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The Industrial Alternative-Metal outfit Dope formed in New York City,
New York USA, in 1997 around the core duo of vocalist + rhythm guitarist
Edsel Dope and keyboards player Simon Dope; when the two brothers teamed
with lead guitarist Tripp Eisen, bassist Acey Slade and drummer Preston
Nash the band was ready to hit the NuMetal scene.
After only a handful of shows, Dope secured a major label deal with Epic/Flip
Records and September 1999 saw the release of their debut album, "Felons
And Revolutionaries"; six months later, the crew scored the first
Mainstream Rock top 40 hit with the infectious cover of Dead Or Alive's
"You Spin Me Round (Like A Record)", taken from the soundtrack
to the film "American Psycho"; non-stop touring opening for
such artists as Slipknot, Fear
Factory, Kid Rock and impressive live
performances helped their debut release sell a quarter million copies.
In October 2000 the group recruited a second guitarist, Virus; Eisen
then left to join Static-X, Nash also
departed and before Dope went into the studio to cut the sophomore album,
Sloane 'Mosey' Jentry, who had already played with the band during their
first few club shows, rejoined to play bass, Acey Slade moved over to
guitar and Racci 'Sketchy' Shay was asked to replace original drummer;
"Life" was issued in November 2001, the record peaked at #6
on the Billboard Top Heatseekers list and scraped the lower regions of
The Billboard 200 Albums chart spawning two Mainstream Rock top 30 hit
singles, "Now Or Never" and "Slipping Away".
The following year both Acey Slade and Simon Dope left the line-up; Dope
continued as a four-piece unit and in October 2003 released their third
album, "Group Therapy", through the indie label Recon; the disc
reached the #17 position on the Billboard's Top Independent Albums chart.
Mosey officially retired from the music business and left Dope in early
January of 2004; the remaining members enlisted Powerman
5000's Adrian Ost who served as drummer during the spring tour with
Mushroomhead and Soil.
Later in the year, Brian 'Brix' Milner, former guitarist for Skrape,
was hired to replace Mosey.
Dope completed its fourth album "American Apathy" in 2005 and
inked a new deal with Artemis Records who released it that summer; the
set's lead radio single, "Always", quickly broke into Mainstream
Rock top 40 while the full-length CD hit #14 on the Independent Albums
chart and #128 on The Billboard 200.
The group long-awaited fifth album, "No Regrets", will be released
on March 10 via Koch Records. Edsel Dope, alongside Virus, has revitalized
Dope's line-up on the new record; joining them on bass and backing vocals
is Tripp Tribbet, the younger brother of Mudvayne
and HELLYEAH guitarist Greg Tribbet; on
drums, the band recruited Angel Bartolotta. Zakk Wylde from Black
Label Society lent his signature guitar squeals to Dope on the new
single "Addiction".
Dope biography is an exclusive of 100xr.com
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