About Conducting From The Grave

Conducting From The Grave were formed in the fall of 2003, from members and ex-members of local Sacramento bands With Passion, Promising Tomorrow and others. Their musical style has been described as fusing together elements of metalcore/deathcore with progressive death metal, resulting in a very ''catchy'' and yet technical sound. Upon being asked the question ''How did the name Conducting From the Grave come about?'', Jeffrey Morgan replied: ''It's kind of a strange story, actually. When we first started out we booked a couple of local shows and we didn't have a band name to play under yet. Our drummer Greg, and his friend who was our original singer, were taking a piano class at a community college. The teacher was real crazy about people washing their hands before touching the keyboards and she would say; "If you don't wash your hands, soon you'll be conducting from the grave." They liked it and somehow it stuck. We hated it at the time, but we used it and it stuck with us. Now we like the name, it's kind of weird.'' By mid 2004 a solid line-up had been established: John Abernathy on guitar, Gregory Donnelly (formerly of Promising Tomorrow) on drums, Jeffrey Morgan (formerly of With Passion) on guitar, Philip Williamson on bass, and Shaun Gier (guitarist of With Passion) on vocals. In October 2004 Conducting From The Grave released their first recording, a 4-song demo entitled "Breathe The Blackened Sky." Then in early 2005 Shaun had to leave the band to dedicate more time to his other band (With Passion) who had just signed to Earache Records. Shaun was quickly succeeded by new vocalist Drew Winter (formerly of Murder At Hand). By this time, they had established a significant following in Northern California and were ready to hit the studio in preparation for an April 2005 release of their debut EP "Trials Of The Forsaken". Conducting From The Grave then spent the summer of 2005 touring the U.S. in support of that release. When the band returned home Phil Williamson decided to leave the band to pursue personal interests. In the following weeks Conducting From The Grave decided to part ways with Drew Winter as well. Drew is now the vocalist for Debello Castrum In the process of searching for new members, the band discovered that their good friends With Passion had also recently suffered a severe loss of members. Due to the bands having shared some of the same members previously, John Abernathy, Jeff Morgan and Greg Donnelly decided to join forces with Michael Nordeen and Shaun Gier (the two remaining members of With Passion) to form a new, more solid line-up as With Passion on Earache Records. November 3rd the band got back together and had a reunion show with 2 new songs. Now, almost 7 years later, two more albums have been added to their discography: 2009's ''When Legends Become Dust" and 2010's ''Revenants''.