Members
Tim Regan – Lead Guitar, Lead Vocals, Programming
Clinton Ebadi – Lead Vocals
Nick Schneider – Lead Vocals
Mike Wilson – Lead Guitar
Johnn Harbringer – Lead Bass, Programming
Live/Session Musicians:
Kate Hale – Lead Bass
Andrew Glaros – Lead Guitar
Former Members & Live/Session Musicians:
Max Phelps – Lead Guitar
Ari Goldberger – Lead Guitar, Vocals
Aaron El-Zeftawy – Lead Bass
Kyle Paradis – Lead Bass
Greg Jones – Lead Guitar, Vocals
Matt Ibach – Lead Bass, Vocals
Rob Cobbins – Lead Bass
Brett Greenfield – Vocals
History
RECENTLY VACATED GRAVES: TRUE ZOMBIE METAL has one mission: to devour your brains. Formed in 2002 by Tim Regan and inspired by the greatest zombie films, RVG:TZM’s brand of blackened thrashy death metal with doom elements (simply called “zombie metal”) has remained true to its original vision throughout numerous releases and lineups. Though its members are currently spread up and down the US east coast, the band’s lack of a live drummer allows for spontaneous zombie horde attacks any time and anywhere.
RVG:TZM’s first album True Zombie Metal was recorded in 2004. This disc included the Night of the Living Dead-inspired “Beyond the Grave,” the Return of the Living Dead-inspired “Send More Cops” and “Forever to Hunger for Brains” as well as many other tracks that remain staples of “true zombie metal” and the band’s live set. The release was followed by The Dead Will Tour the Earth 2004, a DIY tour that brought RVG:TZM from its stately tomb in Washington, DC to the US Midwest, Canada, New England, and everywhere in between. Vocalist Clinton Ebadi and guitarist Ari Goldberger debuted on this CD and to this day remain essential to the band’s zombified sound.
In 2005, the zombie onslaught grew with the release of the second album, Former Human Sergeant. The songs became faster, thrashier, and more complex. The Hard Rock Zombies-inspired “Zombie Conjuration,” the Hurricane Katrina-inspired “Hurricane Zombie,” and the technically complex “Arisen” provide a solid foundation upon which the epic DOOM tribute title track “Former Human Sergeant” stands triumphantly, bloodied and hungry. This release was followed by the Canadian Zombie Massacre Tour 2005.
The RVG:TZM:DVD Beyond the Grave, chronicling the band’s shows and tours in 2004-2006, was released in 2007 with a bonus CD, Millenia of Rot, containing 1 unreleased song from the Former Human Sergeant sessions, “Arch Vile.” Then the screams fell silent.
The zombie dormancy may have lulled the public into a false sense of security, but that was put to an end with the release of True Zombie Metal and Former Human Sergeant in 2011. To continue the zombie infection, the band embarked on the Massachusetts Zombie Devastation Minitour early in 2012. An interview with RVG:TZM was published in Decibel magazine’s April 2012 Zombie Issue. In May 2012, RVG:TZM supported a benefit to help save a Night of the Living Dead landmark.
In late summer 2012, as the daylight began to die, RVG:TZM simultaneously released two EPs, Consumed by Death and Antietam 1862. Consumed by Death proudly carries the torch of true zombie metal to the extreme; it is a truly lyricless EP. The standard verse-chorus structure has been abandoned and replaced with nothing but the haunted screams of the unburied dead throughout the disc. Antietam 1862 tells the story of the bloodiest day in US history: September 17, 1862 — the Battle of Antietam. Only this time, there are zombies. Fallen soldiers arise as corpses and fight the living on RVG:TZM’s first “concept EP.”
In 2014, RVG:TZM partnered with the splatter horror comic masters Zombie International to create Legions of Decay, a concept EP based on Zombie International’s “All Undead on the Western Front.” The story follows a failed German experiment during World War One to create supersoldiers. Instead, they created the living dead. Zombie International provided the artwork for the EP, as well as the animation for the lyric video of “Operation Orcinianus Copia.”
In 2020, during the global pandemic, RVG:TZM unearthed its own plague upon the Earth, Devoured in Decay. Drawing from elements developed on Legions…, Devoured in Decay takes them to a new level of inhumed putrification, while paying tribute to the band’s roots. Longtime live track “You Die” first appears on Devoured, while “Section 8” pays specific tribute to Bub from the seminal 1985 film Day of the Dead. “Hhrrrdd” is a wordless tale describing the journey of a horde of the undead. A lyric video was conjured for the title track, “Devoured in Decay.”