The band issued the demo "The Epitome of Pantalgia", recorded at Alternative Studios with engineer Bob McCutcheon, in June 1990. In May of the following year ROTTREVORE cut the song "Disembodied" for a compilation EP entitled "Pantaglia". The 7" single "Copulation of the Virtuous & Vicious" arrived in September for Relapse Records. Another 7", "Fornication in Delirium", was delivered in 1992 through Dutch imprint Cenotaph Rec. Bob O'Lexa featured as drummer on the latter sessions, cut at Gama Studios. However, his replacement, Jason Graham, was included on the sleeve photographs. At the same session the band tracked "Clogged Sewer Pipe" for the "Son of Bllleeeeaaauuurrrrgghhh!" Grindcore compilation.
The album "Iniquitous" was recorded over just two days in February 1993 at Audiomation Studios, Pittsburgh with engineer Joe West and issued late that year by spanish label Drowned Productions. Recording roster for this effort comprised vocalist/ guitarist Mark Mastro, guitarist Chris Weber, bassist Chris Free and drummer Jason Graham. Only 1.000 copies of the CD were pressed before the label's demise and change of name to Repulse Records (later Xtreem Music). Bootleg vinyl copies subsequently surfaced in spring '09
Necroharmonic Rec. published the archive compilation "Disembodied" in 2005. This featured five tracks from the "The Epitome of Pantalgia" demo, three songs taken from the "Copulation of the Virtuous and Vicious" EP, two tracks from the "Fornication in Delirium" EP, "Clogged Sewer Pipe" from the "Son of Bllleeeeaaauuuurrrrgghhh!' compilation EP, "Disembodied" from the compilation "Pantalgia" and a closing untitled song written to honour "a guy they saw on Route 70 sucking on a ladies shoe"
Xtreem Music re-issued a remastered "Iniquitous" on 1st July 2009 on both CD and 12"LP format along with the first official shirt of this album. This new version features three live bonus tracks from 1992 and sees this masterpiece properly released & distributed 16 years after its inception.
Time and actualities show how the U.S.A.'s ROTTREVORE whittled away to nothing in November 1995. It would be inappropriate to say that it was an official band breakup, as it was a rather slow, gradual, one by one departure of members accompanied with no show opportunities while there were lesser and lesser band rehearsals. 1994 and '93 would see continuous rotating band line-ups & having to do the few shows they'd been booked on, without a bass player. The most noteworthy event was when the drummer from that mid 90's era quit.
So there it was, the latter half of 1995 and start of 1996 when weber was the sole remaining member. Weber was in a position to even join another band and it ended up in him having no luck with finding another one. For this reason, Weber kept after his rigorous practice & rehearsal routines in order to keep all of the unrecorded ROTTREVORE material both together & tight. Otherwise, if this were left undone, those completed songs would either be forgotten & rendered non-existent or they'd be compromised having inaccurate parts & missing elements.
This would become a longstanding practice regimen for Weber as he'd religiously played all of those, what would be then, “new” songs, by himself from the end of 1995 to the end of 1998. This will finalize & settle the accounts on all the mess talkin' rumors that Weber was a “sellout” & Weber “gave up”, to those ignorant uninformed red carpet struttin' hair brushin' heavy metal heroes. This evidence & chronology of events prove that ROTTREVORE was a “one man band” for 3 whole years, as no one individual stayed on & stayed up with the rehearsing on those particular songs in the way that they were intended to be, except Weber.
Employing the most simplistic & primitive of single track recording devices, Weber used a conventional flat desktop analog cassette tape recorder to preserve all of the unrecorded ROTTREVORE material by 1998's year end. Meticulously & in methodical fashion, Weber began to record these tracks in slowed down, broken down, spoken-out detailed step by step instructional form. To ensure perfection & clarity, he played his drop-tuned guitar through the clean channel on an amplifier & “talked out” the lyrics to the songs, rather than “growl”, so that when you'd listen to the playback, the use of chords & picking of notes were distinguishable plus, the words would be clearly discerned.
Before ROTTREVORE made a return to the underground death metal scene, there was a time when there were plans in the works for them to put together a reunion show in October of 2009 featuring their first band member line-up from1990, which they'd ended up canceling. Not long after this, the rewards for those instructional cassette tape recordings would pay off when Weber & one of the past ROTTREVORE drummers re-learned three of those unrecorded tracks in the end of 2010 & start of 2011. Bass player, Chris Free, got together with them only a few weeks after this. It's worthy of mention to say that the bass lines & the guitar parts with their rhythms, riffs & soloing were done 100% accurate to the arrangements intended in the early '90's whereas, the drumming was not on cue & had changed significantly.
