Turned to Stone

Turned to Stone was founded in the winter of 2011 by the brothers Andy and Brian Medeiros, Kristofori Maile, and Paul Black, longtime friends who shared a passion for metal music and the desire to craft and perform their collaborative and unique genre-defying brand of extreme metal.

After several years of sharing a love for music by metal acts ranging from Dream Theater, Apocalyptica, Nightwish and Dragonforce to more extreme artists such as Nile, Opeth, Eluveitie, Dark Tranquillity and Immortal, they began to collaborate on writing original songs in the vein of these acts with Andy carefully crafting soaring melodic leads on guitar and Kris providing song and harmonic structure on bass guitar. Brian solidified the rhythm section for their new project, which required all the essential talent and skill of a well-rounded percussionist at their pinnacle. Paul’s talents as a powerful and diverse vocalist as well as an evocative lyricist colored and completed their sound.

After finalizing the writing process for their melodic-death single “The Memory I’ve Become,” the ensuing Norwegian black-metal infused “Answer the Summons” and the manically induced doom ballad “This Failure,” they realized their collective potential and dedicated themselves to the formation of a full-time, professional and original metal group.

It was apparent that their music would not be complete without the support of a secondary guitarist. It was Ian Mitchell who found his way into the position after only one jam session, demonstrating to everyone not only professional musicianship, but the ability to contribute to the creative process as well.

Friends and show-goers gave overwhelming positive feedback following their first live performance with Salt Lake City locals Arsenic Addiction in the winter of 2012. The set list contained the aforementioned original songs as well as covers of the self-titled “Black Sabbath” and Agalloch’s “Falling Snow.” Shortly after the show Andy and Kris each brought a new song to the table with “Call for the End” and “Anachronous Throne” respectively.

The band entered the studio in the summer of 2013 with local engineer Matt Winegar (Primus, Chelsea Grin) and sent the recordings to Örebro, Sweden to be mastered by renowned metal engineer Jens Bogren (Dark Tranquillity, Amon Amarth, Opeth, Katatonia). Their debut EP, The Memory I’ve Become, is slated for release on October 11th, 2013.