Exmortis

Exmortis was formed in mid 1987 by Brian Werking originally but after a few jamming sessions with Chris Wiser they agreed that Chris was to move to from guitar to bass and on they went. They then decided to give it a name. The first choice and one that didn't last too long was Virulent Rage. During this time Brian And Chris were hanging out and watching a lot of horror flicks. Between Hellraiser a.nd Evil Dead they mentioned the name Exmortis in their dialog. The moment had come and they both agreed to change the name from Virulent Rage to Exmortis. Chris has made the comment that he created the name (just like Al Gore created the internet). They really got it from both of those flicks.
A few months later Lee Coates (drums) and Ted Hartz (guitar) joined the band. Ted was released very shortly after due to reasons beyond his control. They tried out a few guitarists and vocalists, none of whom worked out. They then found Mike Simons who worked with them all so Exmortis finally became a complete band with a drummer, a lead guitarist, a Bassist and a vocalist.
In July of 1988 Exmortis entered the studio and recorded their first demo titled "Descent Into Chaos". In the next six months they played some shows around the Maryland area all while writing new tracks and unveiling them at their shows. During this time span Mike Simons was released from the band and Brian started chanting the words to the Exmortis songs. A couple of weeks before They recorded their second demo, Ted Hartz re-joined the band so in February of 1989 they went into the studio and recorded a demo titled "Immortality's End". During the coming months They played shows throughout the north-eastern coast of North America. In early 1990, the "Immortality's End" demo was released on a limited pressing of 1,000 units by CCG Records in England. In May of 1990 Exmortis entered a more expensive studio with their engineer from the previous demos to record their third demo. Unfortunately the Exmortis funds ran short and they were forced to abort the attempt at creating the demo. What they were able to complete was the drum tracks along with a scratch guitar track. They basically went through their money quicker than expected and no one had any credit cards back then.
In July of 1990 Exmortis ran into a problem they couldn't recover from. The family they were renting rehearsal space from told them that they couldn't practice there anymore. It was a devastating blow and awful timing because they were on the bill to play the very first Michigan Death-Fest on August 11, 1990. Since they were so much out of practice Brian spoke to Metal Mom and broke the news to her. She was disappointed but understood the circumstances. Exmortis were on all the Flyers and the official shirt with the line-up of bands and they felt awful.
About a month later Brian decided to move to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to live with his future first wife Sharon Bascovsky of the band "Derketa". Chris stayed in the D.C. area while Lee and Ted both moved to Tampa, Florida bringing Giles Wiess (roadie/security for the former Exmortis) with them.
During the next six months Brian put together and recorded what was going to be the third Exmortis demo. During this time he was contacted by both Joe Pupo and Ed Farshtey Jr. from Rage Records. A deal was set to release two of the three songs on the 7" EP titled "Fade From Reality" which was released in October of 1991.
At this point and time Brian took a break from Death Metal and began writing and recording only what can be called a cross between Industrial and Soundtrack music. He called the project Shockwerks.
In the summer of 1992 Giles Wiess came to visit Brian in Pittsburgh and stayed at his apartment for about a week. They ate and drank like kings and wrote a couple of songs together while they were at it. There was some speculation they were going to release it as another Exmortis demo titled "Collapsed Soul" but it stayed unreleased.
Sometime shortly after Chris started putting together a new Exmortis. The line-up featured Chris Wiser (bass), Rudy Lagman (guitar), Chewka (guitar), Giles Wiess (vocals) and Lee Coates (drums). At some point Lee moved back up to Maryland and played a brief stint with the band before quitting. Lee stated that it just wasn't Exmortis without Brian and he didn't want to have anything to do with it anymore. Anyway, Lee ended up on the demo layout but he never pounded the skins for this Exmortis demo. The demo included two different drummers who played on separate tracks (Chris Gallo and Steve Lucas). The demo was titled "Butchers of the Urban Frontier" and was released in 1993. They played many shows but were disbanded within a year's time. Chris stated that he was just not into it anymore and took the name to the grave or so he thought.
In the summer months of 1993 Brian began dabbling in recording on both a Tascam 4-track and a Tascam 8-track cassette recorder. He recorded a few songs of both Exmortis and Shockwerks. In the fall of 1993 he was approached by Eric Sluiter, a friend and long time fan of Exmortis. He had a project in the works to create a CD including a bunch of bands titled "History of Things to Come". Since the demo tracks had not been released yet, both parties agreed to a deal and Brian went into the studio to re-record the two death metal songs he had written. These songs were supposed to be another demo but remain unreleased in their raw form. Brian felt it was necessary to go by the alias Bloodless since Chris owned the trademark for the Exmortis name at that time. Within this CD release Brian also recorded 3 tracks under the name Shockwerks. He recorded the intro to the CD titled History Introduction and 2 other tracks that to most was a new type of music for the time. So in early 1994 the Growing Deaf Project came together and was released to the public and marketed by SNY records to get it in the stores.
After this Brian took another break from Death Metal to explore new frontiers in college. In 1997 He moved with his second wife, Renee Venture Werking to Tampa, Florida. His plan was to attend more studies for a B.A. in Science degree or less formally, Electronics Engineering.
In 1999 Brian got an email from a guy named Rex Quick from a label called Dwell Records. Rex wanted Brian to record a few tribute songs for a series of releases on their label in which he immediately said yes. In His home studio Brian recorded tracks for "A Tribute to Death" (Exmortis), "A Tribute to Morbid Angel" (Exmortis), "A Tribute to Marilyn Manson" (Shockwerks), "A Tribute to Ministry" (Exmortis), "A Tribute to White Zombie" (Shockwerks) and "A Tribute to Kraftwerk" (Shockwerks). All of these songs were recorded between the years 1999 and 2000.
In 2005 Brian tried to bring Exmortis back together along with Lee Coates. But try is as far as They got because of personality conflicts. Exmortis was dead again.
Throughout the next 5 years Brian was approached by various record companies asking to release the Exmortis discography. It wasn't until 2010 that he allowed Necroharmonic Records to release it. With Necroharmonics successful 20 years in the business it wasn't hard to make this decision to go with it. It didn't hurt that Brian had known the owner (Roy Fox) for over 20 years either. The project's title was called "Darkened Path Revealed" and was a success. It was released in May of 2011. There were short runs of shirts (short sleeve and long sleeve) both old and new, along with hoodies printed. Necroharmonic mainly kept it's distrobution within itself for this release as not many distributors were allowed to sell it.
During the year of 2011 Exmortis was signed to Xtreem Music for an EP and full CD release in 2012, marking the 25th aniversity of Exmortis' birth into the metal scene. Brian used some old material and mixed in some new style all while keeping the Exmortis sound intact. A new CD is almost complete and should be released before the end of 2011. The CD is title "Resurrection… Book of the Dead".
In 2012 Exmortis is planning as special release due to it's 25 year anniversity. We will release and extended CD which will include the likes of original members "Aantar Lee Coates" and " Pete Eicher". This extended CD will be released by Xtreem Music as well. It will include a lot new new and old songs as well. We may even push the gammet of where true Death Metal died and move it to a whole new level. Give us a chance and we will take advantage of it.