Disillusion

Formed in Leipzig, Germany, in 1994, Disillusion started out playing pretty standard death/thrash metal and issuing several demos to little interest before the decade ran out, before actually going their separate ways by 1998, when none of these had attracted any record label interest. However, the core duo of vocalist/guitarist Vurtox (real name Andy Schmidt) and drummer Alex Motz remained in touch and were soon working together again, so that by the time they'd revived Disillusion with 2001's Three Neuron Kings EP (also featuring guitarist Rajk Barthel), progressive tendencies had taken hold of their songwriting in a prominent way. For their first proper album, 2004's Back to Times of Splendor, on Metal Blade, Vurtox, Barthel, and new drummer Jens Maluschka were taking even more liberties with their metallic foundations and, come 2006's sophomore Gloria, the presence of electronic, ambient, classical, and alternative rock elements had rendered their music quite impossible to pigeonhole.