Bruce Fitzhugh

Bruce Fitzhugh is the second and best known lead vocalist, rhythm guitarist and founding member of Arkansas's Christian metal band Living Sacrifice.[1] The lead vocalist role was left to Bruce shortly after the departure of former lead Darren Johnson and prior to the recording of Living Sacrifice's 1997 album, Reborn. Fitzhugh is featured in Zao's The Lesser Lights of Heaven DVD. Fitzhugh's nephew is Drew Garrison, Vocalist for Descended From Wolves and Becoming Saints.

Bruce Fitzhugh
Birth nameBruce Fitzhugh
OriginLittle Rock, Arkansas, U.S.
GenresChristian metal, heavy metal
Occupation(s)Singer, musician, record producer
InstrumentsVocals, guitar
Years active1989–2003, 2005, 2008-present
LabelsSeize the Day, Solid State, XS
Associated actsLiving Sacrifice
Jeremiah Scott
Megabruce
Aletheian
Zao
Few Left Standing
Further Seems Forever
The Showdown

He has been involved in many other music endeavors such as producing The Showdown's debut album, A Chorus Of Obliteration.[2] He also produced albums for Zao,[3] Further Seems Forever,[4] Few Left Standing,[5] and Eso-Charis.[6] He is also a guest vocalist on Demon Hunter's album Storm the Gates of Hell on the song "Sixteen".[7]

In 2015, Fitzhugh stated in an interview with Mark Salomon, that Living Sacrifice is currently writing new music.[8] Fitzhugh, along with Demon Hunter guitarist and Showdown bassist, Jeremiah Scott, wrote two songs titled "Made for War" and "Defend the Crown" for the Killing Floor 2 Soundtrack.[9] In 2015, Fitzhugh, along with Travis Turner (ex-Aletheian, Solamors) and Alex Kenis (ex-Becoming the Archetype, Aletheian, Solamors), recorded a cover of Megadeth's "Holy Wars... The Punishment Due" cover in honor of the 25th anniversary of the song.[10][11][12]

Fitzhugh owned a label titled: "Seize the Day Records".[13] Fitzhugh formed the company, Zambooie with Mike Lewis (Puller, For Love Not Lisa) and later Billy Power (Blenderhead)[14] and currently works at Manhead Merch.[15]

History

Bruce Fitzhugh began his musical career in 1989, joining Darren Johnson and Lance Garvin in the band Living Sacrifice.[1] The three would be joined by Jason Truby on lead guitars. Fitzhugh and Johnson became friends during a youth group and became friends with Garvin shortly thereafter.[15] The band's first show was on December 1, 1989. Living Sacrifice would record a demo, titled Not Yielding to Ungodly, with Fitzhugh performing rhythm guitars, which was released in 1990.[16] The demo was influenced by early Slayer, drawing from thrash metal influences. The demo would get into the hands of Kurt Bachman and Joey Daub of Believer, which led to the band signing with R.E.X. Records.[8] In 1991, the band would enter the studio to record their debut self-titled album, which would be released through R.E.X. as the band's label debut.[8][15]

Around 1992, the band would switch styles with Johnson switching to a guttural vocal style and Garvin incorporating blast beats. In this new death metal style, the band entered the studio to record Nonexistent, with the band driving all the way from Little Rock, Arkansas to Nashville, Tennessee. During the recording process, Fitzhugh and the other members were upset with the engineer who was hired for the record, which led to them asking him to step aside.[15] With this in mind, Fitzhugh and the members of Living Sacrifice began to engineer the record and mixed their record at that time.[15] Fitzhugh also was not a fan of Johnson's change in vocal style, however, by the next release, his style adjusted.[15] In 1994, the band released Inhabit, which was recorded in Pennsylvania with Daub and Bachman. The band had left on Christmas Day in 1993 and began recording on December 27 until early 1993.[15] Following the release, the band came to the realization that R.E.X. was not paying them their royalties, which led to a confrontation that resulted in the band being released from their contract and owning the rights to their first three albums.[15] In 1995, Johnson departed from the band. Not wanting to bring anyone new in as their vocalist, Fitzhugh and Truby would both try for the position.[8][15] However, Truby would lose his voice, while Fitzhugh's continued to get better.[8][15] With this in mind, and still requiring a bassist, the three would hire Chris Truby as their bassist, Jason's older brother.[17]

