Fiend Staring Down A Monster CD

Fiend has never wavered from loud, heavy music. Born in the bowels of Oakdale Long Island, Fiend is a three piece band with Nino Volpe on vocals and guitar, Alexei Ruber on bass, and John McGarity on drums. All three are friends that have known each other for more than a few years. Each having played in different bands here and there, but Fiend has been a constant for the last 7 years.It started back in the early 90's. John and Nino were in a band called Black Wing. Black Wing was a original/ cover Heavy Metal band that specialized in Maiden, Sabbath, and Priest. John played drums, Nino guitar (no singing), John Dibartolo bass and Brad Riech on vocals. Black Wing played many shows at clubs and bars across Long Island. One of the most notable places was the legendary metal club HammerHedz in Elmont (long gone I'm afraid, now it is a fruity bar that sells sweet drinks to middle aged, desperate women). Black Wing lasted only a couple of years. Band members set their eye's on different pursuits. John Dibartolo went on to form the hugely popular Celtic Rock band Fathom. John M. played in various rock bands, Nino (we will get to him in a second) and Brad, where the hell did Brad go??Nino went on to replace guitarist Johnny Wildchild in the Heavy Metal band called "The Missing". The band was just not getting along with their guitarist and thought it was time to add a fresh sound ("fresh" is the wrong word, try "Loud and Angry", better). The band changed it's name to Kindred to further it's new direction and comprised Nino on guitar (still no singing), Alexei Ruber on bass, Milton Colon on drums and Mike Rodriguez on vocals. This was a truly powerful line up. Kindred played up and down Long Island and Queens. Clubs like the Roxy, Garfield's, Castle Heights were their haunts. But Kindred too was short lived, lasting only 2 years. But it was from here that the beginnings of "Fiend" began to take shape. Some time went by when really very little was going on. Different projects were started but soon collapsed. Finding good people to play with was really becoming difficult. So one day, Nino decided that he would like get some ideas down on tape. He called his old drummer Milton from Kindred and they started writing some songs. After a few months, the songs began to take shape. In early 1997, Milton and Nino headed off to the studio to record. The first "Fiend" demo consisting of 4 songs. Milton played drums, Nino sang, played bass/guitars. This first tape was rough and raw. But the songs were very powerful. The era of "Fiend" was about to begin.Now, two band members may be enough for laying down some tracks in a studio, but it was impossible to play any gigs that way. So, Fiend was in the hunt for a bass player. After auditioning a few players, no one really had the right feel. It was only natural to see if Alexei would like to come in and give it a try. Well, this was a very easy decision. As soon as Alexei started playing, the songs took on a whole new shape and Fiend was complete!In 1999, Fiend went into the studio to record their first professional recording, Alien Pimps. This was a collection of songs written by Alexei and Nino. Alien Pimps was light years ahead of the bands first demo. The songs were stronger and much more powerful. Sound was also greatly improved thanks to Bill Sperl at ARTI Studios. In fact, the band liked working with Bill so much, they have recorded all their CD's at ARTI. More on those other recordings later. With this new recording, Fiend was ready to play! A Fiend show was truly a spectacle. And not always for the best reasons. Sure, the band was loud, complete with fog machines and Nino introducing "the crab". However, Milton was not the most well tempered of individuals or in the best of shape (weighing easily over 300lbs). After a few drinks Milton would curse the crowd, throw some part of his drum set or simply faint during a song due to lack of oxygen. Mil