Chrome Waves – Band Of The Month – October 2021

After the closest vote yet, and arguably the strongest selection of finalists since we launched BOTM back in August 2020, CHROME WAVES have taken home this months accolade, pipping Winter to the top spot by just one vote!

CHROME WAVES was formed in the summer of 2010 by Jeff Wilson with The Gates Of Slumber’s Bob Fouts, after which The Atlas Moth’s Stavros Giannopoulos was brought into the mix in early 2011. The band self-produced their eponymous debut EP in July 2012. The vinyl quickly sold out in preorder and received critical acclaim and mentions outside the typical metal media, appearing in outlets like SPIN, Billboard, and others. They headlined a tour of the Midwest and East Coast US in August of that year, performing alongside Skeletonwitch, Morne, The Gates of Slumber, and others.

CHROME WAVES began writing their debut album in 2014, however, the members’ other projects kept the band from becoming the full-time project as planned. While the band remained mostly silent behind the scenes, Foreign Sounds reissued the debut EP on cassette in May 2015 and then reissued it on vinyl in September 2016.

After departing Wolvhammer and Abigail Williams in 2018, Jeff Wilson set out to finally make CHROME WAVES a full-time endeavour and brought in new guitarist/vocalist James Benson alongside the returning Bob Fouts on drums. With a renewed sense of inspiration, the revamped lineup immediately released several singles and their long-awaited debut full-length, A Grief Observed, on Wilson’s Disorder Recordings in early 2019. Less than eight months after the debut LP, the band issued The Cold Light Of Despair, collecting several new tracks and cover songs. In March of 2020, CHROME WAVES released a split album with Gridfailure, and while they were immersed in the recording of what would become their second LP, the band tragically lost their friend and bandmate, Bob Fouts.

The group again revamped itself, welcoming drummer Dustin Boltjes and delivered their most powerful work to date on their second LP, Where We Live, released via Disorder Recordings in September of 2020. Yet, while the album was still in its pre-release promotion phase, CHROME WAVES was already in the studio tracking album number three, The Rain Will Cleanse. The new album sees the lineup expanding to a four-piece, with the addition of bassist Zion Meagher.

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And what about second and third place?

In a very close second place comes dark rocker WINTER, for fans of the likes of HIM, 69 Eyes, Sisters of Mercy and The Mission.

Markus Winter released his first album INVISIBLE TEARS at the end of 1993 with the band CRY at the age of 19. The second album KALEIDOSCOPE OF DREAMS was released in 1995 before the band broke up a year later. Markus WINTER released a solo EP entitled JUST AN EMOTIONAL SUICIDE and shortly afterwards a compilation with the best songs from the three releases.

From 2002 he recorded two albums under the name HERTzTON. The music now went in the direction of NDH but with great NDW and Goth rock and even songwriter influences but with HEARTBREAK ROAD he returned to English rock music. A break to devote himself to other things followed and in 2016 he returned with the album THE FLYER, now simply called WINTER, releasing WE WEAR BLACK in 2019, which was very well received in the black scene.

The current line-up is Markus Winter (guitars, bass, vocals, keyboards), Hugo Ribeiro (drums), Michael Donner (keyboards, synthesizer) and Fredrik Pihl (guitars). “Pale Horse” will be released via DRAKKAR Entertainment in October.

Third place was awarded to Swiss melodic hard rockers KING ZEBRA.

King Zebra is Eric St. Michaels (Ex-China), Roman Lauer, Jerry Napitupulu, Manu Judge and Ben Grimm.

In early 2017 the band released a first song called Bad Idea followed by three Singles and an EP in 2019. Over the last three years, the band played shows such as Rock The Ring or Rock of Ages and opened up for bands like Lynyrd Skynyrd, Uriah Heep, Rose Tattoo just to name a few.

They toured through Eastern Europe and played sold-out shows abroad and in their home country Switzerland. In the pandemic year, 2020 the band spent three weeks in Gothenburg, Sweden and produced their upcoming album with Oscar Nilsson (Hank von Hell, Engel, We sell the dead). Also, they had a collaboration with Thundermother Singer Guernica Mancini which will be featured on the new record.

In 2021 King Zebra signed a record deal with Golden Robot Records and their sub-label Crusader Records.

Expect to hear all three bands lots across TotalRock in October and find out more about our previous winners if you are looking for some new band inspiration.