Vice - Sweenie

Yeah, this is the same band named Vice featured in the Soundtrack for the Playstation game ’’Road Rash Jailbreak’’ released in 2000, which their song ’’Sweenie’’ was used as the main theme in the intro, and was also played during the game. The band’s history first began in 1993 with the classic bay area thrash metal band Defiance, after vocalist Steev Esquivel (who later got some fame in Skinlab) and Drummer Matt Vander Ende (Gack) both left the band, Defiance members Mike Kaufmann (bass) Doug Harrington (guitars) and Jim Adams (guitars) formed a new band and were joined by vocalist Dave White (Heathen) and drummer Hugo Barrientos Jr. and soon the band did some new material, but those did not sound at all like Defiance, they played a more groove-oriented traditional metal style and decided to rename the band Inner Threshold, and recorded a demo in 1994 and not long after that in 1995, they changed it’s name to Under, and from here things really began to happen. As Under, the lineup has changed once again, Dave White and Jim Adams left the band, and after some time, Doug Harrington departed too, and they were replaced by Chris Long (Kronix) on vocals, and Jack Cargile on guitars, the latter being the guitar tech for Machine Head, which of course has helped the band to create a new heavy and solid music, and soon they started to make some fame in the bay area and have opened for bands like Exodus, Machine Head, Sevendust, Snot and many others, and all of that resulted the band to record and release a self-titled EP in 1998 (which was reissued in 2020 on digital platforms as a complete album named ’’Take The Blame’’). The band came very close to being signed by Metal Blade Records before breaking up in 1999 when bassist Mike Kaufmann decided to parted ways, but since the other guys still wanted to make music they continued with the band and brought bassist Nick Decena, but things would have to be changed again, starting with a new band name that evolved into Vice. The band took a new direction in music as well, departing a little bit from the Groove Metal style and featuring a more Hard Rock/Alternative sound. As Vice, they recorded a 5 song demo in 1999, and after just one concert with that new lineup and much potential, vocalist Chris Long left the band due to personal reasons. in other words, Defiance evolved into Inner Threshold which changed the name to Under that later evolved into Vice. I wanna thanks once again Hugo Barrientos Jr. for sharing the complete demo with me, and now I’m sharing those awesome songs here on Youtube, since they were never available anywhere before!
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