Fog of War

California, United States (2005 – present) Members: Mosh Branum - Nuclear Frontline Commander BIG JoE - Heavy Ordinance Artillery Alex Winkley - Hyper Omega Deathblaster Matt O'Connell - Gerbal Blender! Fog of war was formed in late 2004 from the remnants of two local thrash groups, C.H.U.D. Crusher, and Demilitia. The initial line-up consisted of Josh Branum on vocals/lead guitar, Joe Orterry on bass, Matt O'Connell on drums and Jon Fryman on lead guitar. Opting to forgo playing cover songs, F.O.W. began cranking out original tunes from the start, and in no time had built a modest setlist which was recorded, and thus, the first demo was released in May of '05. The earlier recorded material was a little scattered in terms of influence, the vocals bordering on black metal, and many melodic riffs and leads rounded out a primarily thrash influenced sound. As time went on, the true sound of F.O.W. began to take shape. As the next batch of songs came to fruition, a faster, more aggressive proto-punk/hardcore edge became more prevalent, crossover style vocals replacing the raw black metal-esque vocals. Among the undeniable crossover influence was still a tight, technical musicianship synonymous with the thrash metal name. With a solid sense of direction in place, a second demo, the M.C.T. EP was released in spring of 2006. Shortly after the new recordings were completed, a line up change took place in the form of Alex Winkley replacing Jon on lead guitar duty. A rigorous schedule of shows and song writing followed for the next few years, the band finally wrapping up the production of their debut album, the self titled Fog Of War, in 2009. The album, released in October to a very positive response from thrashers and metalheads alike, was the bands first mighty stomp into the full length category, clocking in at about 42 minutes with ten tracks vicious enough to sate any thrashers appetite for mosh inducing, head splitting thrash metal! Now that the album had finally been released, the band could once again place all its focus on song writing, producing songs even more aggressive and technical than the ones that had come before. Set to release a demo of all unrecorded new material in the summer, and on track for another full length by the end of the year, F.O.W. has their work cut out for them, and are more than ready to fill the task. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.