Formed in 2008, Earthen Grave is a six-piece Chicago metal band that marries the sounds of metal past and future with a sweaty, pummeling live show. Bassist Ron Holzner served a 15-year sentence with Chicago doom legends Trouble and Rachel Barton Pine brings her frightening classical chops to a relatively new instrument, the Viper. Finding groups like Black Sabbath, Judas Priest, Saint Vitus, Trouble, Pentagram, Candlemass and Slayer to be common influences, the band wrote and played shows around Chicago for the first half of 2009, culminating in the release of the “Dismal Times” EP in June. Featuring three original songs that meld classic, crunchy doom and NWOBHM vibes with a solid dose of thrashy bludgeoning alongside covers of two choice doom classics by Pentagram and Witchfinder General, the EP was hailed by critics as “astounding, ” and “pure, head-banging bliss” (MaximumMetal.com).

Sacred Dawn burst onto the Chicago metal scene in 2005 with an innovative mix of progressive metal and old-school hard rock. The band’s unique blend of vocal harmonies delivered by frontman and lead guitarist Lothar Keller set the band apart and launched numerous live appearances across the Midwest in support of international acts such as Symphony X, Cage, Firewind, Kamelot, Epica, Loudness, Testament… to name a few.

Through the years the band endured line-up changes resulting in downtime between releases, but also allowed Keller the opportunity to spread his wings musically. First by joining Divinity Compromised in 2009 as their frontman/vocalist and in 2012 co-founded Doom legends The Skull as guitarist and co-songwriter… along with Chicago-based genre pioneers Eric Wagner & Ron Holzner (Trouble).

Sacred Dawn is:

Lothar Keller (Vocals/Guitar)

John Vitale (Guitar)

Joey Vega (Bass)

Mike Mousel (Drums)

In 2006, Novembers Doom once again entered the studio to record the follow up to 2005’s “The Pale Haunt Departure.” The philosophy was simple… If it isn’t broken, don’t fix it. Sessions for “The Novella Reservoir” began with Chris Djuricic once again engineering and co-producing, also taking up the recording of the Bass guitar. Mixed by the highly respected Dan Swano, and mastered again by legendary James Murphy, “The Novella Reservoir” was completed, becoming the bands greatest audible onslaught yet. Taking their musical direction to the next logical step in their evolution, Novembers Doom has broken free from their past genre labels, to create a modern dark metal CD influenced heavily by their Chicago 90’s death metal roots. “The Novella Reservoir” is easily the bands most aggressive CD to date, and will, without a doubt concrete them as one of the top bands of their genre.