Spineshank

T

he band Spineshank came to be out of the ashes of Basic Enigma in 1996 featuring Mike Sarkisyan (guitar), Rob Garcia (bass), Tom Decker (drums) and Johnny Santos (vocals) to quickly record a demo that attracted the interest of Fear Factory guitarist Dino Cazares, who offered the band an opening slot at a local show, and no doubt assisted in getting them signed to Fear Factory's label sponsor, 'Roadrunner'.

The nu-metal act, friends of Korn, Orgy, System of a Down and Coal Chamber, would bulldoze through their cover of George Harrison's While My guitar Gently Weeps on their debut, Strictly Diesel (1998), an album followed by The Height of Callousness (2000) and Self-Destructive Pattern (2003).

Over their career, their line-up remained refreshingly stable with only the vocal position changing once with Brandon Espinoza also occupying the spot between 2005-2007 before Santos' return in 2008 and a brief break in 2006.