Death Benefit - Since 1996

Spring 1996, Chesapeake, VA… I received a call from Chris Violence, a former band mate in Los Angeles (Domestic Violence) telling me about a new project he was working on. He said that they needed a bassist and proceeded to convince me to return to LA where I met up with some old friends upon my arrival. I was camping at Mike Marlow’s apartment in Burbank at the time. Mike had come with a friend to pick me up from the bus station downtown. His friend was Jay Rivera. I didn’t know at the time but this would be a turning point in my musical career for sure.Chris and I would continue to practice along with another old friend of mine, Travis Anderburg (also of Domestic Violence), an awesome drummer, Ron Ostlund and a flashy lead guitarist Chris Cromelin. This line up eventually became the well known underground speed/thrash metal band Cessation Of Life.At the same time I was also kicking out some tunes with Mike and Jay. The vibe between the three of us was too abrasive and brutal to ignore and we decided to see how far we could take it. We needed a drummer and I just happened to know a great one. We enlisted Greg Conti (also from Domestic Violence) and Death Benefit was stillborn.Death Benefit continued to write song after song creating a set list of brutal thrash metal and hardcore punk. The themes were dark, often hateful views along the lines of anti-establishmentarianism, anti-religion and the paranormal. Some crowd favorites were “Declaration Of Hate” an anarchist delight, “Levitations” describing a bleak view of the afterlife and “K-9 Anal Rape” a grim tale of a boy and his dog. Live shows were of paramount importance and DB accumulated a large club based following in the Hollywood area. Recording ideas were tossed around but never came to fruition.After several years and many shows the “2 bands at once” thing just wasn’t happening for me. Too many personal issues, not enough funds and endless days of selling tickets got to be too much. I decided to take a break from DB and continued on with Cessation Of Life for a while until I just let it all go. Cessation Of Life would continue with Justin Harrison on bass and DB was put on the back burner for me. Jay and Mike continued on in my absence for a short time.Soon after, it happened… Mike had died in a motorcycle accident. Shortly after, I relocated to Upstate New York where I found out Greg had died after fighting pancreatic cancer. Jay and I kept in touch as we had become great friends and we continued to write music both separately and collaboratively. In 2005 we put out a live DVD in memoriam of our fallen comrades called “Live Hate/Haunting The Whiskey” recorded at the Whiskey A Go-Go in 1997.After flopping drunkenly around the country for a while, with stops in NY, AZ and Los Angeles, I landed face first in North Carolina where my lust for music and my discontent for mediocrity took me right back to 1996. Jay and I decided that it wasn’t over. With the help of the multi-talented Chris Cromelin on drums (yes, the flashy guitarist from Cessation Of Life and The Kill Junkies), Tiina Teal's (Burn The Empire, Lex Cadaver) awesome vocals, we set out on our first release since 2005 with the single "The Book of the Dead".We are now recording a new full length record with vocalist Johnny Michael Kei Beabout II (Ritual Havoc, Four Fingers Deep) and guitarist Chris Mulville (Downfall w/Wes Caley of Exhumed) entitled "Resurrected" due out later this year. Stay tuned for the heaviest, most brutal Death Benefit ever! jonny pummel