The name Section VIII dates back to 1990. Initially formed as a straight ahead thrash metal act, Wes Sontag(guitars), Steve Thorne(drums), Colin Post(bass,vocals) and Ian Nelson(guitars), played around the Edmonton area and northern Alberta until the fall of 1991, at which time Wes and Colin joined recording artists Disciples of Power and Steve joined Edmonton speedfreaks The Malignant Growth. Skip forward to early 1995,when Wes contructed a small demo studio in his home. Wanting to do a side project to his regular role in D O P,Wes invited Steve (T M G had dissolved by this point) down to write some new music. Lacking a better name,they settled on calling the project Section VIII once again, and this time concentrated on creating highly technical compositions. However,after 4 years of infrequent gigs and a revolving door of musicians,the band was in limbo as Wes went on to co-write and produce "In Dust We Trust", the fifth album by Disciples of Power (the first since "Mechanikill" in 1995), and Steve took a leave of absence to focus on teaching music.In 2002, the name Section VIII was resurrected, as Wes and Steve did preproduction on the material that will be on the forthcoming debut C D "Not of Sound Mind". Still heavy, energetic, and technical, a greater emphasis was placed on songwriting and arrangements this time around by way of more melody, groove, and dynamics. With nearly an hours worth of music, Wes and Steve needed to find the right musicians to make the songs work in a live setting. In April of 2003 the band took on guitarist Colin Osterman (ex-Deceit), and bassist Andy Smith (ex-Deceit, D O P). Both Colin and Andy had played with Section VIII in 1998.As luck would have it, Shane Hawco, vocalist with Calgary's Thorazine, moved to Edmonton and took over vocal duties in June of 2003. The band rehearsed that summer and in August, played their first gig in 5 years as Section VIII. Late summer/early fall saw the band opening shows for Kataklysm, Into Eternity, along with Strapping Young Lad , DTB and Zimmer's Hole on their "Keep it in the Family" tour. In December of 2003, Andy left the band for personal reasons and was replaced with Pat Reinbold-another Section VIII alumni. Also added at that time was piano prodigy Chris Miller on keyboards to broaden the musicianship and overall sound of the band. Section VIII completed the recording of their debut album "Not of Sound Mind"
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