Prototype (band)
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| Prototype | |
|---|---|
| Origin | Los Angeles, California |
| Genre(s) | Progressive metal Thrash metal |
| Years active | 1994 - present |
| Label(s) | Nightmare Records, WWIII Music/AMC, Sublevel Records, Massacre Records, MetalAxe Records |
| Website | PrototypeOnline.com |
| Members | |
| Kragen Lum, Vince Levalois, Kirk Scherer |
|
| Former members | |
| Pat Magrath, Damion Ramirez, Mike Bear, Steve Gambina |
|
Prototype is a progressive metal/thrash metal band from the United States, with at least two of its members from Los Angeles.
Contents |
[edit] History
[edit] 1990s
In 1994, Kragen Lum (guitar) and Vince Levalois (vocals, guitar) left the LA band "Psychosis", and decided to form a new band, Prototype.
They found a new drummer (Damion Ramirez) and bassist (Steve Gambina), and began recording new compositions of their critically acclaimed "Seed" demo under the name Prototype. The cassette contained only three songs, "Seed", "Shine" and "Dead Of Jericho". All three tracks later appeared on two more of their CDs. Critics worldwide praised the demo and even referred to it as a benchmark for today's progressive metal.
In 1997, Lum, Levalois, new drummer Pat Magrath (now a permanent member of the group) and new bassist Mike Bear recorded their next CD as Prototype - "Cloned".
In 1999, the band found a new bassist, Kirk Scherer.
[edit] 2000s
However, in 2002, Pat Magrath left the band, the band has still not appointed a replacement drummer. In 2002 the band appeared on "Phantom Lords - A Tribute to Metallica" covering Metallica's song "Battery".
In 2003, five songs from their album Trinity were featured on the soundtrack for the game True Crime: Streets of LA.
In 2004, an instrumental version of the song "Probe" was featured on the MTX Mototrax video game.
In 2006, the song "Synthespian", featured on Continuum appeared on Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam for Nintendo's Wii gaming platform.
On the band's latest CD "Continuum", original drummer Damion Ramirez handled the drumming with Pat Magrath guesting on one track. The song "The Way it Ends", off Continuum, is featured in the video game Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock. It is considered one of the more difficult songs in the game due to its extremely fast on-off sixteenth note streaks and complex chords and note-to-chord transitions, which tire out the player's strumming arm extremely quickly. There is also a moderately difficult hammer-on/pull-off section during the guitar solo.[citation needed]
Kragen, Vince and Kirk were endorsed by Jackson Guitars for two years and appeared in the product catalogs. Kragen's custom seven string Soloist was featured in the catalog's custom shop guitars.
[edit] Discography
| Album Cover | Date of Release | Title | Label | US sales |
 |
July 28, 1995 | Seed | Self | |
 |
1998 | Cloned | Sublevel Records | |
 |
2002 | Trinity | WWIII Music/AMC (U.S.) Massacre Records (Europe) |
|
 |
May 23, 2006 | Continuum | Nightmare Records (U.S.) Metal Axe Records (Europe) |
