Drive (band)

Drive (Band) was a five-piece progressive metal, power metal, heavy metal, and hard rock band formed in Houston, Texas, USA by Rick Chavez. They released two albums, Characters in Time (1988) and Diablero (1992).

Drive formed in Houston, TX in the mid-80s when it’s members were barely out of high school, but the band soon moved to Los Angeles, which had become the epicenter of the hard rock scene. After winning a radio contest with their song “I Need The Nights”, Drive landed on the Best of the West compilation released by Rampage Records, the hard rock division of Rhino Records. Rampage quickly signed the band, and in July 1988 Drive released their debut LP, Characters in Time. The album received tremendous reviews from the industry’s top hard rock press, including the coveted 5 “K” rating from Kerrang! Magazine. The album also received solid airplay from hard rock stations around the country, including the Los Angeles powerhouse, KNAC.

What separated Drive from the “hair” bands of the Sunset Strip were their intelligent lyrics, intricate musicianship and soaring vocals which were more Iron Maiden than Poison, more Judas Priest than Warrant, but with a strong and original voice all their own.

At the beginning of the next decade the band left Rampage and signed with Zoo Records, a new BMG label that would later become famous for the band Tool. In 1992 the band released the sonically advanced and more mature sounding Diablero to rave reviews from the metal underground. Unfortunately, a shake-up at the label along with the dawn of the metal-killing “grunge” scene left the album without much of a push, and the band’s recording career was put on hold as the band members moved back to Texas.

According to a review of Characters in Time, “Vocalist David Taylor gives off an incredibly awesome performance” and “the next driving force behind this release outside of the powerful vocals is definitely the guitar work of Chavez” which goes “ catchy rockin’ rhythms to rippingly fast riffs”^[1]

On June 25, 2009, while driving along a San Antonio interstate, lead singer David Taylor lost control of his vehicle due to a tire malfunction, causing him to crash. He was airlifted to an area hospital where he died of his injuries five days later. He was 44.”^[2]

Members

• David Taylor – vocals
• Rick Chavez – guitar/vocals
• Mercy Valdez – guitar on Characters in Time/Diablero
• Mike Conde – guitar on Diablero
• Michael Anthony Guerrero – bass
• Valentine San Miguel – drums
• Guest Musicians on Diablero
• Mike Ribiero - bass
• Raudel B.Estrada - Drums

Discography

• 1988 – Characters in Time
• 1992 – Diablero

References

1. ^ http://www.metal-archives.com/review.php?id=14599
2. ^ http://themusicsover.wordpress.com/2010/06/30/david-taylor/

• http://masterofpuppets-stayheavy.blogspot.com/2009/03/drive-characters-in-time-1988.html
• http://www.metal-archives.com/band.php?id=1573
• http://brutalmetal.com/cgi-bin/band.cgi?BandNum=10709
• http://davidtaylormemorial.blogspot.com/2009/07/characters-in-time-and-diablero.html

External links

• [1]
• [2]
• [3]
• [4]
• [5]
• [6]