ROSS THE BOSS (Legendary Manowar Guitarist)
As a child growing up in New York City, Ross “The Boss” Friedman showed great promise as a piano and violin prodigy, but when he first touched the electric guitar he knew he found his true love.
He met Andy Shernoff in 1973 while playing in one of his bands at a house party in his teenage years. Together, they created a band known as The Dictators, who became the first signed Punk Rock band launching the CBGBs scene. Known for their sense of humor and affection for White Castles and wrestling, they were one of the most copied and influential bands of the genre.
Blue Oyster Cult Producer Sandy Perlman was the manager for both The Dictators and French Rock Band Shakin’ Street in 1979 when Ross needed a gig and Shakin’ Street needed a guitar player. Ross flew to France and floored everyone with his guitar playing. He joined the band, lived in France for a year, recorded an album, learned to speak French and toured the world with the band.
While Shakin’ Street was opening for Black Sabbath and Blue Oyster Cult in 1980, Ronnie James Dio introduced Ross to crew member Joey DeMaio. The two of them agreed on their vision for what a Heavy Metal band should be and together, they co-founded Manowar. They created their own subgenre and dubbed it “True Metal” playing epic songs with viking themes at very loud volumes. His eight years and six albums with this band gained him an unbelievably loyal cult following who widely considers Ross The Boss to be the definitive Manowar guitar player.
The Dictators revamped into a new band called Manitoba’s Wild Kingdom in 1989 that bridged that gap from punk rock to metal, and really allowed Ross The Boss to showcase his kind of guitar playing. Even though each of his bands are a different musical style, he says he’s always, “Just playing Rock and Roll”.
When his son was born in 1991 he stayed closer to home being a great dad and making music with his friends and other New York based musicians. During that time he had a few major releases and played shows with his bands The Pack, the Blues Rock “Heyday” and The Spinatras. The Dictators continued to tour and made a highly acclaimed studio record ” D.F.F.D.”, a live CD “Viva Dictators” , and a Greatest Hits and Early Demos compilation.
In 2005, the time was right for him to join former Blue Oyster Cult drummer Albert Bouchard in his band The Brain Surgeons, winning over audiences with his own style of guitar playing, and kicking the band up a notch into new territory for two albums.
Ross constantly writes and records new music and reunites with his old bands and former band members for special shows and projects. His 2005 appearance with Manowar at the Earthshaker Festival was so successful he formed his own “Ross The Boss” band and signed with AFM Records Germany. His two critically acclaimed solo albums 2008 “New Metal Leader” and 2010 “Hailstorm” saw him playing shows and festivals all over the world, putting him back in front of a Heavy Metal audience and reminding everyone that Ross The Boss is one of the world’s most loved Metal guitar players.
As people started connecting with him on the internet, he began to collaborate with musicians online and guesting on tracks for bands like Majesty, Wotan, Atlantean Kodex and The Vibrators to name a few.
His newest project “Death Dealer” began as an online collaboration but quickly gelled into a supergroup featuring Sean Peck (Cage), Stu Marshall (Dungeon, Empire of Eden), Mike Davis (Halford, Lizzie Borden), and Steve Bolognese (Into Eternity). The band has been touring the world for their debut album “Warmaster” and is getting ready to release their second album “Hallowed Ground” in 2015.
Ross The Boss was one of the pioneers of both Punk Rock and Heavy Metal. He’s proud to know that the music he’s made has influenced and inspired so many other artists. You can be sure that whatever band he’s in or whatever style he’s playing in, he’s always happy to be writing new music and playing the guitar with his friends.
ETHAN BROSH
Ethan is a young rock guitar player who leads The Ethan Brosh Band as a national touring act. In addition to recording and touring with his own music, Ethan also sometimes steps into playing for high profile musicians as a session guitar player who can replicate other people’s music in the most accurate way and adding lots of energy to it on stage.
Ethan Brosh was born in Suffern, NY yet spent his childhood years in Israel. It was there that Ethan discovered Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D minor, event which awakened his love of music. At the age of 12, he developed a taste for playing guitar and started taking up classical guitar lessons. Soon enough, he picked up the electric guitar and began studying under the mentorship of Eyal Freeman. Originally influenced by artists such as Iron Maiden and other groups of that era, Ethan gradually grew into writing his own music. Therefore, he went on to study at Berklee College of Music, where he earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Songwriting, eventually becoming a part time teacher there at Berklee.
Upon graduating, Ethan formed a hard rock band called Burning Heat along with singer Adrian Araiza, which started working the local New England scene intensively, Getting asked to open for lots of national acts, Burning Heat continued traveling and playing all over as well as being on a number of rock festivals.
After writing music for several years it was time for Ethan to record his first solo record. A two and a half year process of working with the best people in the field and trying to create an over the top instrumental album as Ethan’s debut recording brought to life Out of Oblivion. Released in 2009 under Mike Varney’s Magna Carta Records label, the album featured guests such as George Lynch, Greg Howe (Michael Jackson) and Mike Mangini (Dream Theater, Extreme). The artwork was created by Derek Riggs (Iron Maiden), while the album was mixed by Chris Tsangarites (Judas Priest, Depeche Mode).
During the same year of 2009, Ethan toured opening for Eddie Money, played with Terry Ilous (XYZ, Great White) and Pat Travers and started playing guitar for the band Angels of Babylon. The band, which featured Rhino(Manowar) on drums and David Ellefson(Megadeth) on bass guitar, released their debut album, Kingdom of Evil, on various labels all over the world in 2010, followed by a second record, Thundergod, in 2013. After Ethan moved on from Angels of Babylon to focus on his own music, he and David Ellefson continued with several more collaborations, including them playing on each other’s records.
Complex, technical and melodic, Ethan’s debut record was followed by Live The Dream, released in 2014 under Carmine Appice’s Rocker Records label featuring Dave Ellefson (Megadeth). It was the mix of producer Max Norman (Ozzy), whom Ethan convinced to come out of retirement and perform his first mix after 20 years. The mastering was the work of Grammy winning mastering engineer Bob Ludwig. The artwork was a real painting done by Joe Petagno (Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd) as well as most of the record being recorded analogue in high end recording studios to create a realistic feel and an immense production not usually heard on rock records in this day and age.
Between 2013-2015, Ethan toured with a great number of acts such as Yngwie Malmsteen, Jake E. Lee, Marty Friedman, Michael Schenker and many more. In 2013, The Ethan Brosh Band was the direct support act for Yngwie Malmsteen on a major 25 show tour, while in 2014-2015 they did a couple of tours with Jake E. Lee’s Red Dragon Cartel in support of Ethan’s second album, Live the Dream. Between the tours performed with his band, Ethan played guitar for Carmine and Vinnie Appice and went on the road with them, which resulted in a live record called Drum Wars Live!, released on Cleopatra Records. In 2015, Ethan played guitar for the band SteelHeart in South Korea opening for the Scorpions, and acoustic guitar for Eric Martin of Mr. Big.
During those years, Ethan received a great deal of press and media coverage being featured in many guitar and music related magazines around the world and doing countless radio and print interviews.
With a third record in the making and many other projects to delve into, Ethan Brosh will surely continue to deliver his music to new audiences and keep being an important part of the guitar and rock world.
RIVAL
Classic heavy/power metal from Chicago. We are back!
Gary Olson-Drums, John Johnson-Bass/Vocals,Neven Trifunovich-Guitar, Chuck McNulty-Guitar
SCREAMKING
Melodic,aggressive heavy metal music