Chuck Drums

I started playing drums officially at 12 years old. Like most drummers I had been banging on everything for as long as I and everyone around me can remember. I played in garage bands up until I graduated high school. Then I joined my first "real" band called Warhead. A Black Sabbath inspired band in 1987 played in some of Boston's bigger clubs opening for more established acts in the area like Wargasm, Meliah Rage and Formicide (who eventually became Only Living Witness years later).In 1989 I recorded the drums for a local band called Poseidon, and later joined them playing shows and writing new songs. I then went on to form a band with guitarist Frank Murphy. This band became Triphammer. After about 6 months of writing together and various members a solid line up finally emerged and we went in to record our first demo tape called "It's About Time". This tape sold well over a thousand copies around the world and received high praise from many underground and mainstream magazines such as Metal Maniacs. We played up and down the east coast from Maine to Virginia. We opened for bands such as King's X, Overkill, Scatterbrain, Mucky Pup, Life Of Agony. In 1994 we went in and recorded the second demo with 4 brand new songs. Although not officially released roughly 400-500 copies made the rounds around the world and again took the band to a newer level. Label interest followed and talks with Germany's Hellhound records followed. Inner conflicts and direction challenges forced the band to disolve.In 1996 I auditioned for Sacred Reich and joined them for their American and European tour for their new CD Heal. I used to air drum to Surf Nicaragua and think of how awesome it must be to get to play these songs every night. How would I ever know that one day years later I would get to find out! I got to play one of the bands biggest shows to date at Holland's Dynamo Festival. I will never be able to thank them enough for giving some unknown kid from Boston a chance to play those great songs and see the world with 3 of the coolest down to earth people I have ever met.After moving back to Boston I joined a cover band called Tongue -N- Groove with Triphammer bassist Ralph Whittemore and Auditory Imagery vocalist and guitarist Paul Wabrek. We put out a 5 song CD called Better Than Never which did fairly well for mostly selling them at local stores and at shows. A couple of years later we added a second guitarist Russell Pace who was from the band Chop Shop. We locked ourselves away in our basement studio and knocked out 12 songs to record with many others finished and a ton of extra ideas. We went under the name Gypsycho and released a self titled CD in 2005. The band has played roughly 500 gigs together over the years.In between all of this I was lucky enough to be able to record various other CD's for other bands and projects. Poseidon went back into record a CD we rerecorded the first tape and recorded the three other songs we wrote but never got recorded. I recorded the follow up album for Madd Hunter called Silence of the Lamb in 1999. Also with Madd Hunter we recorded A National Acrobat for a Black Sabbath tribute album for an Italian label and also the song Father of Time for a Demon Tribute CD on Hellion Records. In 2004 I recorded a song with Billy Blackstone and Freeballin' called Red Sox Nation for the soon to be World Champion Boston Red Sox with proceeds going to the Red Sox charity The Jimmy Fund for cancer research. Was a real fun song to do because we wrote it and recorded it all within about an hour or two's time. Plus it was for a great cause more importantly. It got some national exposure on radio and TV sports programs.In 2003 Triphammer got together to do a reunion show. Was nice to be able to be friends and play music with these guys again. We played for about 3 hours played all of our songs and a ton of our favorite cover songs from Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Kiss, Rush, Deep Purple and many others. We recorded it on video and audio so some time in the future who knows when, we will release that. After about 10 years of not playing together we still drew a great crowd and had a blast doing it.In October 2005 a few of the local bands got together for a Halloween gig where we all interchanged band members and did tribute sets. My group did a tribute to Judas Priest. It went over great for only about 4 or 5 practices but it was all about having fun. We have played a few shows since and each one has gotten better. Looking forward to playing more shows in the future.I have been playing Vater drumsticks for about 18 years now and was able to get an endorsement with them during my time in Sacred Reich. I can't say enough about this company they still support me as well now as they did when I was touring. Thanks Chad! They are great people and a great company and I am happy that they are a local company as well.My guitarist had to move a shed about 10-20 feet to go against his garage. So he used my old drumsticks and a 2x4 to roll the thing. The sticks made it through that just fine and were still playable. I will tell you this if they can withstand that kind of abuse and win they will be able to handle anything you can dish out. I am playing the Universal model in wood tip.