Created in 1988 by guitarist Paul Flynn, Vital Remains’ first line-up of guitarist Butch Machado, vocalist Mike Flynn, bassist Tom Supkow, and drummer Chris Dupont. Searching for better musicians, they added guitarist Tony Lazaro and vocalist Jeff Gruslin to the band. From there the band became a driving force in the local death metal scene. Lazaro and Flynn shared the writing duties in these early days.
Soon after their formation, the band released a pair of demos (1989’s Reduced to Ashes and 1990’s Excruciating Pain) which led to a contract with French label Thrash Records, who in turn released the single The Black Mass in 1991. Shortly after the release of the single, which proved to be the band’s first and only release with the label, the band signed to Peaceville’s subsidiary, Deaf Records. A pair of releases followed for thePeaceville label, 1992’s Let Us Pray and 1995’s Into Cold Darkness. However, after poor distribution and a lack of promotion from the label, the band requested that their contract be dissolved. At this stage, in 1997, the band’s founder, Paul Flynn left Vital Remains.
Two years later the band signed a two-album deal with French label Osmose Records. In order to complete the line-up . Dave Suzuki was brought in. This led to the release of 1997’s ‘Forever Underground’. VITAL REMAINS toured throughout the states in 1997 and overseas this year being held reign as ‘The Fassest Metal band on Stage with Unbelievable Wind-mills of satanic fury” by Metal Maniacs Magazine. and 2000’s Dawn of the Apocalypse, the latter of which marked a significant step towards a new, heavier sound which would become more prominent on their following albums.
Vocalist Thorns (Timothy Donovan), who had handled vocal duties on Dawn of the Apocalypse, was soon fired from the band. Joe Lewis explained in an interview, “We liked what he had to offer as a vocalist but we were not happy at all with his activities outside the band that included drugs and alcohol. We did not want to let these problems interfere with our band so we fired him. But we were happy with his performance on the album. He did do a great job with the vocals.” Thorns’ dismissal from the band led to the addition in 2003 of Deicide frontman Glen Benton on vocals along with original member Tony Lazaro on guitars and Dave Suzuki on drums, and lead guitars. The band’s first album with Benton, 2003’s Dechristianize, was released to much critical acclaim. The band’s next album, released in 2007, was Icons of Evil. Vital Remains also put out its first live DVD, Evil-Death-Live, the same year, in Europe on 9 July, and in the US on 31 July through Polish label Metal Mind Productions.
Since Dave Suzuki’s dismissal from the band, Vital Remains have been touring endlessly with frequent lineup changes for five years, with original member Tony Lazaro and bassist Gaeton “Gator” Collier being the only two members remaining in the band and keeping it as active as possible. Tony has stated in several interviews in 2012-2013 that he’s been writing lots of new songs and has “two albums worth of material”. In October 2014, Vital Remains announced they were seeking a lead guitarist, again delaying new album’s release to 2015, and were also joined by new drummer James Payne (ex Hours of Penance).
Toronto based Dean Arnold age 18, of Primal Frost ( Vocalist and Guitarist) has become the lead guitarist of the band. Vital Remains will be on tour from May 7th through April 19 with lead guitarist Dean Arnold. The band’s tour will be at places such as Chile, Brazil and U.S.A.
The band has started the writing process and will record the new album after their European summer tour. The new work should be published in October/November 2015.