Downthesun

DownTheSun was a Nu-Metal/Groove Metal band from Kansas City, Missouri/Des Moines, Iowa formed in 1999. The band was founded by bassist Lance "Kuk" Collier and keyboardist Nathan Church who were in a local Kansas City band that opened for Slipknot. This put them in touch with Slipknot's Shawn "Clown" Crahan. The band went through several line-up and name changes before becoming DownTheSun. The line-up that recorded the album in June 2001 was: Aaron Peltz (vocals), Anthony "Satone" Stevens (vocals), Neil Godfrey (guitar), Lance "Kuk" Collier (bass), Nathan Church (keyboards,samples), Dan Spain (drums). In 2001 the band signed to Slipknot's Maggot Recordings label. After recording the guitar tracks for their self-titled debut, Godfrey left the band to join first Motograter, and then Lo-Pro with former Ultraspank singer Pete Murray. The band then recruited Bruce Swink to handle the guitar for the band's live shows. Although listed on the album liner notes, Swink did not play on the album. DownTheSun was briefly signed to London / Sire records before the label folded, leaving the band unsigned for a brief period of time. They were signed to Roadrunner Records and released their self-titled debut album in 2002. Before the album's release, they shot a video for the song "Medicated", which was aired on MTV2's "Extreme Rock" and Fuse's "Uranium" shows, and can be viewed on YouTube. Early 2003, however, saw the band, for reasons unknown, experience a mass exodus of band members, as Peltz, Stevens, Spain and Swink all left the band. Collier and Church soldiered on, however, finding replacements for the departed members, and recording a few demos and playing live shows around the midwest before calling it a day in late 2003.