Spastic Ink
Encyclopedia
Spastic Ink is a progressive technical metal
Progressive metal
Progressive metal is a subgenre of heavy metal originating in the United Kingdom and North America in the late 1980s...

 band from the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

.

History

Spastic Ink was formed in 1993 by guitarist Ron Jarzombek
Ron Jarzombek
Ron Jarzombek is an American guitarist best known for his work with Austin, Texas progressive metal trailblazers WatchTower, '90s madcap trio, Spastic Ink, technical extreme metal band Blotted Science, featuring Cannibal Corpse bassist Alex Webster and Obscura drummer Hannes Grossmann, and most...

 of Watchtower
Watchtower (band)
WatchTower is an American progressive metal band based in Austin, Texas. The band were influenced by late 1970s progressive rock and acts such as Rush and UK as well as the burgeoning New Wave of British Heavy Metal...

 after recovering from multiple hand surgeries that had sidelined him, unable to play, for a couple of years. He would be joined by brother Bobby Jarzombek
Bobby Jarzombek
Bobby "Wire" Jarzombek is a heavy metal/progressive metal drummer and best known for his work with Halford, Sebastian Bach and Riot. He has also recorded and toured with Fates Warning, Arch / Matheos, Iced Earth, Rob Rock, Spastic Ink, and Juggernaut, among others.-Biography:Bobby Jarzombek was...

 on drums and bass player Pete Perez (both of Riot
Riot (band)
Riot is an American heavy metal band founded in New York City in 1975 by guitarist Mark Reale. Reaching a peak in popularity in the early 80s, the band has continued a long-running successful career....

 at the time). The trio soon cut a demo consisting of 11 songs which was shopped to various labels in hopes of landing a record deal and the necessary funds to re-cut the material properly. However, the band's all-instrumental highly complex progressive metal was deemed 'not commercially viable' and no deals were forthcoming. Eventually, the band was able to secure a licensing agreement with German-based indie label Dream Circle Records for the release of the original demos, slightly cleaned up, 'as is'. Ink Complete
Ink Complete (album)
Ink Complete is progressive instrumental band Spastic Ink's debut album, released in 1997 via Germany's Dream Circle label and re-issued in 2000 on EclecticElectric, with 25 minutes of 'work tapes' added as bonus tracks.-Track listing:...

was finally released to rave reviews in the spring of 1997. Only months later, Dream Circle went bankrupt and the band lost out on several thousand dollars in royalties. Ron Jarzombek would re-issue the album on his own EclecticElectric label in 2000 with 25 minutes of 'work tapes' added as bonus material.

Work on a follow-up would prove tedious as Ron was forced to expand the original 3-piece line-up due to Bobby and Pete's commitments with Riot
Riot (band)
Riot is an American heavy metal band founded in New York City in 1975 by guitarist Mark Reale. Reaching a peak in popularity in the early 80s, the band has continued a long-running successful career....

 and Bobby joining Halford
Halford (band)
Halford is a heavy metal band formed in 1999 by Rob Halford, the lead vocalist for Judas Priest. Halford formed the band to return to his heavy metal roots...

, the new band formed by former Judas Priest
Judas Priest
Judas Priest are an English heavy metal band from Birmingham, England, formed in 1969. The current line-up consists of lead vocalist Rob Halford, guitarists Glenn Tipton and Richie Faulkner, bassist Ian Hill, and drummer Scott Travis. The band has gone through several drummers over the years,...

 vocalist Rob Halford
Rob Halford
Robert John Arthur "Rob" Halford is an English singer-songwriter, who is best known as the lead vocalist for the Grammy Award-winning heavy metal band Judas Priest. He is nicknamed the "Metal God" as a tribute to his influence on metal, and after the Judas Priest song of the same name from 1980's...

 in 2000. Both Sean Reinert
Sean Reinert
Sean Reinert is the drummer of Cynic and Æon Spoke. He is known for his technical, original and creative drumming technique....

 (Cynic
Cynic (band)
Cynic is an American progressive rock band, incorporating experimental music, alternative, metal and jazz fusion elements, founded in Miami, Florida and currently based in Los Angeles, California. Their first album, Focus, released on September 14, 1993, is widely regarded as a landmark release of...

, Gordian Knot
Gordian Knot
The Gordian Knot is a legend of Phrygian Gordium associated with Alexander the Great. It is often used as a metaphor for an intractable problem solved by a bold stroke :"Turn him to any cause of policy,...

) and Asgeir Mickelson
Asgeir Mickelson
Asgeir Mickelson is a Norwegian musician, artist, photographer and music reviewer. Although primarily a drummer, Mickelson has stated that he considers himself a musician above a drummer, and is also a guitarist and bassist....

 (Spiral Architect
Spiral Architect
Spiral Architect is a Norwegian progressive metal band from Oslo, Norway. They have recorded one acclaimed demo and one album, A Sceptic's Universe, since they began in 1993, as well as a Fates Warning cover "A Prelude to Ruin" for the tribute album Through Different Eyes - A Tribute to Fates Warning...

) were set to perform drum tracks at certain times, but backed out due to conflicts with other projects. With the album in limbo, Ron Jarzombek
Ron Jarzombek
Ron Jarzombek is an American guitarist best known for his work with Austin, Texas progressive metal trailblazers WatchTower, '90s madcap trio, Spastic Ink, technical extreme metal band Blotted Science, featuring Cannibal Corpse bassist Alex Webster and Obscura drummer Hannes Grossmann, and most...

 turned his attention to doing a solo album, Solitarily Speaking of Theoretical Confinement, utilizing programmed drums and playing everything himself. Eventually, Ron would re-focus on Spastic Ink, with both Dave Penna and Jeff Eber of Dysrhythmia contributing drum tracks and brother Bobby cutting the rest of the tracks in between work with Halford. Jarzombek also got contributions from fellow guitarist Marty Friedman
Marty Friedman (guitarist)
Marty Friedman is a guitarist, well known for his tenure as the lead/rhythm guitarist for thrash metal band Megadeth, which lasted almost a decade...

