Biography
Originally formed in the early 90's, Verm grew out of the small underground scene in North Wales. Guitarists Mandrake and Bane fought very hard to get themselves heard in a generally apathetic crowd - not just as an audience, but with fellow band members. Eventually they got stable enough to record a 'proper' demo, called Ravaged By Fire and Axe, in 1999. This 5 track demo showcased clearly the bands influences with Slayer-esque thrash riffs, tied together with a Bolt-Thrower style Death metal feel. This gained them a semi-stable line-up (the vocals were handled by Mandrake for the recording, but not live at this point), with a few gigs at the local University in Bangor.
Growing increasingly frustrated with their surroundings, Mandrake and Bane headed off to Manchester, enough to see not only a stable line-up, in the form of bass player Nikolas and drummer The Overlord, but a second Demo, and extensive touring. The peak leading to various high profile gigs, including support for bands like I-Remain and Gutworm. They even had a track showcased on an unsigned compilation on leading metal magazine Terrorizer.
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This second demo showed a lot more progression from those early days, keeping the aggression of old, but mixing in more melody, and black metal atmospherics.
Even though their career was seemingly on the rise, it was abruptly cut short mid 2006, when Mandrake finally became disillusioned with the lack of achievement gained for all his (and the bands) hard work.
Hopefully a band fondly remembered in times to come as one of those bands you always wished made it big.
Biography text from Last.fm, available under CC BY-SA.