Chris Collins (singer)
Encyclopedia
Chris Collins is an American
guitarist
and songwriter
best known as the first vocalist of the progressive metal
band "Majesty" that later became Dream Theater
.
tribute band and the tape of him singing a Queensryche song that was recorded with the Majesty. This stuff attracted a lot of attention and there was a buzz going around that created enough notoriety for Collins to obtain the position in the band during the early days of Majesty. Collins performed without a PA system during the audition that Petrucci, Myung and Moore were impressed with his ability to hit high notes and sing louder than amplified instruments and drums. However, during that time, Collins was not a trained vocalist but soon realized his abilities and decided to give it a shot.
During the time where the band was looking for a vocalist, Collins was invited to join the band, then called Majesty, and accepted writing and recording songs for them. The Majesty Demos were the first demo tape of the band wherein Collins recorded vocals for six tracks. His later contributions included writing lyrics for two songs, Afterlife and Cry for Freedom though neither were ever recorded with his lyrics and Afterlife was later given new lyrics by his replacement, Charlie Dominici
.
, progressive metal
, and blackened death metal.
about some of his original metal. Chris was always confident about Tommy's sound and demanded ask for a disk of his material so that he could prepare some vocals for it and he did. Needing to establish a full band, he pieced together remnants of already dissolving band called "Guardians of the Flame" adding Tony Mattassa and Joey Lycon to the line up and so Winterspell was born. Following his passion for unusual and different sounding music Tommy was definitely the man for the job at the time, with his unusual beats. Collins latched on to that energy and made it his own with songs like "Well of souls", "The Eucharist", "Seriokill" and " Dust Becomes my Home". Some definite progress was made but soon after the band deteriorated due to personal differences. Collins and drummer Tony Mattassa forged on to many and several line up changes. Things went complicated, but due to their persistence they stuck it out together and plugged the life support back in with guitarist Pete Maglia of "Savior" and bass player Chris Kelly. Pete was a definite team player and true brother and initiated by learning some of Collins's music and they seemed to have a definite kick start and a new revival to the band. Pete literally was the savior at the time in the spring of 2005. But it wasn't until Dennis Sadlo joined that "Winterspell" truly became a fully dynamic and progressive band that transcended into something very significant.That line up gave us a little flavor of what we could become but towards the end of that season just after our first show and just as the band was truly kicking it off we ran into some problems that no one could foresee. so we had to wait another two years to recover, and it wasn't until the spring of "08" that we could continue where we left off .So in the spring of "08" with the same line up from "05" we continued with a new and stronger determination to make up for the lost time.Pumping out a new breed of "Winterspell" with power metal roots and a touch of Death. Thus the title "Touch of Death" the new "Winterspell" album being released in "2011".
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
guitarist
Guitarist
A guitarist is a musician who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselves on the guitar while singing.- Versatility :The guitarist controls an extremely...
and songwriter
Songwriter
A songwriter is an individual who writes both the lyrics and music to a song. Someone who solely writes lyrics may be called a lyricist, and someone who only writes music may be called a composer...
best known as the first vocalist of the progressive metal
Progressive metal
Progressive metal is a subgenre of heavy metal originating in the United Kingdom and North America in the late 1980s...
band "Majesty" that later became Dream Theater
Dream Theater
Dream Theater is an American progressive metal band formed in 1985 under the name Majesty by John Petrucci, John Myung, and Mike Portnoy while they attended Berklee College of Music in Massachusetts. They subsequently dropped out of their studies to further concentrate on the band that would...
.
The Majesty Days
Together with his fellow future Dream Theater members John Petrucci, John Myung and Kevin Moore, Collins grew up in Long Island. Those three entered the college to study music but on the other hand, Collins decided to join The United States Marine Corps due to his interest and abilities in target shooting.He was not enlisted in the USMC but however, he received a phone call from Petrucci about their planned recording for an album and the offered audition for the band while he was supposed to go to boot camp. This was contrary to the popular belief that Collins was never in a QueensrycheQueensrÿche
thumb|250px|right|Queensrÿche's classic line-up performing at the [[Sauna Open Air Metal Festival]] 2011 in [[Tampere]], [[Finland]]. Left to right: bass Eddie Jackson, lead vocals Geoff Tate, drums Scott Rockenfield and guitars Michael Wilton....
tribute band and the tape of him singing a Queensryche song that was recorded with the Majesty. This stuff attracted a lot of attention and there was a buzz going around that created enough notoriety for Collins to obtain the position in the band during the early days of Majesty. Collins performed without a PA system during the audition that Petrucci, Myung and Moore were impressed with his ability to hit high notes and sing louder than amplified instruments and drums. However, during that time, Collins was not a trained vocalist but soon realized his abilities and decided to give it a shot.