 (ex-Megadeth
Megadeth
Megadeth is an American heavy metal band from Los Angeles, California which was formed in 1983 by guitarist/vocalist Dave Mustaine, bassist Dave Ellefson and guitarist Greg Handevidt, following Mustaine's expulsion from Metallica. The band has since released 13 studio albums, three live albums, two...

), Pain of Salvation
Pain of Salvation
Pain of Salvation is a Swedish progressive rock band featuring Daniel Gildenlöw, who is the lyricist, chief composer, guitarist, and lead vocalist. Their sound is characterised by powerful, accentuated guitar work, broad vocal range, abrupt switching between heavy and calm passages, intense...

 vocalist Daniel Gildenlöw
Daniel Gildenlöw
Daniel Gildenlöw is a Swedish musician and songwriter. He is best known as a multi-instrumentalist and vocalist for Pain of Salvation, a Swedish progressive metal band. In the band, he is the main songwriter, lead guitar player, and the mastermind behind each album's concept...

, Watchtower
Watchtower (band)
WatchTower is an American progressive metal band based in Austin, Texas. The band were influenced by late 1970s progressive rock and acts such as Rush and UK as well as the burgeoning New Wave of British Heavy Metal...

 band mates Jason McMaster and Doug Keyser, bassists Pete Perez, Sean Malone
Sean Malone
Sean Malone is an American musician who plays primarily fretless bass guitar and Chapman stick. However, Malone also plays piano, keyboards, and guitar. He is most well known as a member of the progressive band Cynic.- Biography :...

 (Cynic
Cynic (band)
Cynic is an American progressive rock band, incorporating experimental music, alternative, metal and jazz fusion elements, founded in Miami, Florida and currently based in Los Angeles, California. Their first album, Focus, released on September 14, 1993, is widely regarded as a landmark release of...

), Ray Riendeau (Halford
Halford
Halford may refer to:Places:*Halford, Shropshire, England*Halford, Warwickshire, England*Halford Island, Nunavut, CanadaPeople:* Alison Halford , Welsh former senior police officer and politician...

, Machines of Loving Grace
Machines of Loving Grace
Machines of Loving Grace was an industrial rock band from Tucson, Arizona.Named for a Richard Brautigan poem, they formed in 1989. The original lineup consisted of Scott Benzel , Stuart Kupers , and Mike Fisher , with Brad Kemp added shortly thereafter...

), and Michael Manring
Michael Manring
Michael Manring is an American electric bassist from the San Francisco Bay Area, .-Biography:...

 (Michael Hedges
Michael Hedges
Michael Alden Hedges was an American composer, Acoustic guitarist and singer-songwriter.-Background:...

, Attention Deficit), as well as keyboardists Jens Johansson
Jens Johansson
Jens Ola Johansson is a Swedish power metal keyboardist and pianist. He is notable for his high-speed neoclassical and fusion style.-Biography:...

 (Stratovarius
Stratovarius
Stratovarius are a Finnish power metal band that formed in 1984. Since their formation they have released 13 studio albums and one live album. Along with Helloween, Blind Guardian, Rhapsody of Fire and Gamma Ray, Stratovarius are considered one of the leading groups of the power metal and symphonic...

), Jimmy Pitts (Scholomance
Scholomance
The Scholomance was fabled to be a legendary school of black magic run by the Devil, supposedly located near an unnamed lake in the mountains south of the city of Hermannstadt in the Transylvania region of Romania.-In folklore:...

, The Fractured Dimension), and David Bagsby
David Bagsby
Early in his career, Bagsby released The Aviary , an album that used conventional instruments to reproduce bird songs captured on digitized field recordings."People can basically hear anything from 20 hertz to 20 megahertz...

. Ink Compatible
Ink Compatible (album)
Ink Compatible is the second full-length album from Spastic Ink. It was released in 2004 after a four year process. The album again features core members Ron Jarzombek on guitar, Bobby Jarzombek on drums, and Pete Perez on bass alongside a plethora of guest musicians...

was released in 2004 via Jarzombek's EclecticElectric label and Avalon/Marquee in Japan.

Musical style

Spastic Ink specialize in very complex instrumental fusion metal by using uncommon time signatures, frequent changes of time signatures and melodies that follow no particular scale. For example, in the song A Wild Hare, musical themes follow certain events that happen in the Disney movie Bambi
Bambi
Bambi is a 1942 American animated film directed by David Hand , produced by Walt Disney and based on the book Bambi, A Life in the Woods by Austrian author Felix Salten...

. What makes the song very uncommon is that the guitar (and sometimes bass) frequently play the sounds of the spoken dialogue in the movie, instead of using any of the original score. This tends to make the piece sound cacophonous, especially if the listener is unaware of the connection between the song and the movie.

Albums

  • Ink Complete
    Ink Complete (album)
    Ink Complete is progressive instrumental band Spastic Ink's debut album, released in 1997 via Germany's Dream Circle label and re-issued in 2000 on EclecticElectric, with 25 minutes of 'work tapes' added as bonus tracks.-Track listing:...

    (Dream Circle 1997), (EclecticElectric 2000)
  • Ink Compatible
    Ink Compatible (album)
    Ink Compatible is the second full-length album from Spastic Ink. It was released in 2004 after a four year process. The album again features core members Ron Jarzombek on guitar, Bobby Jarzombek on drums, and Pete Perez on bass alongside a plethora of guest musicians...

    (ElectricElectric / Marquee/Avalon 2004)

External links

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