Verbal Deception is a pirate metal band that formed in Calgary, Canada in November 2002. Original members, Kresho Klarich (guitar and vocals), and Walt Fleming (keyboard and piano), met in high school and Taylor Pierce (drums) was a longtime friend of Walt's. With Kresho 15 and Walt and Taylor 16 years old at the time, they wrote their first song in two jam sessions. Their music has become known as being distinct, this as of a direct result of using the bandoneon, which, with the combination of folk, death, power and some prog elements has given the music a distinct pirate metal sound. With Taylor in another city, jamming was difficult so another friend, Johnny Iocca was recruited for drums. The name they chose - "Verbal Deception" - comes from a phrase in the song Mentally Blind by the legendary Death (band) and is a respectful nod to Chuck Schuldiner. Verbal Deception recorded a 6 track self titled EP in April 2004 and over the course of 18 months sold 500 copies.Of their 2004 EP, Alex Meltzer of the Metal Observer said the melodies "conjure up a certain pirate/tavern atmosphere, and give the band a nice touch in today's uniformity." When they landed their first radio interview in August, 2004,with with CJSW's Megawatt Mayhem show and DJ Joshua Wood asked them how their music was different than that of Running Wild's, they asked "Running Who?". The DJ filled them in on who Running Wild was, and after getting over the initial shock that they were not the first pirate metal band in the world, they carried on, still determined to bring their brand of piracy to the wide open seas of metal. In September of 2005, Jordon Bourgeault joined the band as drummer and the group remained a trio until they recruited bassist Terry Baldwin from the metal group Caveat to fill in the low end. An active performance schedule helped establish Verbal Deception's reputation within the underground metal scene and the band was quickly playing to packed venues and community halls. They headed back into the studio in 2005 and 2006 to finish their debut full-length CD. With Terry's commitments to Caveat increasing, they then recruited Matt Petti on bass in April of 2006. Aurum Aetus Piraticus (Latin for the Golden Age of Piracy) is an 11 song CD (with a "buried treasure" track) that was released late June, 2006 to very good reviews and quickly hit the charts on National Campus Radio Stations in Canada (!Earshot Loud and Chart Attack) where it stayed for over 3 months. The CD has also had favourable rewiews from metal magazines such as "Brave Words and Bloody Knuckles", as well as webzine reviews from the Metal Observer, Blooddawn.de and others. Songs have been featured on podcasts hosted by Metal Injection whose shows can be downloaded from the Apple iTunes website. Verbal Deception completed a short six-city US tour in July and will be touring Canada and more US cities in 2006 and 2007. Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verbal_Deception www.verbaldeception.com
