Biography

             Back in the days before Purgatory there was Aidan and Mat. These two went through a couple “bands” (ok drummers). First they jammed with Taylor Crowder a few times trying to get down “highway to hell” by AC/DC. After about 2 practices Aidan turned around and sold his drum kit, and since Taylor didn’t have one we were shit out of luck. After that, a friend Matt Holmgren acquired a drum kit and it was up again! For a good couple of months they jammed, actually completing “Highway to hell” and going through some other AC/DC tunes as well as jamming out random riffs and songs for fun. After that got shot to hell due to drummer problems, it was about a year until it rose again.
             That is when in gr.10 Aidan and Mat recruited Kory Chamberland as their drummer. They started to learn covers of Metallica’s “Seek and Destroy”, the Misfits “Die Die Die my Darling” and Iron Maidens “Losfer Words (Big Orra)” and realized they needed a bassist. With a recommendation by Matt Stewart, they acquired bassist Malcolm Rabb who Mat knew from hockey a few years back. After Malcolm came into the picture there was only one position to be filled, vocals. Before then Mat was throwing down some vocals for fun at practices but did not want to take lead vocal duty. After trying to find one for what seemed like forever, they finally tried out former “listener of rap” Josh Nowlan. After a few practices we realized he was the only one with balls to be lead vocalist and he did a pretty dam good job so it was sold, the first lineup of Purgatory was born. After a little while (and after mat showed the band a full demo of a song he wrote now called “Dreamcrusher”) the band decided that they were comfortable enough with each other and would go all originals.    

             For a few months the band worked on originals and recorded a quick demo of “Dreamcrusher” for someone looking to book us for a show (which never happened cause they thought we were too aggressive). So after writing 4 songs (with the working titles Dreamcrusher, #2,#3,and #4), the band was ready to gig. They booked their first show for May14th at Youth Unlimited. A couple practices before the show the band wrote (spontaneously) a short piece now known as “intro” which has opened every Purgatory show so far. The first show went great and only a few small things, after 3 shows at Youth Unlimited and one at St. Lawrence College they are where they are now...a new band.

             The summer was supposed to be a big time for Purgatory, new songs, many gigs, and recording of their first album. Unfortunately due to conflicting schedules Purgatory went on a hiatus for the summer...but not entirely. Even though the band never got together, Mat still had the ideas flying through his head and within the first month had written 3 FULL songs (guitar, drums, bass) and many parts of songs and recorded rough demos of each. About this time is where discussions of the new lineup came about. There are many reasons for this decision which will remain with Purgatory to save a lot of shit, but basically it was due and it is for the better.
             Now with the new lineup intact Purgatory is in full out preparation for their return. All new material will debut at the shows. No plans for recording have been established yet but look out for 2 albums by the end of 2007. That’s about it, and to quote Tom Araya of Slayer before introducing one of their songs from a gig in ‘86:

“You can come back, you will return, you will be reborn”  I think that sums it up nicely.

-\m/at

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