Gentry Densley is an American singer, guitarist and songwriter. A longtime fixture on

Salt Lake City Salt Lake City, often shortened to Salt Lake or SLC, is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Utah. It is the county seat of Salt Lake County, the most populous county in the state. The city is the core of the Salt Lake Ci ...

Utah Utah is a landlocked state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is one of the Four Corners states, sharing a border with Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. It also borders Wyoming to the northea ...

's punk, metal and experimental music scenes, Densley has been involved in numerous bands but is best known for leading the groups

Iceburn Iceburn, known later as the Iceburn Collective, was a musical group formed in 1991 in Salt Lake City, Utah, US, by guitarist/vocalist/composer Gentry Densley, the sole constant member through multiple personnel changes. They were known for the ...

, Ascend and

Eagle Twin Eagle Twin is an American metal band formed in Salt Lake City, Utah by singer/guitarist Gentry Densley and drummer Tyler Smith. Eagle Twin's music could be broadly classified as doom metal or sludge metal, but also touches on progressive rock, b ...

. Critic Gregory Heaney describes him as "One of music's great scientists".

Biography

A Salt Lake City native, Densley is a graduate of the

University of Utah The University of Utah (the U, U of U, or simply Utah) is a public university, public research university in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States. It was established in 1850 as the University of Deseret (Book of Mormon), Deseret by the General A ...

in music composition. His first notable group was

(1991–2001), which initially started as a punk/metal

power trio A power trio is a rock band format having a lineup of electric guitar, bass guitar and drum kit, leaving out a dedicated vocalist or an additional rhythm guitar or keyboard instrument that are often used in other rock music bands that are quart ...

with

progressive rock Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog) is a broad genre of rock music that primarily developed in the United Kingdom through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early-to-mid-1970s. Initially termed " progressive pop", the ...

flourishes before moving into

free jazz Free jazz, or free form in the early to mid-1970s, is a style of avant-garde jazz or an experimental approach to jazz improvisation that developed in the late 1950s and early 1960s, when musicians attempted to change or break down jazz conventi ...

and

free improvisation Free improvisation or free music is improvised music without any general rules, instead following the intuition of its performers. The term can refer to both a technique—employed by any musician in any genre—and as a recognizable genre of ...

. During the Iceburn era, Densley became friends with Greg Anderson; Iceburn released a split e.p. with Anderson's group Engine Kid before Anderson formed of

Goatsnake Goatsnake is an American stoner/doom metal band from Los Angeles. They have released three studio albums, the first being 1999's '' Goatsnake Vol. 1''. History Goatsnake was formed in 1996 after the disbanding of The Obsessed. After The O ...

and

Sunn O))) Sunn O))) (pronounced "sun") is an American drone metal band formed in 1998 in Seattle, Washington (state), Washington. The band is known for its distinctive visual style and slow, heavy sound, which blends diverse genres including doom metal, ...

. The pair later collaborated in the experimental doom metal project Ascend. In 2007 Densley formed Eagle Twin, who released their debut on Southern Lord Recordings in 2009.Kim Kelly, "Choice Cuts," ''

Terrorizer Terrorizer is an American grindcore band from Los Angeles, California. It was originally formed in 1985 as Unknown Death by vocalist Oscar Garcia and guitarist Jesse Pintado. They would rename themselves Terrorizer after recruiting drummer Pete ...

'' #189, October 2009, p. 22. His younger brother, Tyler Densley, was the singer for hardcore band Lewd Acts.

References

Year of birth missing (living people) Living people American male singers American heavy metal singers American heavy metal guitarists American male songwriters 20th-century American composers Musicians from Salt Lake City University of Utah alumni Guitarists from Utah Songwriters from Utah American male guitarists 20th-century American guitarists 20th-century American male musicians {{US-metal-guitarist-stub