Green Death

“This Des Moines outfit plays a classy brand of classic thrash a la Testament, Heathen and Pantera, with a little Type O Negative in there…” (Decibel Magazine) sums up Green Death’s sound precisely. Green Death mixes old school Thrash, Death Metal, Doom Metal, and more to create an interesting blend of Metal.

In 1998, guitarist Erich Tran was in a band called W.A.D., while also working at Best Buy in Des Moines, IA. There he met 16 year old vocalist, Sol Bales. In August, 2001, Sol joined W.A.D., by early 2002 that band had disbanded. A few months later, following an audition for Downthesun, Erich realized he wanted to keep working with Sol on a new project. ONLY was formed with Sol and the original W.A.D. bass player. Mark Reinking (Sparky) joined ONLY as a rhythm guitarist in 2003. After a 10 year run of countless shows, several CD releases and many lineup changes, the core trio of Erich, Sol, and Sparky found themselves as the only remaining full-time members. Tired, burned out, and frustrated with the band’s inability to solidify the lineup, they even debated hanging it up permanently.

They felt the last batch of unrecorded songs were really strong, however, and touched more on their musical roots – more in the thrash, death, and traditional heavy metal vein – than ONLY had. At this point in their lives they wanted to have those songs professionally recorded, just to have something to show for the last few years of work. In Sept 2012, they ultimately decided to record 3 tunes, with Sparky playing bass and Erich playing drums as wells as their guitar duties. Thus Green Death was born. Sol came up with the name from a list of many. Everyone loved it, and after local artist Jason Handy created the logo, it solidified the new name and direction of the band. The resulting EP was entitled Dawn of the Death. With that recording, the trio realized that lacking a full band wasn’t going to stop them from progressing and releasing music. And after a decade of honing their craft they were finally hitting their musical stride.

Following the release of a second EP (2013’s Death Monks), Green Death began performing live, with bassist, Parker Willis joining in 2013, and drummer, Ryan Berrier in 2014. In 2015 with a solid lineup, Green Death has released a #1 Amazon album, Manufacturing Evil and has performed at KNOTFEST 2015 alongside Slipknot, Judas Priest, Mastodon, and Cannibal Corpse. They’ve gained a fanbase all over the world with an aggressive DIY attitude. In 2016 the band re-released Manufacturing Evil on EMP Label Group, which was founded by David Ellefson of Megadeth.