It was then, the Spring of 2011, that ROTTREVORE went into Mana recording studio in St. Petersburg Florida to record an unreleased EP. In & around that same time in early 2011, ROTTREVORE was breaking in a new guitar player as its 4th member. ROTTREVORE acquired Jared Lubawski, a young aspiring guitar slingin' death metal maniac that was rippin' some double duty as he already had a fairly established Pittsburgh based death metal band by the name of BENEATH the REMAINS. By Summer 2011, ROTTREVORE were doing two shows for the first time in 16 years. So, for the go around this time, it's safe to say that, it's a reformation rather than just a reunion &, we can call it official.
As 2011 wore on, there was already a feeling of uneasiness & looming problems arising from within the band. ROTTREVORE were forced to decide on leaving the drummer out of the band due to tensions and disagreements that could’ve worsened. The aftermath of this departure would eventually show itself to be mutual. Picking up, moving on, & progressing after this episode would end up happening in slow motion as the band, with its remaining three members, were still in a regrouping rebuild phase. ROTTREVORE were on yet, another quest for a drummer. There was success with this quest for another ROTTREVORE drummer when they got a hard bass drum kickin' steady poundin' terror tempo player in Jesse McLaughlin, a member from another Pittsburgh area based death metal band called TYRANT. By then, when this occurred, it was February 2012 & ROTTREVORE had begun to focus on & rehearse mostly already recorded material from their one & only '93 “Iniquitous” LP. From May 2012 to November 2012, they had really stalled as they weren't booking any shows, they weren't rehearsing & were in a total inactive mode. During this intermission, an unauthorized unofficial “bootleg” style release of the 3 song EP turned up as a disc featuring the same 3 songs twice, with the doubles being all instrumental with no vocals. It's just an unfortunate mishap that, at the recording time, ROTTREVORE inadvertently got in a position where the master recording got into the wrong untrusted crafty conniving deceitful hands, where it would be subject to such fraudulence, misrepresentation, tacky patriotic tributes & illegal unfair piracy. Here now, at the start of 2013, there's been a noteworthy resurgence.
ROTTREVORE has been back at it with a steady rehearsal schedule & plans for booking shows once again. It's over 12 years since the unrecorded tracks had been put on a shelf. Even more remarkable than that is, these tracks are potentially upwards & more than 20 years old, as one & even possibly two of them were being compiled & finished before “Iniquitous” was ever recorded. This factor should make the unreleased EP & any of the unrecorded tracks extraordinary because they're not recent or up-to-date compositions that were put together with the influence of this modern age robotic sounding high circulation satellite radio air-played popular new Death Metal, but they are doom melodies & death serenades that were written, arranged, composed & completed from 1996 to as early as 1992. Consider the imagination & creativity from deviant deranged mad minds of Deathheads in their mid & early 20's, influenced by Death Metal, Black Metal, Grindcore, Sludge, Thrash & even crossover style bands from the early 90's & well into the 80's. In this current & modern Death Metal scene, whether it's underground or it gets mainstream exposure, ROTTREVORE's listeners should be in for a blind sided attack surprise from the audio sound experience of their EP “Hung by the Eye-Sockets” & any of the other unrecorded tracks. These cuts should set a mood that's peculiar to the way that death metal originated & capture the true spirit of the old.... ”old” where it all begins to decompose & rot.
After 2 years, this EP has been finally unburied by Xtreem Music who was initially intended to release is back in summer 2011, but due to various problems beyond the label’s control, it wasn’t unable to do it until now. CD version is out in August 2013 and a very special vinyl version will follow shortly after.
Ediciones Xtreem:
Banda:
ROTTREVORE
Título:
Iniquitous
CAT. #:
XM 063 CD/LP
Formato:
CD/LP [45:37]
Estilo:
Death Metal
Edición:
07.2009
Banda:
ROTTREVORE
Título:
Hung by the Eyesockets
CAT. #:
XM 130 MCD
Formato:
MCD [16:20]
Estilo:
Death Metal
Edición:
08.2013
Media:
Si tienes una revista, webzine o simplemente necesitas material gráfico de alta calidad sobre la banda, aquí te puedes descargar un archivo .ZIP con: Fotos, Logos y Portada del álbum.
