SINDROME

TROY DIXLER

Sindrome from Highland Park outside Chicago, Illinois was a late eighties / early nineties thrash metal band that disbanded after releasing two superb demo tapes. Their first demo Into the Halls of Extermination was released in 1987 and their second demo was recorded in 1991 titled Vault of Inner Conscience. But even if the bands demotapes made a stirr in the metal underground the band somehow didn't sign a record label, Roadrunner Records showed some interest in the band but it never came to fruition. Now, more than twenty years later the band will finally release their back catalogue on CD and LP through Century Media Records. I have talked to Sindrome's vocalist Troy Dixler about the past and the upcoming release.

We can begin with a small presentation of Sindrome.

Troy: We formed in late 1986. Shaun Glass came from Terminal Death, Chris Mittelbrun came from Death Strike / Master and I came from Devastation. All three were Chicago based death metal bands that had gained popularity in the underground. We recorded two releases, the first Into the Halls of Extermination in 1987, and the second Vault of Inner Conscience in 1991. The band broke up in 1993.

Sindrome - Shaun D. Glass, Tony Ochoa, Troy Dixler, Mick Vega & Ken Savich

What do you think of your old demo tapes in retrospect?

Troy: I think that’s more of a question for the fans. It’s always hard judging your own work. Most people will be more critical of their own work than other bands. The music has out here for a long time and considering Century Media decided to re-release it in 2016 says people still are into the songs all these years later which is the ultimate compliment.

What would you say the reason was that Sindrome never signed a record deal? You were approached by different labels right? I've heard rumors of Roadrunner being interested in the band?

Troy: Yes, we did have offers including one from Roadrunner, but at the time the offers were coming in, we had lost Chris Mittelbrun who was our main song writer and guitar player. We had to get him replaced before we could sign a recording contract let alone continue playing live shows. Chris leaving the band left us in a very bad place that took us a few years to recover from.

Why and when did you disband?

Troy: That’s really part of the untold story of Sindrome. The short story is that it all had to do with lineup changes. After we recorded Into the Halls of Extermination and did a few tours, Chris Mittelbrun decided to leave the band. At that time, Chris and I were the main song writing team. He would take input from Shaun and work closely with me on the song structure and how I was envisioning my vocal lines. After Chris left us, we continued to promote Halls but we weren’t playing shows for the obvious fact we didn’t have a guitar player. It was not easy to replace him and took a few years.

This led to many people asking when/why we weren’t playing shows. We tried to keep a positive spin on it all the while trying to replace Chris. By 1991 we had a new set of guitar players when we recorded Vault of Inner Conscience. By that time, our style had changed considerably and Rob Welsh ended up taking the place of Chris as the song writer working closely with me on my vocal style and it took some time to get our styles to merge together. He would incorporate input from Mick and Shaun and together we wrote those songs.

History repeated itself and before we even released Vault. We ended up parting ways with Rob. We attempted to replace him with Ken Savich who relocated to join us from San Francisco, but in the end Ken never ended up writing/recording or playing live with Sindrome during his time in the band. At that point the writing was on the wall that we ended up breaking up. It’s difficult enough to replace one of your key song writers once, but twice proved to be too difficult.

Have you ever considered to reunite Sindrome? Are you still in contact with the other members?

Troy: There’s no plans to reunite the band. We are releasing “Resurrection – The Complete Collection” release out through Century Media in 2016 because there still is a lot of interest in the band all these years later. I stay in contact with most of the members. Everyone looks back on the hard work and dedication and are proud of Sindrome.

In 2016 you will finally release an official album the compilation album Resurrection - The Complete Collection, what can you tell us about it?

Troy: The release has all the songs from Into the Halls of Extermination recorded in 1987 as well as all the songs recorded in 1991 from Vault of Inner Conscience. When we were transferring the material from analog tape to hard disk, we found that we recorded a sixth song in 1987 called Brought to the End. All of the members of the band forget we recorded it and left it off the release. So that unreleased song is now included. We took all the material and had it remastered.

Technology has come a long way since the late 80s / early 90s and all of the songs sound way better than the originals. Additionally we have a live show that we did opening for Death on the Scream Bloody Gore tour in 1988 from the Iron Rail in Chicago as a bonus. The live show is raw but still captures the energy and crowd response. It was a memorable show for all the members of the band. There are two unreleased songs on the live show that were never recorded. One is called Surround the Prisoner and the other Psychic Warfare.

Resurrection - The Complete Collection (2016)

How did you end up with Century Media Records?

Troy: Shaun was contacted by the label and asked if we would consider the idea of doing the release. He asked me and I thought after all these years if they are serious about putting the material out properly it was worth it. I knew it was going to be expensive to get the material off the tapes let alone getting the original artwork and old photos scanned. It was obvious that Century Media was doing this because the team at the label truly are fans of metal and felt that Sindrome deserved to be re-released properly to the world after all these years.

