The first seeds of what would grow into The Green Evening Requiem took root between the years 1997 and 1999 when guitarist Joe Colasante and drummer Evan Madden began recording basement demos of original songs in a black metal style. The first worthy offering took the form of an un-released two song demo in 1999, under the band name "Last Embrace" (a name long since claimed by several bands of varying consequence.) The demo included the songs Hopelessness and Beyond the Horizon. These two songs were re-recorded during the summer of 2001 along with Severance and Dawn, again under the name "Last Embrace," as the Aftermath of Lost Dreams demo, a recording that has never been officially released. The conditions of the sessions were grueling, and the studio sub-par, but the then epic-length Severance, and the rock/metal conglomerate Dawn proved to have staying power and became staples of The Green Evening Requiem catalogue. The self-discouraging nature of the scenario so far explained led the young duo to keep the recordings to themselves.
Over the next two years more demo recording were made, most un-finished, and none released. The sound of the band evolved and many songs were written. Good friend Nick Hileman joined in on some writing sessions to create the as-of-yet unreleased A Poison Tree/Affliction suite, as well as the song Tomorrow is Just Another Today.
Shane Madden was asked to join his brother Evan and friend Joe as bassist for the band in early 2003. The name The Green Evening Requiem was built by the trio as a collage of descriptors for the sound and atmosphere of the band. Over the course of the year 2003, the trio rehearsed regularly, wrote material, and made many rehearsal tapes.
In the winter of 2004, the band entered the studio to produce the first official recording of The Green Evening Requiem, the widely distributed Winter 2004 Demo. Nick Hileman returned to lay down some rhythm guitar tracks, lend a hand with production, and most importantly, to sing clean vocals on Severance and Tomorrow is Just Another Today. Percussionist Nick Podgurski, of the Baltimore rock band Yukon (then Economist,) contributed a Moog track to the song Dawn, as well as some overall production help. Furthermore, it was during the Winter 2004 sessions that Shane emerged as the obvious choice for lead vocals for The Green Evening Requiem.
The Green Evening Requiem began independently distributing the Winter 2004 Demo in May of 2004. Between the months of May and November, the band released roughly 1,800 free CD-R copies of the recording. During this period the band began to receive many positive reviews, including one written by Dave Brenner of Metal Maniacs.
In July of 2004, The Green Evening Requiem performed their first live shows throughout the Philadelphia area as a three-piece. The initial live experiences were especially thrilling for the band members, who had been working on their music for years, completely hidden away from the public eye.
The first ever show for The Green Evening Requiem was held at an all ages venue in Northeast Philadelphia called Club HP (now closed,) on July 3rd, 2004. Throughout July and August 2004 show were held at The Rusty Nail, The Red Stallion, and Big Nick's Saloon. The Green Evening Requiem performed as a trio during the first month of live shows, and would do so again in the future.
In August of 2004 Chris Woods, a good friend of The Green Evening Requiem, joined the band on guitar and clean vocals. Evan and Chris knew each other from playing in Chris' band Spindle. Chris immediately jumped in to playing live with the band and contributed several new riffs to some of the songs.
View an archive of shows from July 2004 to April 2005.
During the autumn of 2004 The Green Evening Requiem began recording a follow-up demo to the so far successful Winter 2004 Demo. The production was to be decidedly demo quality ("necro",) as the band had determined that it would be the last ever demo recording they would release. Throughout the autumn and well into the winter of 2005 Evan recorded the songs toeight tracks on minimal gear with the help of Chris Woods, and friend Tony Dunst. Seven songs were recorded and five were released as the final product, including the songs Sacrament and On Salted Earth, both of which Chris had a major role in shaping. During the recording sessions of winter 2005 Chris Woods made massive contributions to the bands music in the form of vocal melodies, lyrics, and lush guitar atmospheres which perfectly complimented those of Joe Colasante. The five song self-titled demo was pressed on a CD along with the tracks from the Winter 2004 Demo and was released to the public in the summer of 2005. The CD is almost an hour long and consists of nine tracks.
Reviews of the self-titled demo can be found on MySpace.
In the winter of 2005 The Green Evening Requiem and their peers Aperion team up for a string of shows collectively known as the Green Evening/Aperion Locality Extravaganza. A split promo CD-R was distributed featuring one studio cut and one live cut from Aperion and two Green Evening rough mixes from the then up-coming self-titled demo. The two Aperion tracks can be found on their MySpace page.
In February of 2005 Chris Woods left The Green Evening Requiem to have more time to pursue Spindle and his other interests. He left the band on good terms and as a close friend. Chris is a recording engineer and producer. He has also worked as a song writer for Warner Bros Records. Contact him if you are interested in his services.
