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Midnight Reign!!!

"Fascinating." --All Access Magazine

"Hypnotizing mix of heavy guitar, classical influences,and L.S.D influenced melody...
one of the most original and entertaining
cd's of the year!"
-- Somber Magazine


The Names have been omitted to protect the guilty

Formed in upstate New York, Midnight Reign was originally conceived as a compromise between fifteen year old founder Joseph Michael's two main passions; classical composition and heavy guitar driven metal. With no formal musical training aside from cross referencing sheet music, and recordings Joseph learned to read and write music on his own. Eventually having no luck in either upstate NY, or New York City finding musicians with similar ambition and taste in music, he took his last fifty dollars and jumped on a greyhound bus to Hollywood...

Reforming Midnight Reign in Hollywood would prove even more trying than anyone could have thought possible. The first incarnation was plagued by problems, among other things, the drummer molested the bassist in his sleep, was a fecalphelliac, and allegedly raped an under age girl in the guitarists bed. Forced to find another drummer the band quickly put together a short demo to give to prospective replacements. With a new drummer on board the band moved into a rehearsal studio, and that's where things started to fall apart. The replacement drummer, needed to leave the band due to an incident involving a drunk Mexican guy, a half gallon of Jack Daniels, and a very used box of condoms. The final straw was when the bassist, a girl from the Czech. Republic found Jesus. Drugs had started to really take over the remaining member's lives, and things were spiraling out of control....

After a few years of writing and trying to put a band back together Joseph decides to finally do what he should have all along. He gets some money together and decides to record and put out an album himself, using all the material written during the early days of the drug addled Hollywood band. All the songs were written on acid, among other things, and the song The Mourning After... was written after taking a Snapple bottle full of liquid l.s.d, and being awake for six straight days. The album to be titled "Never Look Back" is really just a dream sequence about a musician on acid, who tries to commit suicide while tripping by filling a bathtub, and slitting his wrists. Consequently he passes out from exhaustion in the water, and awakes still high thinking he is a ghost...

He then walks around thinking he is invincible, and fulfills every depraved, desire he could never get away with while alive... Slowly as the drugs wear off, he becomes vulnerable and human again, and realizes that he is alive after all. The worst is behind him... For now.

The album includes a full string arrangement on some songs, thanxxx to violinist Alma Cielo, and Cellist Starla Baker. The drums and percussion are the strongest that this band has ever had with the inhuman Adam Gust sitting in on the drum throne.

The band now has it's first stable live lineup with Mark Dayton on bass, Paul Sternquist on Guitar, Joseph Michael on voice, keyboard, and guitar, and Alma Cielo, and Starla Baker Providing live strings.

The band is sponsored by Coffin Case,has distribtion with Hot Topic, and has been featured on many national and international, radio shows catering to the gothic, metal and alternative, underground including Metal Edge, Metal Maniacs, nad Gothic Beauty. Metal Revolution's Simona Alvisi writes "I have never in my time working as a writer for Metal Revolution heard a disc so good!","This album is an absolute must have."

Midnight Reign has also been consistently ranking between #20 and #25 (out of tens of thousands of bands) on The Myspace Music Indie-Gothic Charts, and has over 40,000 friends, and a mailing list in the thousands. Right now the band is planning a small regional tour and hopes to stir up enough interest, and support to tour nationally by the end of the year. With all the interest the international community has shown, especially in Germany, the U.K., and Japan, this band won't be able to sit still for long. www.midnightreign.com