[Ben Schmitz and Mike Semesky are playing ESP LTD EC-1000 and Ibanez S Series Prestige S5470 6-string guitars, respectively. Both are tuned to Drop-C: C G C F A D.]

Rest Among Ruins is a 3-piece progressive metal act from Baltimore, Maryland featuring vocalist Mike Semesky (Raunchy, ex-Intervals/The HAARP Machine). Their debut release, Fugue, is a 14-song concept album that showcases Semesky on vocals, rhythm guitar, and bass, Ben Schmitz on lead guitars, and Geoff Palmer on drums. It was produced by Drewsif Stalin and is set for a 2015 release.

Semesky comments regarding Fugue: ‘The concept was inspired by the story of a fascinating patient I had the pleasure of meeting when I was working at a psychiatric hospital, back before I began pursuing my music career. This person’s extremely rare clinical condition was the unfortunate result of a severe traumatic incident, and it sparked a haunting journey in his life under a fictitious identity that his mind had created. It was unlike any other case I’d ever heard of throughout my experience in the field. The lyrics were written in first-person, stream-of-consciousness form, and shift in and out of his reality, dreams, and dissociation. The instrumentation of the album adapts stylistically to complement the story, and explores a broad range of heavy and melodic metal, prog, and rock.’

Regarding the album release/guitar and bass duties/members: ‘Ben, Geoff, and I have been working on this for quite some time with our producer Drewsif, and we’re so fired up for people to finally hear it. Fugue is a very special release for me, not only because of the lyrical content, but also because (as you’ll see in the video), I performed the rhythm guitars and bass guitar on the album. Having the opportunity to sing and scream, as well as riff and strum alongside Ben’s wicked lead work and Geoff’s incredible drumming has been an amazing experience! Those two bring so much talent and creativity to the table.’

Regarding Intervals split and ongoing work: ‘After the split with Intervals in late November, I flew to Denmark for the MTV Headbangers Ball tour with Raunchy at the beginning of December. Our new album Vices.Virtues.Visions. was just released on November 21st through Massacre Records, so it was an absolute blast getting to play the new Raunchy material live for the first time! After getting back from Europe, I began switching gears to focus on this Rest Among Ruins release, the upcoming Ordinance record, as well as my own solo music. I’ve also continued offering my online voice lessons over Skype. 2015 is already shaping up to be a fun one.’

Rest Among Ruins (from left to right): Ben Schmitz, Mike Semesky, Geoff Palmer.

Links

• Facebook.com/restamongruins
• Twitter.com/restamongruins
• Youtube.com/restamongruins
• Instagram.com/restamongruins