Urizen Bio

Urizen (pronounced "Your-Reason" said quickly) began it's first incarnation in Colorado in 1999, known originally as "Dunwich Horror." The Dunwich line-up consisted of Thomas Drinnen on guitar, drums and vocals, Mitch Barnes on bass and vocals, Jeremy Zick on guitar and Daniel Drinnen on the keyboard. The music was very raw and unpolished, influenced heavily by the new wave of Norwegian black metal. They released a low quality demo EP entitled Rape of the Sabines and played a number of very well received shows in Colorado, Kansas,and Missouri, with drummer Niko (now of Denver-based envy) filling the drum slot live. Along with Head-Minion Seth Livingston, they stormed the stage, donning traditional black metal corpsepaint, a slew of fiendish props, and buckets of fake blood.
Soon enough, however, Dunwich Horror began to prove stifling to the band's musical expansion, as their influences broadened and their tastes evolved. With this fresh new direction came the urge to rename the group, to purge the attitude of Dunwich Horror and progress forward. Thomas, fresh from a stint in art school Hell, returned and dubbed the band Urizen, taken from the texts of William Blake. Armed with the new moniker and a fresh attitude, the band forged onward to establish a crisp, refreshing style of music. With the birth of Urizen came another challenge: to find a permanent drummer. The search in Colorado proved extremely pointless, and hope was beginning to diminish when fate miraculously intervened.
In 2001, Thomas, Daniel and Jeremy planned a trip to Dallas, Texas to see Norwegian black-metallers, Dimmu Borgir, live in concert. It was at this event that a chance encounter occurred between the three members and a tall, wiry drum phenom named Julio Escamilla. Through conversation, the two parties found that Julio was exactly the drummer that they had been looking for. Soon, he was back in Urizen's studio in Colorado as a full member, ready to begin work on the full-length debut, Autocratopolis.

Sadly, with the addition of a new member came the departure of an old friend soon after. Although it is unclear as to why it happened, Mitch decided to leave Urizen that summer, and is now a part of Denver-based Trip|Cage. Not letting the parting of ways affect their momentum, Urizen continued work on Autocratopolis. But in 2002, circumstances in Colorado proved suffocating and drastically slowed down production, so at the end of the summer they said goodbye to their studio in the Rockies and relocated to Dallas. This move once again brought new life to the group, as they continued work on Autocratopolis.