Tom MacLean is an English

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 ...

multi-instrumentalist. He is best known as the guitarist of

To-Mera To-Mera are an English progressive metal band from South Oxfordshire. They were formed in 2004 and play a technical style of metal characterized by long songs, multiple time changes and jazz interludes. History Formation of the band The word ...

and as the former bassist of Haken. MacLean was taught the classical guitar at the age of 10 and changed to electric at 14. It was not until he was 25 that he started to play the bass in order to join Haken. Since leaving Haken, MacLean has been a member of the progressive metal band Psion.

To-Mera

To-Mera formed in 2005 between a few friends: Julie Kiss (vocals), Lee Barrett (bass), Akos Pirisi (drums), Hugo Sheppard (keyboard), and MacLean. They released a demo, which caught the attention of

Candlelight Records Candlelight Records is a British record label based in London, founded by former Extreme Noise Terror bass guitarist Lee Barrett in 1993. The record label originally specialized in black metal, but quickly expanded to various other forms of hea ...

. The band's musical style was drastically different from conventional

; the band drew upon a plethora of influences such as

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 ...

. In 2006, Candlelight released Transcendental. In 2008, To-Mera released their next album,

Delusions A delusion is a fixed belief that is not amenable to change in light of conflicting evidence. As a pathology, it is distinct from a belief based on false or incomplete information, confabulation, dogma, illusion, hallucination, or some other m ...

, in 2008. In 2009, they parted with Candlelight. Hugo Sheppard left after this, and they recruited Richard Henshall for the post. They then self released the

Earthbound ''EarthBound'', originally released in Japan as is a 1994 role-playing video game, role-playing video game developed by Ape, Inc., Ape Inc. and HAL Laboratory and published by Nintendo for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System as the second e ...

EP. Their next full length, "Exile", was released in September of 2012.

Haken

Haken was formed by school friends Ross Jennings, Matthew Marshall, and Richard Henshall at first in 2004. The members parted ways for a while to study at university, reuniting in 2007. The current members found Peter Jones on keyboards and Raymond Hearne on

drums The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...

. Jones left soon after, and was replaced by Diego Tejeida. Charlie Griffiths was hired as their guitarist, and Henshall brought in To-Mera bandmate Maclean on bass. They released two demos in 2007 and 2008, which received excellent reviews. Their music caught the attention of Sensory Records, and the first album, Aquarius, was released in 2010. MacLean left Haken in 2013 and was replaced by Conner Green.

Psion

In May 2015, Tom MacLean co-founded Psion, a

band that includes drummer Jasper Barendregt, guitarist Nikolas Wolf, and lead vocalist Bryan Ramage. Psion released their self-titled debut EP on 1 September 2017 and made it available for streaming on

Bandcamp Bandcamp is an American online music distribution platform founded in 2008 by Oddpost co-founder Ethan Diamond and programmers Shawn Grunberger, Joe Holt and Neal Tucker, with an office and record store in Oakland, California. Acquired by Epic ...

Twelve Tone Studio

At the end of 2019, Tom MacLean launched his mixing and mastering service, Twelve Tone Studio, for rock, metal, and alternative artists.

Discography

With To-Mera

*(2005) Demo *(2006) '' Transcendental'' *(2008) ''

'' *(2009) ''

'' (EP) *(2012) ''Exile''

With Haken

*(2007) Demo *(2008) ''Enter the 5th Dimension'' *(2010) '' Aquarius '' *(2011) '' Visions'' *(2013) ''

The Mountain The Mountain () was a political group during the French Revolution. Its members, called the Montagnards (), sat on the highest benches in the National Convention. The term, first used during a session of the Legislative Assembly, came into ge ...

With Psion

*(2017) ''Psion'' (EP)

With Athemon

*(2021) ''Athemon''

With Brutta

*(2022) ''Brutta''

With Horasan

*(2022) ''Horasan'' (EP)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Maclean, Tom Progressive metal guitarists British heavy metal guitarists Living people Year of birth missing (living people)