| The phrase “paying your dues” gets thrown around like so much confetti, yet it remains one of the few frequently used adages to carry any weight. Rarer still are bands like Tri-County’s Cessation Of Life, who have been diligently plugging away for nearly a decade. Only now are they beginning to make some much-deserved headway in the music industry as metal is seemingly welcomed back into its often hostile halls.
“Musicianship is extremely high,” notes guitarist Travis Anderberg. “The work ethic is extremely high, and I think that just creates the best possible music.”
Looking at the story so far, the guitarist’s statement stands up to the scrutiny. Since coming together, Cessation Of Life have released four self-financed CDs and played in areas far outside their local circle. This year, the band plans to travel as far as South Dakota to promote their latest disc.
With “The Glory of the World is Passing” – a brand spanking new, professionally produced four-song EP – now on the streets and ready for big-name backing, the Ventura quartet has nothing short of “world domination” on its mind, says singer Chris “Violence” Cronkrite.
Cessation Of Life officially began their run as a unit in 1996, one year after drummer Ron Ostlund placed an ad in a local newspaper seeking any like-minded musicians in the area. In addition to Cronkrite, the search led him to guitarists Chris Cromelin and Travis Anderberg and bassist Jon DuBose.
Lineup changes followed over the years, whittling the roster down from five to four, but most of the original lineup is still intact, Justin Harrison now taking the reins as bassist.
“We get along extremely well,” says Ostlund.
Adds Chris Violence, “We’re all sick individuals.”
Two years into their career, Cessation Of Life released “Aggressive By Nature, Destructive By Choice,” a slab of classicist “Slayer by way of Morbid Angel” thrash metal that mangled the calling cards of its forebears into an impressive, if not so well produced, debut.
“We’re all a little bit different,” says bassist Justin Harrison of the band’s fairly diverse musical palate. “We all come from basically the same background, but everybody kind of took their own directions.”
“We all bring together something unique to the table,” Anderberg notes. “And it actually fits together, and it doesn’t take a lot of work once you look at it from the theory side of it.”
In the years ahead, other releases would follow, including 2002’s “Kill You Again,” which capitalized on the strengths showcased on “Aggressive” while at the same time giving the band’s humorous side some breathing room with tracks like “I.F.T.W.M.F.A.” and “Johnny Wants a Six Pack.”
Accompanied by feverish live schedules, the band’s studio releases helped garner them a reputation as one of Southern California’s brightest undiscovered talents, a sentiment shared by both fans and fellow musicians. | Now that thrashier, death-tinged metal has begun to make a run for the big time, with bands such as Lamb of God and Killswitch Engage playing to audiences many thousands strong, Cessation Of Life have been busy trying to strike while the iron’s hot. In January, the band announced a two-part deal Foley Entertainment, headed up by music industry consultant Eugene Foley.
“To give you an idea of how large this company is,” writes Chris, “50 Cent’s record company called Eugene and asked him what song they should choose off the new CD for the new single. Basically which song they should spend $2 Million making a video for.”
The deal with Foley led to a recording session with noted (not to mention Grammy Award-winning) producer John Seymour, whose past work has included records with such luminaries as Santana, Biohazard, and a band whom you might have heard of called U2.
After things were finalized, the quartet was off to New York to produce “The Glory of the World is Passing,” their first professionally recorded release. The result was very much to the band’s liking.
“The quality is unbelievable,” Travis says.
He has a point. Even in the form of an average-sounding mp3 file -- which is now available to download from C.O.L.’s Web site -- the polish is evident. The upgrade from indie to pro, however, doesn’t for a second diminish the raw sonic pummeling that underground metal releases deliver.
Prior to this release, Harrison says, every record was self-produced with engineers as hired guns.
“It was just us attempting to communicate with the engineer to try and do the best we could,” he says. “But when you deal with somebody like John Seymour – you know, this guy’s got a Grammy. He brings something to the table that we just can’t figure out on our own.”
The rest of 2005 will see Cessation Of Life touring and promoting exhaustively for “The Glory of the World is Passing,” in tandem with Eugene Foley, who will be walking copies of the CD into the offices of record labels nationwide.
“The goal is to finance [the recording of] the rest of the CD with John Seymour behind the mixing board,” Chris says.
While the band is optimistic about the outcome, they maintain their realism about the possibilities. “It would be really nice if it happens,” Harrison says. “If it doesn’t, you will still see more albums.”
“I think a lot of people assume that because we’re a speed metal band, or just a metal band in general, that we’re bums that live on our parents’ couches,” Chris jokes. “But the truth of the matter is we’re all successful individuals in our own personal lives.”
“We’ve been doing what we’ve been wanting to do for a long time…and it may just do us a big favor,” says Ostlund.
“This is the type of music we love, this is what we want to play,” Chris continues. “ That style has come back around because everybody’s gotten sick of everything else.” |
