Katagory V

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Katagory V
Also known as Katagory 5
Origin Salt Lake City, Utah, USA
Genre(s) Progressive metal
Power metal
Thrash metal
Years active 1999 - Present
Label(s) Nightmare Records
Burning Star Records
Website Katagory5.com
Members
Dustin Mitchell
Curtis Morrell
Matt Suiter
Former members
Lynn Allers
Marc Hansen
Trevor Asire
Ryan Tayor

Katagory V is a melodic, Power metal/Progressive metal group from Salt Lake City, Utah that formed in 1999. Signed to Nightmare Records, Katagory V has released four studio albums. Their first album Present Day was released in 2001, and the bands most recent work Hymns of Dissension was released in October 2007.

Contents

[edit] History

[edit] Beginnings, Present Day (1999−2002)

Formed in early 1999, Katagory V was founded by Bassist Dustin Mitchell, Guitarist Curtis Morell and Drummer Matt Suiter after meeting at a local rock club in Salt Lake City, Utah. [1] Near the end of 1999 they would be joined by guitarist Ryan Taylor and vocalist Lynn Allers, and begin writing songs for their debut album Present Day, which would be self-released by the band in 2001. Present Day would create a buzz in the underground metal scene[2] and grab the attention of Nightmare Records owner Lance King, who would pick it up for distribution through his Record label in 2002. [1]

Katagory V would perform several live shows in Northern Utah through out 2001 and 2002, and would also appear at the Classic Metal Festival II in Cleveland, Ohio, sharing the stage with Seven Witches and long-running heavy metal acts Anvil and Omen.[3] A few months before their performance at the Classic Metal Festival II, guitarist Ryan Taylor would leave the band, forcing them to perform at this event as a quintet. Katagory V would then start writing their 2nd album A New Breed of Rebellion in early 2002, and acquire guitarist Trevor Asire in late 2002 to fill the vacant slot left by Taylor. Katagory V would return to perform at the Classic Metal festival III, now relocated to Chicago Heights, Illinois, alongside Twelfth Gate, Nasty Savage and Meliah Rage.[4]

[edit] A New Breed of Rebellion (2003−2004)

2003 would also see Katagory V perform at the world famous ProgPower USA[5] IV festival as a showcase band, sharing the stage with Prymary and Stride. Their second album, A New Breed of Rebellion was due for release at this time, but would be held back several months and not see an official release until January 2004 through Metal Ages Records. Cover art for the album would be supplied by German artist Rainer Kalwitz. Trevor Asire would make the decision to part ways with the band for unrelated personal matters in January 2004, and would be replaced by Marc Hanson.

A New Breed of Rebellion would be known among the bands fans as a misunderstood classic, as it was often criticized in the media as being thin, far to technical and less song oriented compared their debut album, Present Day.[6] In an attempt to redeem themselves amongst the media and some of their fans, Katagory V would make the decision to not promote the album with any live performances in 2004 and spend a majority of that year writing and rehearsing material for the follow up to A New Breed of Rebellion.[6] They entered the studio in October 2004 with producer Mike Fowkes and would spend the next six months recording the bands third album, The Rising Anger.

[edit] The Rising Anger (2004-2006)

Spring of 2005 would see Katagory V finish up the recording process of The Rising Anger, and bounce back with several live performances throughout the year, including and opening slot for Metal Church, an appearance at J. J. Kelly’s for the Chicago Powerfest with Imagika, Tad Morose and Morgana Lefay.[7] and the Monsters of Metal show in Salt Lake City, Utah with Helstar, Agent Steel and Avengers of Blood. This particular show would also have a special appearance by Leatherwolf guitarist Geoff Gayer, whom joined Katagory V on stage to perform the Leatherwolf song ‘The Calling’ and featured Ronny Munroe of Metal Church as the announcer for the event.[8]

At the beginning of 2006, Bassist Dustin Mitchell would be called upon to fill in on bass for legendary New York metal band Riot (band) at a show in Salt Lake City, due to original bassist Pete Perez having suffered from an accident that left him unable to perform at this show.[9] A few months later, the band would officially sign with Nightmare Records and release their 3rd album The Rising Anger. Cover artwork for the album would once again be handled by Rainer Kalwitz. This album would see Katagory V return to a more straight-ahead metal approach in their song writing, gaining several high ranking reviews and bring their name into the forefront of many new fans, while regaining the respect amongst many older fans that felt alienated by the previous album, A New Breed of Rebellion. The band would immediately began working on songs for a fourth album, and only stop long enough to perform a one-off show in Las Vegas, Nevada with 80’s Metal act Leatherwolf before heading into the studio to record the album Hymns of Dissension in the beginning of 2007.

[edit] Hymns of Dissension (2007-present)

Katagory V finalized the recoding of their 4th album Hymns of Dissension in the late spring of 2007 and would set out to perform several select shows, including co-headlining a show with Vicious Rumors and another with Agent Steel. They would also land a deal with Burning Star Records to release the album in Europe, which was a much needed accolade being that a majority of the band's fans were located in the European territories[10]. Famed Swedish artist Mattias Norén would also be hired to handle the cover art for Hymns of Dissension. The band would set a date for a CD release party in their hometown of Salt Lake City, Utah to coincide with the up coming release date of their fourth album, and stated they would be performing live at this event, however without long-time lead vocalist Lynn Allers. Katagory V would then announce Imagika front man Norman Skinner as a temporary fill-in for this show.[11] This announcement would leave many fans and media to speculate Allers’ status with the band, and would grow even more suspicious when Katagory V announced that they would also be performing on New Years Eve in Las Vegas, Nevada with Metal Church singer Ronny Munroe as his backing band.[12]

Katagory V would release their fourth album in October of 2007 to a huge applause from fans and media, but would still keep their silence concerning the bands affairs until January of 2008 when they would officially announce that vocalist Lynn Allers and guitarist Marc Hanson were no longer in the band. [13] Bassist and founding member Dustin Mitchell assured fans in an interview that the band would continue on.[14]

[edit] Members

[edit] Current members

  • Curtis Morrell - guitars (1999 - present)
  • Dustin Mitchell - bass guitar (1999 - present)
  • Matt Suiter - drums (1999 - present)

[edit] Former members

  • Lynn Allers - vocals (1999 - 2007)
  • Ryan Taylor - guitar (1999 - 2002)
  • Trevor Asire - guitar (2003 - 2004)
  • Marc Hanson - guitar (2004 - 2007)

[edit] Discography

[15]

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b Metal To Infinity interview 2006 [1]
  2. ^ All Music Biography [2]
  3. ^ Blabbermouth.net article June 20, 2002 [3]
  4. ^ Unrated Magazine article[4]
  5. ^ ProgPower USA
  6. ^ a b Hardrock Haven Interview February 2007 [5]
  7. ^ Blabbermouth.net article January 24, 2005 [6]
  8. ^ Metal Underground article [7]
  9. ^ Riot (band) on Rock Detector [8]
  10. ^ Metal Bulletin Fanzine, September 06, 2006, issue #2, Pg. 1-3
  11. ^ Blabbermouth.net article October, 15, 2007 [9]
  12. ^ BW&BK Magazine Feature [10]
  13. ^ Metal-Rules.com NAMM article [11]
  14. ^ Metal Temple Interview, November 11th, 2007 [12]
  15. ^ Katagory V discography on Allmusic [13]

[edit] External links