Taking time to record their demo with this new lineup, featuring four-songs, including "Spirit Fall", "Sellout", "Reborn", and "Awakening".[17][18] The band would record Reborn, their fourth and most impactful release, at this time.[17] Brandon Ebel of Tooth & Nail Records would create Solid State Records at this time and sign Living Sacrifice as their first artist.[17] Fitzhugh would debut on vocals and the band's style changed exponentially, aiming towards a more metalcore style.[8][15][17] The album was released in 1997 through Solid State Records, being the label's fourth official release, behind Overcome's When Beauty Dies, Strongarm's Advent of a Miracle, and Zao's The Splinter Shards the Birth of Separation.[19] The band would record at Barry Poynter's studio in Arkansas, which all the members were onboard with rather than having to drive to different states to record.[17] In 1998, Fitzhugh would produce Zao's Where Blood and Fire Bring Rest at Poynter's studio, which would also be released through Solid State Records.[3] Fitzhugh would also make his first guest appearance on Embodyment's Embrace the Eternal.[20] Fitzhugh also produced the band Eso-Charis' debut album.[13] To release the album for Eso-Charis, Fitzhugh created the record label Seize the Day Records. While on tour, Living Sacrifice, Eso-Charis, and Embodyment, during a stop in California, Fitzhugh and Eso-Charis picked up their CDs from Wuv Bernardo of P.O.D..[13]

By the end of 1998, the Truby brothers departed from the band, which led to Fitzhugh and Garvin hiring on Cory Putman and Jay Stacy on guitars and bass respectively for a time, with the permanent position being filled by Rocky Gray (ex-Shredded Corpse) and Arthur Green (ex-Eso-Charis). Andrew Godwin (Embodyment) would initially be asked by Fitzhugh, however, he could not move from Texas to Arkansas.[20] With Gray and Green on board, the band would also hire on Cory's brother, Matt Putman as an additional percussionist. At this time, Fitzhugh produced metallic hardcore band, Few Left Standing, for their debut album Regeneration of Self. According to Vocalist Chris Stafford, the band likely made Fitzhugh mad during the process, which is why he did not produce their second effort.[21] The five members of Living Sacrifice would begin working on their fifth album, titled The Hammering Process, which would be released in late 2000.[22] The album would be well-received, and like their album before, Reborn, was both released through Solid State and would be credited for being a forefather of the predominate genre, in this case groove metal.[22] Fitzhugh's vocal range would become even lower than Reborn at this time.[15] Two years later, Living Sacrifice would begin recording their sixth album, Conceived in Fire. At the time, Fitzhugh was unimpressed with it but was happy how it turned out in the end.[8] Fitzhugh would begin to get burnt out on the band at this time and felt a need to remain home with his family and be involved with his children growing up.[8]

By 2002, Fitzhugh began the label XS Records alongside former Puller and For Love Not Lisa member Mike Lewis, which would release records from Echocast, Stavesacre, Josh Todd, and Embodyment.[23] On the Embodyment album, Songs for the Living, Fitzhugh was A&R for the record.[24] Fitzhugh began to transition full-control to Garvin. Gray had departed to join Evanescence as their drummer, while Cory Putman returned as a guitarist. The initial plan was for Cory to take over vocals following Fitzhugh's departure and for Bryan Gray (The Blamed, ex-Left Out, ex-Six Feet Deep, ex-Blenderhead) to join on lead guitars.[8] However, during Fitzhugh's final tour, Garvin decided to break the band up, with all the members going their separate ways in 2003.[8] Following their disbanding, Fitzhugh would work on melodic death metal and southern metal band The Showdown's debut album, A Chorus of Obliteration, as a producer, with the album being released through Solid State.[2] In 2005, Living Sacrifice released a compilation In Memoriam, which saw Fitzhugh, Gray, and Garvin reunite to record three new songs.

After the breakup, Fitzhugh and his former business partner and labelmate Mike Lewis would create the merchandise company known as Zambooie.[8][14] Billy Power of Blenderhead would also join the company as a business owner. The company would hire several people in the music industry or who would go on into the music industry, most notably Andy Atkins of A Plea for Purging. In 2007, Fitzhugh produced another album by Further Seems Forever, former members of Strongarm, for their third album, The Final Curtain.[4] In 2008, Living Sacrifice would reunite with Fitzhugh returning to the helm of vocals and rhythm guitars, with Gray returning on lead guitars, Green on bass, and Garvin on drums. With this reunion, the band recorded a two-song EP, Death Machine, which would be released independently.[25]

Re-signing with Solid State, the band began working on a new album, which would be titled The Infinite Order, which would be produced by their longtime friend Jeremiah Scott (Demon Hunter, The Showdown, Destroy Destroy Destroy) and mixed by Andy Sneap (Hell).[25] In 2013, the band would release their eight studio album, Ghost Thief, which also saw Scott producing the record again.[26] In 2015, Tripwire Interactive, a video game company owned by John Gibson, released the video game Killing Floor 2, with the soundtrack featuring several Living Sacrifice tracks, including a re-recorded version of "Something More" off of Reject. Fitzhugh and Scott would also write two songs, "Made for War" and "Defend the Crown", exclusively for the video game release.[27] In 2020, Living Sacrifice planned a release for their 30th anniversary of a documentary of the band, which would also see a show with them and The Blamed, with members of the current lineup and former lineups performing, as well as Mark Garza of Embodyment and The Famine.[28] However, due to the Coronavirus pandemic, the release and show was postponed.[28]

