Shaun 'Winter' Taylor-Steels (born Shaun Steels, 22 August 1970) is a British heavy metal

drummer A drummer is a percussionist who creates music using drums. Most contemporary western music ensemble, bands that play Rock music, rock, Pop music, pop, jazz, or Contemporary R&B, R&B music include a drummer for purposes including timekeepi ...

and

bassist A bassist (also known as a bass player or bass guitarist) is a musician who plays a bass instrument such as a double bass (upright bass, contrabass, wood bass), bass guitar (electric bass, acoustic bass), keyboard bass (synth bass) or a low br ...

. Steels, born in

Normanton, West Yorkshire Normanton is a town in the civil parish of Normanton and Altofts, in the City of Wakefield in West Yorkshire, England. It is north-east of Wakefield and south-west of Castleford. The civil parish extends west and north to the River Calder, W ...

, is of Scottish and Norwegian descent on his mother's side of the family. Steels replaced Bill Law in

My Dying Bride My Dying Bride are an English doom metal band formed in Bradford. Since their inception in 1990, they have released 15 studio albums, five EPs, one demo, one box set, four compilation albums, one live album, and one live CD/DVD release. Along ...

, and once was a member of

Anathema The word anathema has two main meanings. One is to describe that something or someone is being hated or avoided. The other refers to a formal excommunication by a Christian denomination, church. These meanings come from the New Testament, where a ...

. Like many other metal musicians, he has a pseudonym and adopted the stage name 'Winter'. Shortly before the release of the 2006 album ''

A Line of Deathless Kings ''A Line of Deathless Kings'' is the ninth studio album by English doom metal band My Dying Bride. It was released on 9 October 2006. A limited edition of the album comes in a hard clamshell case with a double-sided poster and five postcards, d ...

'', Steels announced his permanent departure from My Dying Bride due to health concerns. In the band's official statement concerning his departure, Steels is quoted as saying, "I would just like to salute MDB for the good times and wish them all well in the future, I feel I am not ready to fulfill the duties in a manner befitting MDB at this time and have decided to stand down. I am sad to be leaving but at this time I feel it is for the greater good of the band". Steels also recorded drums with the Norwegian metal band Vestige of Virtue alongside Kjetil Ottersen and Frode Forsmo. Steels returned to My Dying Bride as a studio drummer for their 2012 album ''

A Map of All Our Failures A, or a, is the first letter and the first vowel letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, and others worldwide. Its name in English is '' a'' (pronounced ), plural ''aes''. It is similar in shape to the Ancient ...

''. In May 2013, Steels also replaced Hayley Morgan in Yorkshire black metal band Severed Heaven. After two years with the band he left and joined Darkher. He recorded 'realms' and played live with the band from 2015 to 2017. In 2016, Steels recorded a live session with Darkher at the Maida Vale recording studios in London for

BBC Radio 1 BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It specialises in modern popular music and Contemporary hit radio, current chart hits throughout the day. The station provides alternative genres at night, including ...

. In 2017 he rejoined My Dying Bride as a full-time member. but then departed from the band again in 2018. In December 2018, it was wrongly publicised that Steels had been sacked from the band. He had in fact left months before it was made public due to being extremely unhappy with the situation he found himself in.. Steels also plays drums alongside longtime friend and fellow musician

Hamish Glencross Hamish Glencross is a Scottish guitarist best known for his work with the English metal band My Dying Bride. He also co-founded the short-lived Blackdoom Records with the band's other guitarist, Andrew Craighan. Glencross had a brief acting c ...

in the blackened doom metal band Godthrymm. Steels is endorsed by Czarcie Kopyto custom made drum pedals.

References

1970 births Living people English heavy metal drummers 21st-century British drummers {{UK-drummer-stub