Drastique (formerly known as Drastic) is an

avant-garde In the arts and literature, the term ''avant-garde'' ( meaning or ) identifies an experimental genre or work of art, and the artist who created it, which usually is aesthetically innovative, whilst initially being ideologically unacceptable ...

gothic metal Gothic metal (or goth metal) is a fusion genre combining the aggression of heavy metal music, heavy metal with the dark atmospheres of gothic rock. The music of gothic metal is diverse with bands known to adopt the gothic approach to different ...

band from Italy with

progressive metal Progressive metal (often shortened to prog metal) is a broad fusion music genre melding heavy metal music, heavy metal and progressive rock, combining the loud "aggression" and amplified electric guitar, guitar-driven sound of the former with t ...

and

symphonic black metal Symphonic black metal is a subgenre of black metal that emerged in the 1990s and incorporates symphonic and orchestral elements. History One of the earliest forerunners in what would come to be the sound of symphonic metal was Celtic Frost ...

influences.

Biography

Drastique was founded as a

one-man band A one-man band is a musician who plays a number of instruments simultaneously using their hands, feet, limbs, and various mechanical or electronic contraptions. One-man bands also often sing while they perform. The simplest type of "one-man ban ...

in 1995 by Chris Buchman with the name Drastic. The only demo of the band, ''Creator of Feelings'', was released in September 1995 in 200 copies with a black and white cover and then reissued in 1996 by Beyond Productions with a color cover. The demo featured Chiara Donaggio on female vocals and was produced by Marco Biolcati, vocalist and guitar player of the bands Wrest and Blackburn. ''Creator of Feelings'' was selected as "best demo" by

Metal hammer ''Metal Hammer'' is a heavy metal music magazine and website founded in 1983, published in the United Kingdom by Future, with other language editions published by different companies available in numerous other countries. ''Metal Hammer'' featu ...

magazine, Metal Shock magazine and Flash magazine. In 1998 Drastic released on Beyond Productions its debut album titled ''Thieves of Kisses'', featuring Alessia De Boni / Pamsy and Chiara Donaggio on female vocals. The album was recorded at Nadir Studios in

Genoa Genoa ( ; ; ) is a city in and the capital of the Italian region of Liguria, and the sixth-largest city in Italy. As of 2025, 563,947 people live within the city's administrative limits. While its metropolitan city has 818,651 inhabitan ...

, Italy and was produced by Tommy Talamanca, guitar and keyboard player of the band Sadist. ''Thieves of Kisses'' was selected by a journalist of the popular music magazine

as "Best Italian Album of the Year" and can be considered one of the first Italian

avant-garde metal Avant-garde metal (also known as avant-metal, experimental metal, art metal and experimetal) is a subgenre of heavy metal music loosely defined by use of experimentation and innovative, avant-garde music, avant-garde elements, including non-stan ...

releases. In 2000 Drastic rearranged and performed the song "Black Mass" by

Death SS Death SS (later also intended as a contraction of In Death of Steve Sylvester) is an Italian heavy metal band formed in 1977. They have sometimes been described as "horror metal". History Death SS was formed in 1977 in Pesaro by Steve Sylveste ...

: the song was featured on the tribute album ''Beyond the realms of Death SS'', published by Black Widow Records. In 2003 Drastic changed the name into Drastique and released (once again on Beyond Productions, the label of such bands as Sadist and

Theatres Des Vampires Theatres des Vampires is an Italian gothic metal band, mostly noted for the predominant theme of vampirism within their lyrics. The band's early material was credited as melodic black metal or symphonic black metal, but the group completely aban ...

) the album ''Pleasureligion'' featuring the female vocalist Fay and the male vocalist Mahavira (formerly of Ensoph), even if some male parts were performed by Chris Buchman, who has written and performed the instrumental parts and is the author of the lyrics, written in English,

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Polish people, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken * Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin ...

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

and Italian, with numerous poetic and philosophical quotations. The album was released in a limited

digipak Optical disc packaging is the packaging that accompanies CDs, DVDs, and other formats of optical discs. Most packaging is rigid or semi-rigid and designed to protect the media from scratches and other types of exposure damage. Jewel case A ...

version and in a jewel case version. The CD is distributed by Masterpiece Distribution in Italy and by

Adipocere Adipocere (), also known as corpse wax, grave wax or mortuary wax, is a wax-like organic substance formed by the anaerobic bacterial hydrolysis of fat in tissue, such as body fat in corpses. In its formation, putrefaction is replaced by a perman ...

Relapse In internal medicine, relapse or recidivism is a recurrence of a past (typically medical) condition. For example, multiple sclerosis and malaria often exhibit peaks of activity and sometimes very long periods of dormancy, followed by relapse or r ...

and

Century Media A century is a period of 100 years or 10 decades. Centuries are numbered ordinally in English and many other languages. The word ''century'' comes from the Latin ''centum'', meaning ''one hundred''. ''Century'' is sometimes abbreviated as c. A ...

worldwide. In 2004, the album has been licensed to CD Maximum for Russia and Eastern Europe.

Discography

Studio albums

*'' Thieves of Kisses'' (1998) *'' Pleasureligion'' (2003) *'' Let Your Life Pass You By''(2012)

Demo

*'' Creator of Feelings'' (1995)

Compilations

*'' Screams from Italy Vol. II'' (1996) *'' Black Tears of Death Vol. I'' (1996) *'' Florilegium Insanie'' (1999) *'' Beyond the Realms of Death SS'' (2000) *'' Metallian Sampler n.29'' (2003) *'' Loud Souds n.11 – Rock Hard Magazine'' (2003)

Members

Current line up

* Chris Buchman – vocals, guitar, bass guitar, keyboard, drums (1995–present) * Fay – female vocals (2002–present) * Mahavira – male vocals (2002–present)

Former members

* Chiara Donaggio – female vocals (1995–2001) * Alessia De Boni – female vocals (1997–2001)

References

External links

*
Drastique
at Myspace
Drastique
at

Encyclopaedia Metallum Encyclopaedia Metallum: The Metal Archives (commonly known as Metal Archives per the URL or abbreviated as MA) is an online encyclopedia based upon musical artists who predominantly perform heavy metal music along with its various sub-genres ...

Drastique at Metal Weave

Drastique at Beyond Productions (label)

Drastique
at

Discogs Discogs ( ; short for " discographies") is a database of information about audio recordings, including commercial releases, promotional releases, and bootleg or off-label releases. Database contents are user-generated, and described in ''T ...

Drastique
at

MusicBrainz MusicBrainz is a MetaBrainz project that aims to create a collaborative music database that is similar to the freedb project. MusicBrainz was founded in response to the restrictions placed on the CDDB, Compact Disc Database (CDDB), a database for ...

{{Authority control Italian gothic metal musical groups Symphonic black metal musical groups Avant-garde metal musical groups Musical groups established in 1995 Italian progressive metal musical groups