Snakehealer

Complete History of Snakehealer: Formed in 2010 by guitarist and lead vocalist Rafael Palacios, Snakehealer started out as a concept extreme metal band with former members Derek Bastian (Guitar), Kyle Butler of Domineer (Bass) and Karl Jones of Priest Fight (Drums). With Death Metal as the forefront the quartette experimented with blending a variety of metal styles. Noting artistic differences and lack of free time the band went on hiatus for 6 months and then reunited with Kyle Butler now on guitar, Rafael still on vocals and guitar and new member Charles Wood on Drums. The band played shows in this format for the rest of that year until they again went on hiatus. Towards the end of 2011 Rafael and Charles started a Black Metal project with Dave Warner from Holocaustum on guitar and Travis Sheets from Fedallah on bass. This band experimented with some sounds and began to record when they broke up due to lack of time. Rafael met an eager young Death Metal vocalist named David Sueoka while going to school and introduced him to Kyle Butler and Charles Wood. The four quickly became friends and decided to reincarnate Snakehealer back from the dead this time with a dual vocal sound. While in the studio recording the first demo, Kyle informs the rest of the band that he is leaving town and is leaving the band after the recording is done. The band had a choice, either call it quits or find a replacement guitarist. They didn't stop there they decided to find a bassist and complete the sound. In the spring of 2012 Zack Adams joined the band as lead guitarist. As a quartette once again they hit the local scene at their strongest yet pushing the envelope of speed, brutality and technicality. The band went strong until fall of 2012 when Rafael, David and Zack decided to part ways with drummer Charles Wood due to artistic differences. The band finally found a bassist when Trevor Allen joined and shortly after Corey Richie from Station joined on drums. After a few months David Sueoka was unable to make time for practices so he was forced to quit the band before they could perform as a 5 piece. the band played a series of shows in summer of 2013 as a 4 piece. Shortly after, Trevor Allen was unable to stay in the band due to schedule problems with work and had to step down as bassist. The band's streak of bad luck wasn't over. After noting artistic differences, Corey Richie left the band in fall of 2013. Snakehealer was not about to go on hiatus again so the two remaining members Zach Adams and Rafael Palacios decided to take all the stress of being a live act out of the picture and focus on recording a demo. The two became best friends during this process and they decided to look for another drummer and bassist. After recording 4 demo tracks Zach and Rafael started getting interest from area bassists and drummers. After months of recording Zach's and Rafael's patience would pay off when drummer Dave Bourne from Straight to the Guillotine decided to take the drum position. Shortly afterward they picked up Michael Skeeters from The Burned Earth to play bass. Once again a complete band, Snakehealer decided to start booking shows. The week before their first show back Dave Bourne quits saying that he didn't have enough time for two bands. Original drummer Karl Jones filled-in at that gig but was unable to commit to the position fulltime. They decided to go back to the drawing board and continue recording songs for a new album. In fall of 2014 Travis Sheets introduced Rafael to current drummer Ian Lemberg. Rafael had Ian over to meet Zach and Michael and everything seemed perfect. Shortly after Ian accepted the position as the new drummer, Michael decides to step down as bassist. [FACEPALM] Bassist Trevor Allen had been showing interest in starting a side project with Rafael when Rafael invited him to come back as bassist for Snakehealer. Trevor accepted the position and has completed the band in its strongest incarnation of all. *UPDATE: Ian Lemberg has since left the band do to schedule conflicts Opening the position of drummer for Snakehealer. We are now focused on finishing the record. Snakehealer is a celebration of darkness in all its forms. Death Metal, Black Metal, Doom Metal, Thrash Metal, Progressive Metal.