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Artist
Velocity Engine
11+ albums
indierockemopunk rockNerd Rock
about
Velocity Engine was formed in 2001 by guitarist Jason Johnson (Fragment (USA)) and vocalist/guitarist Bill Cole (Holdstrong, Pindrop Records), soon after adding drummer Jeff Wheeler and bassist Chris Bloom (both also formerly of Fragment). With influences that ran the gamut from Face To Face to Blink 182 to Foo Fighters to Slayer, they often described their sound as pop punk with overtones of hardcore and metalcore. They recorded their first EP, Version.1, in the first half of 2002 at Zing Studios with engineer/guitarist Adam Dutkiewicz (Killswitch Engage). To help round out their live sound, VE began recruiting for a 2nd guitarist, which would also allow Bill to focus on vocals. Allan Arakelian (another former Fragment member) came on board that fall. Soon afterward it was announced that the band had struck a distro deal with the Life Recording Company, whose previous releases included Bane, Cataract and Embrace Today. Version.1 would be Life Records' 8th release, and both the band and the label set to work to promote the album. As a result, many positive pre-release reviews started to pour in and some large retail and mail-order distribution deals were signed. A release date for the album was announced for early Spring of 2003 In the meantime, Allan was growing restless and decided to leave the band after a few short months to pursue other projects. With the release date looming near, the band immediately began courting Aaron Dalbec (Life Records, Bane, Converge, Only Cri
