Album Notes

The unrelenting beast that is Cerberus was forged at the birth of the new millennium when young guitarist Sean Olk and his good friend Marcus Cohen (who was also a musician, wielding the bass,) decided to collaborate with drummer Roger Watson and another longtime buddy of theirs, Lanny Pearlman, who also played the guitar. They all had similar influences, Metallica being the consensus favorite, and so the decision to get together and jam seemed only that much more logical.
In the beginning, it was thrash, and it was good. The guys would play at the generic local venues and would throw parties for the sole purpose of planting their axe into the skulls of their schoolmates, many of who would become the foundation of their fan-base.
Gradually, as their talent was fortified through an inexorable drive to improve, the fan base grew, and so did the myriad of influences that they integrated into their music. They released a few demos that circulated throughout the local scene, further reinforcing the devotion of many-a-headbanger. But over time they began to deviate from their more generic thrash roots and began a tangent into a more mature, melodic version of their current sound, which they intermingled with death metal textures and a faster pace.
Up until this point, Pearlman had been carrying the vocalists' torch with his raw, Hetfield-esque vocal cords. With their transition into a heavier sound, Lanny decided to hand the torch over to current vocalist John Guettler, who brought a crushing death-metal growl and some European highs to compliment the new direction.
All that was needed now was a manifestation of the new sound. So in the gleam of '05, the constituents put their skulls together to formulate what would come to be known as their ultimate achievement.
After months of arduous effort in the depths of Cerberus' private studio, laying track after track, they finalized the album and designed for it a skin that they hoped would be indicative of the nightmare contained within. And it was thus branded: The Cage of Existence...
And by the reaction of their fans, a befitting name it was, for it trapped even the casual listener within its iron grasp.
The momentum built up by this release was a fury such that it could not be contained solely within its birthplace. So Cerberus set out on a tour of the western coastline in order to diffuse some of this madness; so that it could fester and thrive all across the land, and were received with open ears by everyone they came across.
They were so pleased by the reaction they received in their touring that talks are already underway between members of spreading their sound even further, perhaps across the entire country. Whether you've seen them live or have only witnessed them by way of the web, you know that Cerberus is a force to be reckoned with in the new millennium.