Steve Di Giorgio | |
---|---|
Background information | |
Born | Waukegan, Illinois, U.S. | November 7, 1967
Genres | |
Occupation(s) | Musician |
Instrument(s) | Bass guitar |
Years active | 1984–present |
Member of | |
Formerly of | |
Website | stevedigiorgio |
Steve Di Giorgio (born November 7, 1967) is an American bass guitarist. He is known for his work with numerous heavy metal bands such as Sadus (of whom he was one of the co-founders), Death, Testament, Megadeth, Sebastian Bach, Iced Earth, Autopsy, Obituary, Control Denied, Dragonlord and Charred Walls of the Damned, and he has performed on over 50 albums as a guest, session or full-time band musician. [1]
Di Giorgio has played bass guitar in heavy metal and death metal bands such as Death, [2] Autopsy, [3] Control Denied, [4] Ephel Duath, [5] Obscura, [6] Artension, Faust, Memorain, Painmuseum, Suicide Shift, Soen, [7] Vintersorg, [8] Dragonlord, [9] Iced Earth, [10] Sebastian Bach, [11] Obituary, [12] Megadeth, [13] and is a founding member of Sadus. [14] He is a founding member of the jazz band Dark Hall and has played bass in other bands such as Testament, [15] [16] Futures End, [17] Synesis Absorption, Mythodea, Charred Walls of the Damned, [18] Anatomy of I, [19] Gone in April, and Spirits of Fire. [20] Along with his bass duties in Sadus, he also plays keyboards. In October 2019, he founded the fusion-world-metal group Quadvium with fellow fretless bass player Jeroen Paul Thesseling. [21] [22] [23] A year later, he formed the death metal supergroup Act of Denial. [24] [25] [26]
Within his genre, Di Giorgio is respected for his highly technical playing skills. [27] [28] [29] [30] He is also credited with being the first bassist to bring fretless bass playing into the heavy/extreme metal genre, and often plays bass by using his fingers, although he has been seen using a pick on certain songs. Di Giorgio has stated that his main influences as a bassist are Geddy Lee, Chris Squire, Geezer Butler, Steve Harris, Stanley Clarke, Jaco Pastorius, Billy Sheehan, Dave Pegg and Charles Meeks. [31] [32]
Di Giorgio has been married for years, [33] and is the father of a daughter who was born in April 1994. [34] [35] [36] The family currently resides in Oakland, California. [37]
Di Giorgio endorses Ibanez Guitars and primarily plays a number of different fretted and fretless BTB basses. He previously played two custom Mjolnir basses by Thor Bass; a custom made 5-string fretless model which he has converted to a 3-string and a custom-built 6 string fretless. He's also played custom ESP basses, mostly a F-series fretless 5-string bass in a dark green finish, but also uses a very unusual double-neck construction with a fretted and a fretless neck in one body. He currently uses an EBS Fafner head as his main sound, but has also used Ampeg and Randall in the past. [38]
Death was an American death metal band formed in Altamonte Springs, Florida, in 1984 by guitarist Chuck Schuldiner, drummer/vocalist Kam Lee and guitarist Rick Rozz. Death is considered to be among the most influential bands in heavy metal music and a pioneering force in death metal. The band's 1987 debut album, Scream Bloody Gore, has been widely regarded as one of the first death metal records, alongside the first records from Possessed and Necrophagia.
Autopsy is an American death metal band formed in Contra Costa County, California in 1987 by Chris Reifert and Eric Cutler. The group disbanded in 1995 and reunited in 2009. The band's hometown is in Concord, California.
Testament is an American thrash metal band from Berkeley, California. Formed in 1983 under the name Legacy, the band's current lineup comprises rhythm guitarist Eric Peterson, lead vocalist Chuck Billy, lead guitarist Alex Skolnick, bassist Steve Di Giorgio and drummer Chris Dovas. Testament has experienced many lineup changes over the years, with Peterson being the only remaining original member, though they have since reunited with Skolnick, who had been out of the band from 1992 to 2005. Billy has been a member of Testament since 1986, when he replaced original singer Steve "Zetro" Souza, who had left to replace Paul Baloff in Exodus. He and Peterson are the only members to appear on all of Testament's studio albums, with the latter being the only constant member overall.
Sadus is an American thrash metal band from Antioch, California, active from 1985 to 2015, and reunited in 2017. Originally a quartet, the band's sound fuses thrash metal with death metal, featuring highly technical musicianship. They are known for the unique death growl of vocalist Darren Travis, and bassist Steve Di Giorgio. During their career, Sadus has released six studio albums, one compilation album and four demos, and had two lineup changes, with the band continuing without replacing any of the departed members.
