Descent Into Madness is a Houston based progressive thrash metal band. The group started out as a gothic/power metal outfit in the year 2000 with lead guitarist Alexander Kamburov, vocalist and rhytm guitarist Tom Spencer and Deanna Haughey on keyboards and female vocals. After writing songs for their first demo in 2000 the band gathered enough momentum on the local scene and completed its first stable show lineup with the addition of Andrew Sutton on bass and Chris Peterson on drums. At that time, a local Sony A&R scout showed interest in signing the band but nothing materialized. After several months of rigorous show schedule, Deanna decided to exit the band in order to concentrate on her solo album. She was replaced by Derek on keyboards and Courtney Claibourne on female vocals. This lineup produced the 2002 demo "In The Darkest Hour", recorded in Sugar Hill studios, Houston, Texas in the Summer of 2002, produced, mixed and mastered by the guitarist of the band, Alexander K. The demo met with critical success and the band was included in several high profile local festivals and received critical acclaim from local fans and music reviewers alike.

The turbulent nature of the Houston music scene was about to rear is ugly head again and personality conflicts and musical differences forced the replacement of Chris Peterson with Bruce Godzina on drums and Derek Brown with Marco Bayarena on keys at the turn of 2002. Courtney Claibourne also decided to exit the band due to scheduling conflicts, which led to reshuffling of the deck in Descent Into Madness which moved up Tom Spencer as a lead vocalist, thus needing a guitar replacement in order to facilitate a fuller sound. In this lineup - Tom Spencer (vocals), Alexander Kamburov (lead guitar), Andrew Sutton (bass), Bruce Godzina (drums) and Marco Bayarena (keys) the band performed throughout most of the first half of 2003, while keeping an eye for a second guitarist.
Claudio Lassala entered the band as second guitarist in the middle of 2003 and completed the lineup, with Descent Into Madness playing show after show without skipping a beat, thus marking the busiest period of the band up to date. A rift in direction with the band wanting to concentrate on a heavier, more progressive sound on one hand and Tom Spencer (vocals) pushing for a more gothic approach forced his departure from the group. Tom Spencer (vocals) left the band in January 2004, thus forcing a new lead singer search.

The band quickly found Alexandra (Xandra) West as a replacement and kept a show schedule while writing material for a new demo. This lineup produced the 2003 demo "Falling Down" which also marked the last performance of Bruce Godzina (drums) with the band. With this recording it became obvious that Xandra's voice would not work with the direction the band was looking for and she was asked to leave. This forced a rigorous drummer and vocalist search, which failed to produce any results and Marco Bayarena left the band as well to pursue a solo project.

At this point Alexander, Claudio and Andrew decided to regroup and write new material while looking for musicians to complete the lineup. After half a year of unsuccessful drummer and vocal auditions, in the Autumn of 2005 Jennifer Lazure (ex-Last Eve) responded to a local ad and was asked to join on the spot after her first audition. Her melodic operatic approach was contrasted by Alexander K. picking up the male vocal duties, thus infusing a more aggressive thrash vocal style into the band's sound, which in the meantime was becoming more aggressive and technical as well.
In 2005 some label interest forced the band into overdrive to record a demo and Jennifer was quickly thrown into the thick of things with her appearance on the 2005 demo "Last Rites of Illusion". The demo also created a rift in the band as Andrew could not complete his bass tracks on time and Alexander had to literally track bass and mix 2 hours before the plane flight to LA. Becoming apparent that Andrew had heavy scheduling conflicts and could not dedicate the time for the band, he was asked to leave. As luck would have it, at about the same time the band found Andrew Vehnekamp (Evil Incarnate) to fill in on drums and after 3 months of rigorous rehearsals, Descent Into Madness emerged with their 2006 demo "Fool's March" with Alexander K. picking up the slack on taking the bass, engineering and production duties for the recording, recorded at Light In Sound Studios, Houston, in a one day session. In the meantime, Descent Into Madness was looking to fill in the vacant bass position but none panned out and the upcoming shows were performed without a bassist. The 2006 demo met with critical acclaim and many fans loved the new and improved sound of the band. Unfortunately, this was short lived as a huge personality rift developed between Andrew V. and the rest of the band in November 2006 and he was asked to leave, thus forcing the band to cancel all scheduled appearances and their bid for a spot on the coveted South by Southwest Festival in Austin. The remaining members, Jennifer (vocals), Alexander (guitar, vocals, bass), Claudio (lead guitar) decided to regroup and focus on song writing and recording while searching for bassist and drummer to complete a show lineup. After several months of preparation and intensive drum machine programming sessions, the band emerged on steady recording schedule thus finishing the "King of the Blind" demo in late 2007 but mixing and mastering couldn't be completed in time for a 2007 release so the release date on it was pushed to next year, with the demo coming out in April 2008.