Winters Bane

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t seems as the genre gets older, more and more bands become known as "the former band of so-and-so", and Winters Bane is no exception. Winters Bane is the former home of one Tim "Ripper" Owens, who had taken over from Rob Halford when he took his solo stint outside of Judas Priest; Owens has since moved on to join Iced Earth. Indeed, their 1993 debut, Heart Of A Killer, featured Owens on vocals, as well as Lou St. Paul (vocals/guitars),Dennis Hayes (bass) and Terry Salem (drums). The debut proved to be a solid slab of "American power metal" (a style most notably being Thrash with more melody, here lumped in with basic heavy metal) much in the style of Rob Halford's Halford project work.

For the follow-up, Girth (1997), St. Paul and Dennis Hayes (bass) dispensed with the rest of the band and recruited Todd Bertolette (drums) to produce an album similar to style as the first. St. Paul himself handing both guitar and vocals. After a long break after the album, St. Paul once again dismissed the band to recruit Alexander Koch (ex-Spiral Tower; vocals) and Jeff Curenton (drums).