Bay Area thrash metal referred to a steady following of heavy metal bands in the 1980s who formed and gained international status in the San Francisco Bay Area in California. Along with Central Florida, the scene was widely regarded as a starting point of American thrash metal, crossover thrash and death metal.
Steve Smyth is an American musician who is the guitarist for metal band One Machine.
Dragonlord is an American symphonic black metal band that was formed in 2001 as a side project by Eric Peterson and Steve Di Giorgio of Testament, and Steve Smyth of Nevermore. The band is a result of Eric Peterson's interest in darker music, and not being able to do that with Testament he formed Dragonlord. The band combines elements of black metal with some thrash guitar influences. Lyrical themes vary, either about the rage of a dragon, death, war, lost love, Satanic or otherwise anti-religious themes, or combinations.
Out for Blood is the fifth album by the American thrash metal band Sadus. It was released on February 27, 2006 by Mascot Records.
Jeroen Paul Thesseling is a Dutch fretless bass player, most famous for his work in the German progressive death metal band Obscura and the Dutch progressive death metal band Pestilence.
Thrash of the Titans was a benefit concert held on August 11, 2001, at the Maritime Hall in San Francisco, California. The concert was a co-benefit for Testament vocalist Chuck Billy, who was diagnosed with germ cell seminoma ; and Chuck Schuldiner, leader of the death metal band Death, who was also battling cancer. The Master of Ceremonies for the evening was S.O.D. vocalist Billy Milano. The concert was organized by Walter Morgan. The show was announced in May 2001, and all 2300 tickets quickly sold out.
The Gathering is the eighth studio album by American thrash metal band Testament, released on June 8, 1999. It was the first release the band had done with Spitfire Records. Co-produced by band members, Chuck Billy and Eric Peterson, this was the first album featuring new musicians Steve DiGiorgio on bass guitar and Dave Lombardo on drums. Billy, Peterson and Lombardo, along with longtime Testament collaborator Del James, are also given composer credits on the album. It would also be the only Testament album for 23 years to feature Lombardo, who left the band right before the tour for The Gathering started and he would rejoin in 2022.
Charred Walls of the Damned is an American heavy metal supergroup formed in 2009 consisting of drummer Richard Christy, bassist Steve Di Giorgio, vocalist Tim "Ripper" Owens and guitarist Jason Suecof. The band was formed by Christy after a five-year absence from the metal scene since joining The Howard Stern Show in 2004. They have released three studio albums.
Futures End is an American progressive metal band based in California, formed by guitarists Christian Wentz and Marc Pattison.
Linus Klausenitzer is a German bass player, best known for being a former bassist for the German progressive death metal band Obscura. He also plays bass in a German/Dutch progressive death metal band Noneuclid, as well as progressive death metal project Alkaloid along with current and former members of both Obscura and Noneuclid.
Soen is a Swedish progressive metal group. Their debut album Cognitive was released in 2012.
Brotherhood of the Snake is the twelfth studio album by American thrash metal band Testament, released on October 28, 2016. It is the band's first studio recording with bassist Steve Di Giorgio since First Strike Still Deadly (2001). Brotherhood of the Snake also marks Testament's fifth collaboration with Andy Sneap, who had mixed and engineered all of their albums since The Gathering (1999) and produced Dark Roots of Earth (2012). The album debuted at number twenty on the Billboard 200 chart, making it Testament's second-highest-charting album in the US, behind Dark Roots of Earth, which peaked at number twelve four years earlier.
Spirits of Fire is an American/Italian supergroup consisting of Savatage and Trans-Siberian Orchestra guitarist Chris Caffery, Testament bassist Steve Di Giorgio, and former Fates Warning drummer Mark Zonder. Tim "Ripper" Owens formerly of Judas Priest and Iced Earth was a founding member of the band before leaving in 2021. The identity of Owens' replacement was kept secret while the band was recording their second album. The new singer Fabio Lione was announced 8th december 2021 with their second album Embrace The Unknown that will released on 28th February 2022 via Frontiers Records.
The Shadow Inside is the sixth album by the American thrash metal band Sadus, and their first in 17 years, released on November 17, 2023, via Nuclear Blast. Production of the album can be traced back to August 20, 2017, when Darren Travis confirmed that Sadus would be releasing new material. In October of that year, Travis posted two videos from the studio teasing new music from the band. Former bassist Steve Di Giorgio was not part of the reunion. The album was recorded in Trident Studios.