Early on into the bands career you gigged with New Jersey legends Whiplash, how was it to play alongside them?

Troy: We had a great time touring with Whiplash. Tony Portaro is such a professional. We always watched their set. It was funny he would have these raps he would say between songs, and by the time we were half way into the tour all of us would stand next to each other and say them along with him. It was like a challenge to make sure we got his words right. Joe Cangelosi is a monster drummer and it’s no shock he continues to play with many well-known bands over the years. I personally lost touch with them for a long time and after reconnecting I learned about Tony Bono’s passing. I have nothing but the fondest memories of Tony. He always was hanging and cracking jokes with us. There were some real memorable times on that tour.

You opened up for Chuck Schuldiner's Death on their Scream Bloody Gore tour in 1988. How was that?

Troy: We used to write letters back and forth with Chuck when they had their demos out. When they released Scream Bloody Gore, death metal was just starting to make its way out of the underground and they were pioneers with that release. When Chuck asked us to go on that tour it was an honor. The bands got along well and being it was our second time out on the road for Into the Halls of Extermination many of the fans were familiar with the songs.

Chicago had a vibrant metal scene in the late eighties. Did you share the stage with any local heroes such as Wrath, Aftermath, Devastation, Num Skull, Znöwhite, Master, Zoetrope or similar?

Troy: Chicago had a lot of bands that came out in those days. We had a very tight community and everyone knew each other quite well. You have to figure that we didn’t have the Internet and going to shows was everyone’s passion. When I was in Devastation, we played with Master at their first Chicago show in 1986. We also played with Terminal Death. In Sindrome, we were trying to move away from being a local band and only played when we were on the two tours. Being that we ended up going through the lineup change with Chris, it stopped us from playing live for obvious reasons.

Prior to the release of Vault of Inner Concience Lääz Rockit's axeman Ken Savich joined Sindrome. How did that come about and were you friends with Lääz Rockit even if they were based in San Francisco?

Troy: After we finished recording Vault of Inner Conscience at Morrisound Studios in Tampa, Florida, we had spent over a month together as a band. When we got home we ended up having a falling out with Rob Welsh. Around that time, we ended up taking a trip out to San Francisco and ended up staying with Craig Locicero’s house from Forbidden. Ken Savich was Craig’s roommate. We played the unreleased Vault songs for Craig and Ken and mentioned that we were looking to replace Rob.

Ken liked the songs and decided he would relocate to Chicago to join us. We ended up putting Ken’s picture on the Vault release but he didn’t write or record any of the songs on the release. We really didn’t know the other Laaz Rockit guys and Ken was only in the band for a short period. He recorded on one of the Laaz Rockit albums but the name escapes me now. (* Editors note: Laaz Rockit - Nothing's Sacred from 1991)

Sindrome Guitarist Chris Mittleburn was also a founding member of Master and he plays on their 1990's debut album, what do you think of their early material and did he share his time between Sindrome and Master?

Troy: We never shared Chris as a guitar player. At the time Chris and I met, I was in Devastation and he was in Master. After we played Master’s first show in 1986 in Chicago, Shaun, Chris and I started talking. Each of us were not happy with our current bands and decided to join forces together and start Sindrome.

What bands were you influenced by during the late eighties?

Troy: We all were and still remain fans of everything from classic NWOBHM to thrash and death metal. If you asked each member their personal favorite bands it would vary. In reality when we wrote the Sindrome material we didn’t think about those influences in any overt way. We got together and wrote the songs organically trying to find our own style.

What do you think of the status that the band still has almost 25 years later?

I mean that it's quite rare to be remembered so long afterwards and the fact that you never released a full-length.

Troy: It’s flattering. As an artist the most important legacy you leave is your music. As we have been reconnecting with old fans and friends through the Sindrome Facebook page, seeing people’s posts about how much they still listen to the music is the best gift of all. Everyone used to talk about how or why Sindrome never released a full length album, now we’re finally getting that story out there.

What's the highlight of your career?

Troy: There were a few highlights. The first was releasing Into the Halls of Extermination, going on the tours and getting all the fan mail of people telling us how much they loved the songs. The second highlight was after releasing Vault of Inner Conscience, the feedback of us previous fans as well as the wider audience we were hitting with the new material was great.

Have you got any funny story to tell, if anything weird has happened while touring or so?

Troy: Nothing that I care to put in print that will live on the Internet forever.

Any last words for our readers?

Troy: Thanks to Ruuth's Inn (Ruthless Metal) for giving us the opportunity to help spread the news. Please visit and like our Sindrome Facebook page. We’re trying to reconnect with our old friends and fans and are hoping you can invite your friends to our page, share our announcements on your walls, groups, web forums with your friends because that is truly the only way we are going to get it known.

By/Ruthless

(23-02-2015)