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
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 ...
(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
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