Intronaut

First conceived in 2004, Los Angeles, California's Intronaut started out as a friendly but loose side project concocted between Anubis Rising vocalist/guitarist Sacha Dunable and then-Uphill Battle drummer Danny Walker (also ex-Exhumed). When their songwriting started to bear impressive fruit -- based upon the aggressive and progressive new sound made popular by Mastodon and, to a lesser degree, their own groups -- the duo called in fellow Exhumed guitarist/vocalist Leon del Muerte and bassist Joe Lester to help them cut the Null EP, released in early 2006 by Goodfellow Records. Barely six months later, Intronaut returned with that EP's logically named follow-up and debut studio long-player, Void. Del Muerte left the group the following year to focus on Murder Construct, and was replaced by Dave Timnick, who would make his studio debut with the group on its 2008 Century Media-issued sophomore full-length, Prehistoricisms. Valley of Smoke arrived in 2010, followed in 2013 by Habitual Levitations (Instilling Words with Tones). The band issued its fourth studio LP, The Direction of Last Things, in 2015. ~ Eduardo Rivadavia