Separatist

Separatist is a technical death metal band hailing from Tasmania, Australia. The bands debut full length album - The Motionless Apocalypse - is a fine example of brutal death metal, with a huge 'punch in your face' sound, technical riffage and dominating growls. Separatist was originally formed in early 2003 by guitarist Zack Wiggins and ex-drummer Mark Cooper. They started jamming on the odd occasion, not really taking things too seriously. It wasnt long before they decided they would seek out to find the other key ingredients for making a great band, bass and vocals.

Separatist was originally formed in early 2003 by guitarist Zack Wiggins and ex-drummer Mark Cooper. They started jamming on the odd occasion, not really taking things too seriously. It wasnt long before they decided they would seek out to find the other key ingredients for making a great band, bass and vocals. After discussions with a good friend of Zack's, Matt Lowe decided to take up the position of vocals, and soon after came Dom Crawford who claimed the position of bass guitarist. As soon as possible the band started practicing almost once a week, covering Fear Factory songs (eg. Martyr, Self Bias Resistor, Edge Crusher and Replica) and attempting to write originals.

After a few performances at the their high school they were entered in the TasMusic Rock Challenge in mid 2003. With not much excitement for the crowd in the first two bands Separatist was the first to get some energy happening. Unfortunately they were marked down in the organisation category due to difficulties that arose with their school music teacher, and so they didn't make it through to the final stage. They continued to try and make original material, and also for a short time employed a second guitarist, Robert Jenkins (he didnt last long), but the group merely wasn't co-operating well enough to be productive, so, at the end of the year the members went their separate ways, with Zack being enrolled into a highly rated college with known success in the music area he was almost certain he would find a new band and continue the dream.

He soon met up with fellow guitarist Sam Dishington, who was also keen on starting a metal band. Zack contacted Separatist's old drummer Mark and shortly after they began composing originals. The original decision to have Sam singing whilst playing rhythm guitar had been discarded due to difficulty. After a few practices they had formed their first two original songs; Faceless and Splinter. But unfortunately progress was hampered by the lack of a bass player, a few alternative options were tried, but Chris Tanner, who had originally applied for the vocal position, was discovered to also be a rather talented bass guitarist. Although he was disappointed that he wasn't selected as the bands vocalist, he gladly took up the role of the bass player. With a few more practices they became confident with themselves and their material and entered their colleges rock challenge. They played their first 2 originals and did a cover of My Last Serenade by Killswitch Engage, and the crowd was more than suitably impressed.

Unfortunately, Separatist was still not entirely happy with the progress being made and the co-operation in the band was still not at a happy working level, so it was decided that changes had to be made. After hours of intensive debating Sam and Zack came to the decision that Mark was to be removed from the equation as he and Zack were not working well together, and so, Separatist once again were short a member, and so the search for another drummer began.

During this period Sam and Zack continued to write original material, and then Jared Foster (Solvent Intake) reccommended Matt Carter, who at that stage was playing drums in Iron Leather, an 80's metal band put together almost solely for the purpose of competing in the college rock challenge. Unfortunately word was circulating that Matt was less than dedicated to previous bands he had been in, and so there was a great deal of uncertainty with the initiation of Matt into the band. After a few jam sessions it was quite evident that Matt was a more than suitable drummer and was exactly what was needed to fill gap, and he was gladly taken on as a permenant member. Since Matts initiation, Separatist have been working painstakingly and has been making great progress in the composition of quality original material, and now have quite a variable cornucopia of original songs to suit the tastes of metalheads the world over.

In around mid 2005 while Separatist were awaiting a grant from the government, ex-bass player Dom Crawford was approached and consulted about picking up his guitar and being the 5th piece of Separatist. For a while he played along but after a few weeks he decided to go his own way and leave the band. After this incident, vocalist Sam made the decision to pick up his guitar and try his hand at being rhythm guitarist aswell as singer. After their first practice with Sam singing and playing guitar it was clear that a fifth member was not needed and that Separatist could remain the four-piece metal act they had been for the past year.

Towards the end of 2005, bass player Chris Tanner left the group for personal reasons, and the search for yet another member began. Thankfully it didnt take very long to find budding metal musician Luke Ranson to fill his place. Separatist were once again a whole band.

It was shortly after this time that it was again decided that a second guitarist was required rather than Sam playing guitar, so the search began, and after a long hard quest for a guitarist, Tom "Moteman" Hamilton (Solvent Intake) showed up on the scene and offered his services. This birthed a whole new era in the Separatist saga. After his induction into the group, Separatist played as support acts to many important metal bands, including Skinless, Alarum and I Killed The Prom Queen.

In March 2007, after a long Summer of working on new material and jamming in general, Separatist finally stepped into Red Planet studio to record the drum tracks for their at that time untitled debut release. Not until the end of November was the album, by then entitled "The Motionless Apocalpse", finally complete and mastered, ready for printing, but thankfully for all those involved, it was finally finished after almost a year of twiddling fingers and experimenting with recording techniques.

Unfortunately, in early 2008, while Separatist were waiting patiently for record company Reverb Productions (Malaysia), who had kindly stepped in and offered to help with the launching of the album, to finish printing and reproducing the CD, both Zack and Tom decided that they were no longer 'feeling it' with Separatist and decided to call it quits. And so began yet another search for new members. Thankfully, a close friend of Sams, who goes by the name of James Brady (ex. Corpse Carving) had previously expressed an interest in playing guitar in Separatist if a position had become vacant, and evidently, one had... Two even! But thankfully James was able to fill one of these spots, and it wasn't long before young musical talent Dave "Gilbo" Gilbert was put in contact with Separatist and filled the guitarist-less void that had previously plagued them.

From this point onwards, with the release of their debut album "The Motionless Apocalypse", set for the 12th of May, just around the corner, being asked to record a track for a compilation cd produced by Metal Asylum Records from Sydney, and being asked to headline the Chaos A.C.T. IV Extreme Metal Festival in Canberra on the 7th of June, things finally seemed to be looking up for Separatist. From this point, they could only imagine what 2008 might hold for them...