During the time where the band was looking for a vocalist, Collins was invited to join the band, then called Majesty, and accepted writing and recording songs for them. The Majesty Demos were the first demo tape of the band wherein Collins recorded vocals for six tracks. His later contributions included writing lyrics for two songs, Afterlife and Cry for Freedom though neither were ever recorded with his lyrics and Afterlife was later given new lyrics by his replacement, Charlie Dominici
Charlie Dominici
Charlie Dominici is a singer for progressive metal band Dominici.Perhaps he is best known as the second vocalist for the progressive metal band Dream Theater, having replaced Chris Collins and later being replaced by James LaBrie.-Biography:Dominici originally came into prominence as a member of...
.
Musical style
Collins was not a trained vocalist but decided to join the band. His usual musical styles differ from progressive rockProgressive rock
Progressive rock is a subgenre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s as part of a "mostly British attempt to elevate rock music to new levels of artistic credibility." John Covach, in Contemporary Music Review, says that many thought it would not just "succeed the pop of...
, progressive metal
Progressive metal
Progressive metal is a subgenre of heavy metal originating in the United Kingdom and North America in the late 1980s...
, and blackened death metal.
Later career
In 1994,Collins set forth to create a metal band he would call Winterspell. It was derived from a poem that he had written in the early 90's that he had set to acoustic music of the album Supercalafragilistic Extreoverdosus. But most of that album was lost due to a house fire, but a raw version of "Winterspell" still exists and he also recreated two of the songs that he now calls the "Mourning Star" Project. Amidst the difficult situation of cover bands and unoriginality, the local scene finally persuaded him to join forces with some local tributes such as "Snowblind","Never Enough","Scorched Earth","Speak of the Devil",and "Live After Death". While continuing to write songs,he thought of being a cover band artist but always the his heart was not prepared to follow the trend of recreating other peoples music and so he approached Guitarist Tommy Conforti from SnowblindSnowblind
Snowblind or Snow Blind may refer to:* Snow blindness or photokeratitis, a type of temporary eye damage caused by snow reflecting UV light- Literature :* Snowblind , a 1976 book by Robert Sabbag about cocaine smuggling...
about some of his original metal. Chris was always confident about Tommy's sound and demanded ask for a disk of his material so that he could prepare some vocals for it and he did. Needing to establish a full band, he pieced together remnants of already dissolving band called "Guardians of the Flame" adding Tony Mattassa and Joey Lycon to the line up and so Winterspell was born. Following his passion for unusual and different sounding music Tommy was definitely the man for the job at the time, with his unusual beats. Collins latched on to that energy and made it his own with songs like "Well of souls", "The Eucharist", "Seriokill" and " Dust Becomes my Home". Some definite progress was made but soon after the band deteriorated due to personal differences. Collins and drummer Tony Mattassa forged on to many and several line up changes. Things went complicated, but due to their persistence they stuck it out together and plugged the life support back in with guitarist Pete Maglia of "Savior" and bass player Chris Kelly. Pete was a definite team player and true brother and initiated by learning some of Collins's music and they seemed to have a definite kick start and a new revival to the band. Pete literally was the savior at the time in the spring of 2005. But it wasn't until Dennis Sadlo joined that "Winterspell" truly became a fully dynamic and progressive band that transcended into something very significant.That line up gave us a little flavor of what we could become but towards the end of that season just after our first show and just as the band was truly kicking it off we ran into some problems that no one could foresee. so we had to wait another two years to recover, and it wasn't until the spring of "08" that we could continue where we left off .So in the spring of "08" with the same line up from "05" we continued with a new and stronger determination to make up for the lost time.Pumping out a new breed of "Winterspell" with power metal roots and a touch of Death. Thus the title "Touch of Death" the new "Winterspell" album being released in "2011".