Dark Cloud

Zadoc's Graveyard
Graveyard of Past Members Photographs The Terrible History of the Nightmare

Dark Cloud
September 1992 - December 1997
February 2001 - April 2002
Role in the Band:
Drums (1992, 1995)
Keyboards (1995)
Bass Guitar (1996-2002)
Recordings Featured on:
Songs of the Vampire (released March 1996)
...As the Curtain Falls (released Jan. 12, 1997)
Twisted (single) (released March 17, 2001)
Songwriting credits:
"The End of Time" co-written with Zadoc and Kirk Brinley
"No More Goodbyes" co-written by Zadoc
"Immortal Dreams" co-written with Zadoc and the Jester
"Brotherhood of Death" co-written by Zadoc
"Insanity" co-written with Zadoc and the Jester
"Bathory's Web" co-written by Zadoc
"Sarcophagus" co-written by Zadoc
Equipment Used:
1992: Tama 5 piece kit with Zyldjian cymbals
1996-2002 Ibanez 5 String, Blue Steel Strings, Zoom 506 Multi-effects Unit, Peavey TNT 130 with 15" Black Widow

Stories always have to start somewhere, and the story behind this band starts with Dark Cloud. We met each other in the fall of 1980 and both realized we were a bit stranger than the rest of our peers. It was 8 years later that the idea came up to form a band.

Neither of us had experience, but Dark Cloud had an electric guitar, which I bought from him for $30 (I still have it,) and thus a band was born. We recruited a new friend of ours by the name of Kirk Brinley to handle more guitar duties, and Dark Cloud bought himself a cheap drum kit. Although I had moved out of state, we were still committed to making this happen and began our earliest endeavors into songwriting on a long distance correspondence. In 1992, I returned home and the band as we know it officially began, but not without it's hurdles.

Dark Cloud was placed in a no-win situation within his home life.  His mother insisted that he either move out or gave him an option of having to leave the area to attend job corps. This unfortunately caused a rift between us, and left us searching for a drummer.

Oddly enough, he never wound up leaving the area, and slightly over a year later, we decided to try a multiple drummer situation. Unfortunately, things didn't work very well and Dark Cloud reluctantly pecked away at the keyboard until a vacancy left by bassist Jeff Densmore opened up. Dark Cloud worked at it and within 4 months we were on our way into the studio to begin the "...As the Curtain Falls.." CD.

Dark Cloud and I had developed a strong song-writing team over the years, which unfortunately caused a lot of arguments and bruised egos from the rest of the band. After failing to retain some kind of working relationship, I, myself, left the band on December 7, 1997 leaving all of the band's control to Kirk Brinley and Dark Cloud. The two
argued fervently about the direction of the band and abandoned it several months later.

After a year had passed of playing in my new project, I decided it was time to pick up the pieces.

Dark Cloud and I were not on speaking terms at this time and it became Kirk that first found his way back - albeit temporarily.

 After several years, Dark Cloud and I decided to try again with the departure of Dan Gober, the bass player at the time. Things were increasingly becoming different within the structure of the band when we began working with a live drummer once again. With those differences becoming glaringly evident, it became sadly obvious that Dark Cloud's playing was not up to par for what we needed.  In April of 2002, we said farewell, yet again.