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Veilside began as a group in 2004, with Ron Thomas, Bob “Cabo” Hilton, guitarist Jon Badalamenti and vocalist Chris Heller. Chris’s deep religious beliefs offered the sound of Veilside more of a “Creed” feel to the band, with the band’s apex being opening for the cover group ARRA. In 2005, Cabo left the group to join metal rockers KHAOS THEORY, but realized his heart was with Veilside. The problem was, Chris didn’t want to continue, so a new vocalist would have to be found. Bob introduced potential recruit Tony Engel to Jon Badalmenti and Ron Thomas in the summer of 2006. The band’s first rehearsals took place in November of that year, with their first show in May 2007. Throughout the rest of 2007, the band worked on aspects of their live show and writing new songs, while also performing some of the more popular songs that were written with Chris in the band.
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In early 2008, the band put their efforts into recording their first E.P. – the long sold-out “Chapter One”. The band recorded the disc themselves, as well as mixing and mastering it. The artwork was done by unofficial “5th member” Mike Greninger, who would later go on to handle the artwork for all of the CDs. The CD was released in June, with a fantastic crowd at Chicago City Limits in Schaumburg, IL on hand to watch and get their hands on a copy of Veilside’s first commercial work. The CD has gone on to sell out two printings and is now only available via digital retailers. Later that year, a song that the band had recorded with early on with Chris Heller would end up in the horror film “Secrets of the Clown”. The band played all over Chicagoland to support the CD and build their fanbase, often performing shows with another local band on the circuit, RAINE.
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In 2009, Raine broke up and the 4 piece that was Veilside was soon to become five. Guitarist Russ Odean joined in the late summer, and Veilside was offered their first opportunity to open for a “national act” with their show alongside 80’s rockers DOKKEN at Tailgaters in Bolingbrook. Russ had only been in the band for a few days, so he was unable to perform that night, but within a month the band was headed down to St. Louis to work on aspects of their show with the new “twin guitar attack”. The band also put together their first “Breaking the Silence” concert that year at Shark City, which raised just over $1000 (and they were excited about that!)
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In 2010, the band began the year by attending the NAMM Convention in California with all five members, and continued working on building their fanbase. They also played shows with early 90’s rockers NELSON, Tracii Guns’ LA GUNS, and Chicago-based national SOiL that year. They also began playing shows out of their native Chicagoland area with shows in Wisconsin, Indiana, and Michigan. By the end of the year, it became apparent that the band had to write and release new material.
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So 2011 began with a bang. The band decided to record their own material again like they had on “Chapter One”, but this time, pass it off to Chuck Alkazian at Pearl Sound studios (Pop Evil, Trixter) to handle the mixing and mastering. The new EP would also include their popular cover of the Kansas mega-hit “Dust in the Wind”. After skipping that year's NAMM Convention to get the work on the disc completed, “This Time…” was released in March at Blur Nightclub, a club that didn’t even host live music and had a stage built and sound system put in just for the occasion. “This Time…” was released to critical acclaim and moved the band into “the next level” with a radio-ready disc. Later that summer, the band entered into 95 WIIL Rock’s “Bandemonium” contest against almost 200 bands and emerged victorious. This allowed the band to open the “Rock the Ranch” show on the main stage to thousands of fans, and play alongside some of the industry’s heaviest hitters: FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH, THEORY OF A DEADMAN, BLACK STONE CHERRY, CANDLEBOX, HINDER, ALTER BRIDGE, CROSSFADE, SALIVA, and Grammy award winning artist, HALESTORM. The band was riding a wave of popularity with a new disc, and bigger show opportunities. Things were going great…until they weren’t. Guitarist Jon Badalameti informed the band he’d be leaving to pursue family and career and wanted to end on a high note. Thankfully, guitarist John Craig, perhaps one of the most respected guitarists in Chicago offered to fill in until a permanent replacement could be found. John gained notoriety with the band O’DETTE and later LOVEBLAST. While John’s time with the band would only last for 3 months, the band did open for LITA FORD to a near sold-out crowd in November and opened for SHINEDOWN’S ZACK MYERS in December. The band also went through numerous auditions to find the permanent guitarist, but it turns out, they didn’t have to look that far.
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The band began 2012 after attending the NAMM Convention by announcing that another former RAINE guitarist, Mo Ismail, had joined Veilside, and shortly after opened for JACK RUSSELL’S GREAT WHITE at Tailgaters to a near capacity crowd. They also played their fourth annual “Breaking the Silence” show for autism awareness, and raised just short of $9000. The band also played “Rock’n The Valley Fest” alongside 80’s heavy hitters SKID ROW, WARRANT, and TRIXTER, and were invited back to the Ranch for that year’s WIIL ROCK FEST alongside BLACK STONE CHERRY, SAVING ABEL, STATIC X, and TEXAS HIPPIE COALITION, and closed out the year by having Jon Badalamenti join the group on stage for an acoustic performance at the Hemmens Cultural Center opening for the Trans Infinity Orchestra. The momentum back in their direction, they began writing new songs with Mo Ismail on guitar alongside Russ Odean and planned their next EP for a 2013 release.
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2013 began in earnest after the NAMM Convention that year, with a February appearance alongside Swedish rockers AVATAR that included an on-air acoustic performance. The show itself ended up being cancelled due to the blizzard that hit that day. In April, the band played Bobby McGee’s in the south Chicago burbs alongside touring artists WAYLAND and EYE EMPIRE, as well as the band’s first national television appearance on WGN to promote their 5th annual “Breaking the Silence”, which raised a record $13,000 for the cause. The band began recording their 3rd EP at Subclass Studios in Chicago with engineer Joe Tiberi. The recording stopped in July so the band could do a 4 shows in 3 states in 3 days mini-tour, and continued through August until the band played “Rockin’ The Farm” alongside RATT, SEBASTIAN BACH, DOKKEN, LITA FORD, WARRANT, and KIP WINGER, and then did an acoustic set alongside WHITE LION’S MIKE TRAMP, followed by a show with TRIXTER . In September, the band released their third EP “Meanwhile…” at Shark City in Glendale Heights, IL. The band also opened a sold out show with STRYPER that fall.
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2014 started out much like prior years, with the annual trip to the NAMM Convention. In March, the band announced they’d be heading to Arizona for Memorial Day weekend to do a series of shows called The Desert Rocks Concert Series alongside QUEENSRYCHE and WARRANT. In April, the band played their 6th annual “Breaking the Silence” autism awareness show and raised just under $10,000 for the cause, bringing the total raised to over $50,000 since the annual show started. In May, the band announced they would be once again be at the Golf Farm in August – this time with QUEENSRYCHE, SEBASTIAN BACH, WARRANT, GREAT WHITE, LA GUNS, and ENUFF Z’NUFF. In June, the band released a new single “Barrel of the Gun” to go along with the digital release of the “Meanwhile…” EP. In July, the band played the annual “Breast Fest” and later appeared on the “Mancow Show” on TV and radio and played a show alongside ENUFF Z’NUFF at Tailgaters. At the end of July, the band announced they'd parted ways with guitarist Mo Ismail, and after finishing their summer schedule with the Shred Demon David Shankle on guitar (ex Manowar, DSG) the band announced that they had brought on new guitarist Tom Finnelly.
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