Spastic Ink
Spastic Ink was an American progressive metal band.
History
Spastic Ink was formed in 1993 by guitarist Ron Jarzombek of Watchtower after recovering from multiple hand surgeries that rendered him unable to play for a number of years. He would be joined by brother Bobby Jarzombek on drums and bass player Pete Perez. The trio soon recorded a demo album consisting of 11 songs which was brought to various labels in hopes of landing a record deal and the necessary funds to re-record the material properly. However, the band's experimental style was deemed "not commercially viable" and these attempts were unsuccessful. Eventually, the band was able to secure a licensing agreement with German-based independent label Dream Circle Records for the largely unaltered release of the original demos. Ink Complete was released in 1997, and met with positive reception. Only months later, Dream Circle went bankrupt and the band lost out on several thousand dollars in royalties. Ron Jarzombek reissued the album on his own EclecticElectric label in 2000 with 25 minutes of "work tapes" added as bonus material.Work on a follow-up would prove tedious as Ron was forced to expand the original 3-piece line-up due to Bobby and Pete's commitments with Riot and Bobby joining Halford, the new band formed by former Judas Priest vocalist Rob Halford in 2000. Both Sean Reinert and Asgeir Mickelson were set to perform drum tracks at certain times, but backed out due to conflicts with other projects. With the album in limbo, Ron Jarzombek turned his attention to doing a solo album, Solitarily Speaking of Theoretical Confinement, utilizing programmed drums and playing everything himself. Eventually, Ron would re-focus on Spastic Ink, with both Dave Penna and Jeff Eber of Dysrhythmia contributing drum tracks and brother Bobby cutting the rest of the tracks in between work with Halford. Jarzombek also got contributions from fellow guitarist Marty Friedman, Pain of Salvation vocalist Daniel Gildenlöw, Watchtower bandmates Jason McMaster and Doug Keyser, bassists Pete Perez, Sean Malone, Ray Riendeau, and Michael Manring, as well as keyboardists Jens Johansson, Jimmy Pitts, and David Bagsby. Ink Compatible was released in 2004 via Jarzombek's EclecticElectric label and Avalon/Marquee in Japan.