Long time friend Joe Dougherty, known simply as "Chet," joined The Green Evening Requiem on guitar. After three rehearsals, Chet played his first Green Evening show on March 20th, 2005 at Bloomfield Ave Cafe and Stage in Montclair, NJ with Shadows of Dawn, Soniminos, and Hexen. Many shows followed over the next year with this line-up. During this time a few new and exciting songs were written, but none survived the turmoil that followed.
In November 2005, The Green Evening Requiem performed at the Stone & Steel Festival in northern Massachusetts. Soon after the band was offered a slot on the ill-fated Death In The Forest Fest in New York, summer 2006. The offer was shortly thereafter revoked due to circumstances not worth mentioning.
After a couple distribution offers were made, The Green Evening Requiem signed a deal with Toronto's Krankenhaus Records to distribute the self-titled demo throughout Canada and around the world via The End Records on-line. Krankenhaus is run by David Gold of the highly acclaimed band Wood of Ypres, who is one of the bands' greatest supporters and allies to this day.
Throughout 2005 Chet performed many live shows with The Green Evening Requiem, creating some of the most intense and volatile sets Green Evening ever pulled-off. Some live footage from this era will be made available soon.
In March 2006, Joe Winiarski played his first show with The Green Evening Requiem, filling in on guitar for Joe Colasante, at Jaxx, in Virginia, in support of Green Carnation and Beyond the Embrace. Soon afterwards, Joe Winiarski joined the band as full-time keyboardist, making The Green Evening Requiem a five piece. He was from then-on refered to as "J3," being the third Joe to be a member of The Green Evening Requiem. This was the most formidable and effective line-up to date. The Green Evening Requiem quintet performed together for six months.
Towards the end of this period, in late summer 2006, The Green Evening Requiem recorded a promo version of the song If Ever So, previously un-released, and packaged the track on a promotional CD-R with live cuts of The Shadow Rift, and Face The Insurmountable.
After the recording of the afore-mentioned live tracks, at The Barbary in Philadelphia, on September 16, 2006, Joe Dougherty quit the band to pursue other interests and to take a break from music.
The remaining four members, Joe Colasante, Evan Madden, Shane Madden, and Joe Winiarski spent October and November 2006 regrouping and adapting the Green Evening material for a four piece line-up. The music has become from this point on much more keyboard-heavy, as Joe Winiarski filled the space of Chet's guitar with keys and theremin. Joe Winarski plays keys, guitars, and vocalizes.
In December of 2006, The Green Evening Requiem returned to the world to perform shows in Philadelphia, Ontario, and Virginia. The band almost imploded completely due to a tumultuous and trying experince in Toronto in late December, 2006. After surrmounting incredible border opposition, the band made it to Toronto and enjoyed a night of celebration, only to find out the next morning that the Black X-Mass Fest had been cancelled. Thanks to the individual determintation of each band member, and the unflagging support of David Gold, the band made it home, eventually recovered, and became stronger than before.
During the winter of 2007 it became obvious the band that it was time to record an album. The band spent five months on writting sessions, rehearsals, and pre-production demos. New songs were written, and old unfinished songs were completed. After a string of strong live shows, the band began recording their first album in August of 2007.
Founding guitarist Joe Colasant left the band during the fall of 2007. He no longer shared the same goals as the rest of the band.
The remaining three members played steady live shows from October 2007 through April 2008. Joe Winiarski moved from keyboard to full-time guitar.
The Green Evening Requiem began recording an album in late July of 2007. The recording process slowed down dramatically a few months in due to internal band problems. The final tracks were laid down in August of 2008.
A rough mix of the song Affliction was released on a compilation called Anthrosphere Volume 1, in August of 2008, on Anthropic Records.
Meanwhile, Chris Grigg of Woe joined The Green Evening Requiem in the autumn of 2008.
The mixing sessions for the album were also slow and tedious. Joe Winiarski left the band in January of 2009 due to severe disagreements. Evan Madden re-mixed the album from scratch during the month of February 2009, to be released on Friday March 13th, 2009. The album is called Bastards of Atlas.
The Green Evening Requiem wrote the second album, Decomposer, between January and October 2009, with some time off in between so the members could tour with Woods of Ypres and Woe. The band entered the studio on December 27th, 2009, worked one day a week, and finished the album on March 14th, 2010, one year after the release of Bastards of Atlas.
Decomposer will be released during April of 2010 by Anthropic Records. The Green Evening Requiem returned to the live stage during the early winter of 2010, and is currently booking for the remainder of 2010, 2011, and all subsequent years.
- updated 03/17/10
Reviews of the self-titled demo can be found here. Reviews of the Winter 2004 demo can be found here.
Note: More links to audio samples, photos, and print images will be added as soon as possible, or never, whichever comes first.