Lights Demise

Destroying venues since 2012 Lights Demise has begun to dominate the Reverbnation charts and now has a full year of shows under it's belt. Hosting shows and recording has been a large portion of our time lately but come November 2013 we will have a CD with our new material for our fans! l Vocalist Patrick Tobin was born into a family full of love for music. From birth he was listening to Led Zepplin, Van Halen, Boston, and Jethro Tull. As time went on he moved from his birthplace of Los Angeles CA to Salem, OR. That was where he found a powerful alternative scene and immersed himself in it. One day as Pat was driving down the street a fellow ironically yelled at him for being too loud and said that if Pat was to scream or sing to the songs he loved in public, he damn well better be able to do them correctly. Fast forward to 2012 when his friend and guitarist Matt Mller asked Pat the question "do you want to join a band?" And as they say...the rest is history. Drummer Aaron Reopelle was born July 7, 1978 in Stayton, Or. and was fascinated wth music at a very early age, especially the drums. He began playing drums at age 14 and although he has had no formal training he learned by listening through headphones and playing along. The bands that inspire him are Pantera, older Metallica, Slayer, Mudvayne, and Chimaira. Drummers such as Nick Menza, Vinnie Paul, Dave Lombardo, and Lars Ulrich are afew of Aarons influences. Aaron has been a member of several bands including Deviant 151 which had numerous songs achieve airplay on Portland's hardest rocking radio station 101 K.U.F.O. In the latter end of 2011 when Aaron teamed up with his longtime friend Jeremy Chapman, guitarist Matt Miller and vocalist Pat Tobin he knew they had something special. That something was called Lights Demise. In the spring of 2012 Jeremy left Lights Demise but returned shortly thereafter to take on managerial duties. The bass void was quickly filled by veteran metal bassist Bill Jenks, who was a longtime friend of gutarist Matt Miller. Lights Demise iss now ready to take on the world. Although there have been many rumors concerning the creation of metal bassist Bill Jenks, he is not the love child of Lemmy and Grace Slick, nor did he come from another planet as did GWAR. The boring truth is that he was born in Salem, Or, a somewhat normal kid, who just loved to listen to hard rock and metal music. At age nine Bill discovered the band Kiss and from that day forward he dreamt of being a rock god. When speaking of Kiss at age ten he was quoted as saying "Those guys are like super-heroes come to life." At around age 14 while sitting in his bedroom with Van Halen's "Runnin' with the Devil" playing at full volume, his mother kicked in his bedroom door and screamed "What is it with you and that devil music?" And once again a couple years later the same exact scenario was played out while listening to Motley Crue's "Shout at the Devil." Although the devil had no actual influence on Bill, many bands have, a few of his all-time favorites are: Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath, Pantera, Testament, Anthrax, and Megadeth. Some newer bands such as Five Finger Death Punch and Avenged Sevenfold are also influential in Bill's style of song writing and playing. Bill was a founding member of local metal band Twentyfold, which played shows throughout the northwest and rcorded two CD's between 2000 and 2006. After the breakup of Twentyfold Bill took a long break untll he re-connected with longtime friend and gutarist Matt Miller, who had already begun a band project called Lights Demise with vocalist Pat Tobin and drummer Aaron Reopelle. Bill joined Lights Demise around April 2012 and the brutal melodies have been rockin' ever since. Gutarist Matt Miller comes from a long line of accomplished musicians. His grandfather was a Nashville studio musician and a fiddle virtuoso winning many national awrds including the national fiddle trophy in Weiser, Idaho. Matt's father, Jim was a lead gutarist for the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, as well as many other bands. Although Matt started out by playing rhythm for his dad's bluegrass jams his life was changed when his cousin gave him some cassete tapes of Megadeth, Slayer, Testament, and some more obscure bands such as Cannibal Corpse, Death, Carcass, Deicide, and Morbid Angel. Matt was drawn to the more brutal and technical side of extreme metal and black metal. He cites Yngwie Malmsteen, Marty Friedman, Alex Skolnick, Chuck Schuldiner, Paul Gilbert, and Randy Rhoads as his main influences. Athough guitarist Matt Miller was a founding member of Lights Demise, he is no longer a part of this band. Specializing in brutal melodies since 2012.