Blood Corps

Blood Corps is a hard rock metal band from Fairfax, Virginia, and founded by guitarist Daniel Lee in October of 2005. The band wouldnt actually start taking off smoothly until guitarist Michael Mackert joined less than a year later and debuted at the bands first national show opening for Overkill and Warbringer. In the time to follow, Michael and Daniel would team up with guitarist and producer Mike Himmel and undergo a gauntlet of guitar lessons. With their friendship growing, and showing potential with their new material they had written, they would all soon start talking with Mike Himmel about him producing and recording Blood Corps and releasing a record. In the spring of 2008, the band would enter the studio with the professional producer and begin recording Hollow Point.

The bands initial goal was to record & release a full length album but halfway through the recording sessions the economy started to decline rapidly & they would only be able to finish four songs. On March 13th, 2009, the band released Hollow Point as an EP and began to create quite a buzz in the local underground. Though only containing four songs, it would give a symbolic impact of a hollow point to their fans and business partners. Doors began to open for the band as they easily secured opening slots for national acts such as Kamelot, Dope, and Sonata Arctica, and swiftly expanding their fan base and reputation. Blood Corps would feature their song Buried Alive on two compilation CDs and record a promotional video for the grand opening of Stairway East Studios. In the months to follow they would submit Hollow Point to Mike Davis of Baltimores 98 Rock radio station and give a live interview before performing the next night for his local showcase Noise in The Basement. The second track, Death In The Hollow, would debut for metal heads everywhere across the Washington DC area and the U.S.

In early 2010, Blood Corps performed to a sold out crowd at Jaxx Night Club (now Empire) opening for European power metal band Hammerfall and soon after undergo a period of reconstruction. During their hiatus they would bring in drummer Markus Jackson and punk rock singer Jean Clark. In October they all would enter Omega Studios in Rockville, MD, along with sound engineers Chris Nalley and Pete Novak. With Roy Mackert (Michael's father) on bass, they would record early demos of Dreamscape and Children of Disease. But Markus and Jeans stay in the band would be short lived. With their desires to pursue different directions in music as a career they would depart Blood Corps on respectable terms in early 2011.

With their failure-equals-death mentality, Daniel and Michael continue to push forward and begin replenishing the ranks. On March 27th, 2011, they would induct 17 year old drummer Danny Bollwahn and immediately begin working pre-production for a new album. "It was kinda fate really," Danny states, "Dan and Michael had been over to my house a year before Id joined and we all jammed a bunch of times. We played everything from our favorite cover songs to the old material from Hollow Point and even some of the new material on Evolution. They were looking for a new drummer at the time and I really, really wanted to join. But with me being only 16 at the time, still in high school, and playing in another band, I couldn't exactly jump ship and join ya know? (laughing) Then a year went by, I was in a better position to join, and here I am. And its been awesome ever since.

While neck deep in pre-production & early recording sessions for the new album the band started to book auditions for new vocalists. Their search would not take long this next time around and in late May of 2011, they would bring their first candidate out to their studio. When Zach came into the studio for his audition my first thought was, Im standing six feet from a linebacker version of Corey Taylor. Dan exclaims, We played through some of the songs from Evolution and Hollow Point and he just owned it. He owned it like hed been in the band for years. And then the rest of the night was just pure awesomeness. At the end of the evening they all would agree that Zach was their guy and they would invite him back the very next week, not for a second audition, but for band practice. Zach humbly accepted their invitation into Blood Corps and immediately began working on new lyrics and melodies for the album. "When I walked into the room the first time I was skeptical. I knew these guys were good musicians, and I knew I liked their style from hearing the music they made with Nina and Clark, but I also knew that there is more to a band than the sound. I wanted a band that made the kind of music that I enjoyed and enjoyed writing, but I also wanted a band that had the same mind-set that I had. I wanted a band of guys that I could relate to.