Vehemence Bio

Vehemence started with Nathan and Scott Wiegand (our old guitarist) back in 1995 (high school days). They were writing together in the vein of old Pyogenesis and Cathedral. Bjorn met up with those guys his senior year. The first time they actually hung out was at a Suffocation show, during the Pierced From Within tour. We started jamming together and the musical direction changed from atmospheric, to death metal influenced by bands like Carcass and Suffocation. Our first song was "Banished to Infinity". Bjorn, Nathan, and Scott recorded it at a friend's house with a drum machine. Our first version of "No One Wins" was recorded there too.

In 1997, Bjorn and Scott went to a party to check out some bands, and there they heard Mistaken Identity. That was Mark and Andy's punk band with this other member named Tony Ash. Bjorn and Scott noticed that Andy was doing double-bass drumming to punk rock. They could just tell by his style that he was into metal, so after their set, Vehemence asked him if he wanted to jam. He said yes, and that's pretty much the beginnings of the band. Vehemence thought they already had a bass player, but he flaked out on the band. Andy told Vehemence that Mark would be interested, but Vehemence didn't think that would work out at first, since he was going to school in Tucson. Fortunately, Mark quit school to join Vehemence, move back to Phoenix.

Vehemence practiced at Bjorn's parents house for a while and in early 1998, we released our first demo tape. That tape is poorly recorded, but Vehemence thought it was good representation at the time. The song material wasn't bad, but wasn't played to the songs full potential. The track
listing was, "The Death of Me", "Banished to Infinity", "No One Wins", "Whore, Cunt, Die", "Crusade of Hypocrisy", "Mota Para Mi" , and "Her Beautiful Eyes". We only made 150 demo tapes, sold them to friends and at local shows, but really didn't get anywhere with it.

In late 1998, Vehemence got their own rehearsal studio and became playing more professionally. More songs were created and they saved up some money so the band could record their first 8 song 60 min CD entitled "The Thoughts From Which I Hide". By November of 1999, Vehemence were ready to record . Vehemence went to Jason Coleman who owns a home studio called AAA Audio. Jason did a good job on the recording, and was way cheaper than most anyone else in town.

The CD was done, but Vehemence had no money to put it out. Then in January of 2000, Scott (guitars) left the band for his own personal reasons. This was a shock to all of us, but fortunately Vehemence got John Chavez as a replacement. His previous band Brides of Christ were at a stop point and he decided to he joined Vehemence for greater success. Finally in August of 2000, Vehemence put out our CD, thanks to a loan from Andy's dad, "Digger".

Vehemence sent the CD everywhere, trying to promote in radio, zines, and magazines. Vehemence had no label at the time and had to do what it takes to get recognized. But thanks to the Internet, we were able to spread our media around much quicker. Vehemence even booked our own tour for the
summer of 2001. Vehemence covered 7 states, out for a 15 day period and met many of their diehard fans, and gained new fans. Overall, the tour was a success, and great experience.

In 2001, Vehemence were offered a deal with Metal Blade Records. Brian Slagel found out about Vehemence through Ray from Fates Warning, a friend named John from a restaurant, and their bass players dad. Vehemence's first work for Metal Blade was a demo of three songs recorded By Aaron Carry at Pipeline Studios; one of which will be used on an upcoming Metal Blade compilation entitled "UNCORRUPTED STEEL" which is due out in February 2002.

"GOD WAS CREATED", is the title of Vehemence's upcoming album that was recorded in January 2002 and to be released in July of 2002. The band will tour 3 times for the intense concept album in United States and Europe.

From 1998 to 2002, Vehemence played some pretty sick shows with bands like Suffocation, Six Feet Under, Dying Fetus, Deicide, Broken Hope, Malevolent Creation, Mayhem, Morbid Angel, Exhumed, Hate Eternal, Kovenant, Moonspell, Amorphis, Angel Corpse, Krisiun, Incantation, Immolation, Mortician, The Crown, Disavowed, Severe Torture, Disgorge, Drawn and Quartered, Retch, Fiendead and local bands like Occision, Structure Of Lies, Excessive Bleeding, and Motive.



Vehemence are excited to be working with Metal Blade, and hope that 2002 is an even greater year for themselves. Check Vehemence's Official Website!