Discography

With Living Sacrifice

As Bruce Fitzhugh & Jeremiah Scott

  • "Made for War" (2015)
  • "Defend the Crown" (2015)

As Megabruce

Guest vocals

Production

References
  1. Downey, Ryan J. "Biography-Living Sacrifice". Allmusic. Retrieved January 28, 2010.
  2. burningcold_05 (August 12, 2006). "The Showdown - A Chorus of Obliteration". Encyclopaedia Metallum. Retrieved January 28, 2010.
  3. "Credits Where Blood and Fire Bring Rest". Allmusic. Retrieved January 28, 2010.
  4. "Credits The Final Curtain". Allmusic. Retrieved January 28, 2010.
  5. "Bruce Fitzhugh credits". AllMusic. Retrieved August 30, 2015.
  6. "Credits ESO Charis". Allmusic. Retrieved January 28, 2010.
  7. "Credits Storm the Gates of Hell". Allmusic. Retrieved January 28, 2010.
  8. Fitzhugh, Bruce. "Bruce Fitzhugh on Never Was Podcast". Never Was. Interviewed by Mark Salomon. Archived from the original on April 2, 2015. Retrieved March 31, 2015.
  9. "Killing Floor 2 Soundtrack Revealed". Tripwire Interactive. Archived from the original on March 27, 2015. Retrieved May 22, 2015.
  10. "Holy wars... The Punishment Due". As the Story Grows. September 24, 2015. Retrieved September 25, 2015.
  11. Wookubus (September 30, 2015). "Hear Living Sacrifice, Ex-Becoming the Archetype, ETC. Members Cover Megadeth". Theprp. Retrieved November 13, 2015.
  12. Fitzhugh, Bruce (September 23, 2015). "Megadeth Tribute with Bruce Fitzhugh and Alex Kenis". Interviewed by Trav Turner & Alex Kenis. As The Story Grows. Retrieved April 8, 2016.
  13. Putman, Matt (February 1, 2015). "Matt Putman of Living Sacrifice". Interviewed by Trav Turner & Jesse Jeremiah. As The Story Grows. Retrieved October 22, 2015.
  14. Sciaretto, Amy (December 24, 2009). "Living Sacrifice's Bruce Fitzhugh talks about his Interesting day job". Noisecreep. Retrieved April 8, 2016.
  15. Fitzhugh, Bruce (September 20, 2015). "Bruce Fitzhugh of Living Sacrifice". Interviewed by Trav Turner & Stephen Sarro. As The Story Grows. Retrieved April 8, 2016.
  16. "Living Sacrifice - Not Yielding To Ungodly". Discogs. Retrieved December 12, 2020.
  17. "Living Sacrifice "Reborn" Special". As The Story Grows Podcast. Interviewed by Travis Turner. June 3, 2017. Retrieved December 12, 2020.
  18. "Living Sacrifice - Living Sacrifice '95". Encyclopedia Metallum. Retrieved December 12, 2020.
  19. "Solid State Records - Releases". Solid State Records. Retrieved December 12, 2020.
  20. Godwin, Andrew (March 11, 2020). "Andrew Godwin of Embodyment and The Famine". As The Story Grows Podcast. Interviewed by Bryan Patton. Retrieved December 13, 2020.
  21. Stafford, Chris (January 15, 2020). "Chris Stafford of Few Left Standing". As The Story Grows Podcast. Interviewed by Bryan Patton. Retrieved December 16, 2020.
  22. Pratt, Greg (October 15, 2020). "The Lazarus Pit: Living Sacrifice's The Hammering Process". Decibel Magazine. Retrieved December 13, 2020.
  23. "XS Records". Discogs. Retrieved December 13, 2020.
  24. "Embodyment - Songs For the Living". Discogs. Retrieved December 13, 2020.
  25. "Living Sacrifice Entire New Album Available for Streaming". Blabbermouth.net. January 16, 2010. Retrieved December 13, 2020.
  26. "Living Sacrifice to Release Ghost Thief in November". Blabbermouth.net. October 9, 2013. Retrieved December 13, 2020.
  27. "Killing Floor 2 Official Game Soundtrack Announced". Tripwire Interactive. Archived from the original on March 27, 2015. Retrieved December 13, 2020.
  28. Fitzhugh, Bruce (June 26, 2020). "Bruce Fitzhugh of Living Sacrifice". Labeled. Retrieved December 17, 2020.
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