Silas McQuain (drums) - Matt "Gzuz" Gonzales (tables, keys, samples) Bryan Dilling (lead vocals) - Kris Demers (bass, vocals) - George Silva (guitar, vocals)
Evolution cannot be stopped. And from their initial conception in late 1997, the Spokane, Washington-based group Five Foot Thick has been on a steady path of evolution—helping to redefine the scope, power and influence of tyrannically heavy music in the Pacific Northwest. Formed from the fragments of several influential Spokane acts, few other Northwest groups have achieved the independent success of the band.
Raised on a steady diet of now classic ‘80s metal and hip-hop, the earliest incantations of FFT are a powerfully dark fuse of hip-hop and metal. Within months of their formation, the band quickly ascended to the top ranks of the Spokane music scene. After several changes to the rhythm section, however, the band was forced to regroup. But strangely, any and all changes to the FFT formula have only seemed to help the group coalesce into something previously unrealized; much stronger, diverse, textured—and most notably—hellishly thick and meaty.
In 2000, FFT would release the debut Circles. It would not only help to catapult the band into the top echelon of the Northwest’s unsigned acts, but it would later go on to become one of the most successful independent releases in Spokane history. A monstrous blend of hip-hop meets metal sorcery; Circles would go onto to sell nearly 3,000 copies. And the fallout of Circles was obvious: FFT was officially a staple of the Northwest metal scene. Substantial regional radio play, The Vans Warped Tour, a spot in the Jagermeister music lineup, bills alongside the likes of Coal Chamber, (Hed)Pe, Orange 9-mm, P.O.D. and Suicidal Tendencies followed—not to mention their inclusion in more action-sports videos than you can shake a middle-finger at.
Word of the band’s intensive live assault spread quickly. And aside from helping established acts to sell-out shows in the region, FFT was doing something else that very few acts in the region were: Selling-out their own large venue shows. Eventually, Five Foot Thick would sell-out of Spokane’s Metropolitan Theater of Performing Art—a beautiful 750-person venue that local bands rarely played, let alone sold-out. At this point, Northwest showgoers weren’t hoping to be consumed by a throbbing horde of hundreds of crazed metal fans at every FFT encounter. They were anxiously expecting it at every single FFT live show.
In May of 2003, the band would end its run as perhaps one of the most successful independent bands in the Northwest, signing with Eclipse Records and becoming the obvious local opener for the likes of Drowning Pool, ill Nino, Chimaira, Godsmack, Slayer, and Hatebreed. Fall of 2003 will see the long-awaited follow-up to Circles with Blood Puddle, a release that colorfully illustrates the band’s natural evolution from hip-hop inspired metal to a chainsaw-buzz blend of new school metal from old school roots.
For FFT, evolution appears not to be a theory, but a destiny filled with success. In the Eclipse era of FFT, success continues to be as imminent. Only the scope of that success remains in question…
