Balsac the Jaws of Death is the guitarist in the rock band GWAR. He appears as a humanoid creature with a face resembling a bear-trap. BalSac is usually portrayed wielding a giant battleaxe.

According to GWAR Mythos, Balsac hails from the planet Ennui. His age is rumoured to be pi x 10^21,000,000. His weight is 12 tons when fully dressed, and 98 pounds in a towel. His height is described as “taller than Oderus.” Balsac “writes songs by scratching his scrotum with his guitar and prefers quadriplegics over blondes. Invented V.D. and has a bear-trap for a face.” He is generally depicted as the most intelligent of the principal characters (verified by oracle Scroda Moon), and is generally respected as such by other characters. He is also depicted as the member with the most serious drinking problem - drawings of him often feature a goblet in his hand, and he claimed to be immune to the effects of the Jagermonsta because he was “already drunk.”

At GWAR’s genesis, Balsac played bass. However, early in the band’s history, Balsac became the guitar player. He has occasionally been featured as a vocalist. Balsac’s vocals can be heard on the song “Mary Anne” off the album We Kill Everything. His (Derks’) first GWAR song was “Black and Huge,” and the first song featuring him on vocals was “The Needle.” “The Needle” was never released on a Metal Blade album, but it was a Slave Pit Single, and was re-recorded as “Escape From The Mooselodge” on We Kill Everything, featuring Oderus Urungus on vocals. “Black and Huge” was originally recorded after Hell-O was released in the United States.

Balsac was originally played by Chris Bopst, and at that time, Balsac was the band’s bassist. It was Bopst who gave Balsac The Jaws of Death his full name. However, by the time Hell-O had been released, Beefcake and Balsac switched roles and Steve Douglas had replaced Bopst. Douglas played the character until soon after Hell-O was released when he passed the torch to Michael Derks. With the exception of a few gigs in Europe in 1991 (where Balsac was played by Barry Ward), Derks has carried the title since. On a side note, Derks also runs the GWAR mailing list and has performed in Gwar spin-off bands X-Cops, RAWG, and the Dave Brockie eXperience.

A large portion of GWAR’s catalog was written by Derks, and he has contributed to the production of several songs.

According to the timeline of Slave Pit, Inc., Michael Derks joined the band in 1988, making him the second longest (after Dave Brockie) serving member of GWAR. The character is one of the two longest-serving, having been in every single incarnation of GWAR.

David Ball (born 3 May 1959 in Blackpool, Lancashire) is an English producer and electronic musician, who has played in bands such as Soft Cell and The Grid, and collaborated with producers such as Ingo Vauk and Chris Braide. He is usually referred to as ‘Dave Ball’ on record sleeves.

As a student of Leeds Polytechnic Fine Arts University (now Leeds Metropolitan University), renaissance man Ball experimented with electronic sounds and synthesizers, a burgeoning technology at the time which was just beginning to gain acceptance with artists such as Kraftwerk and The Human League. He met fellow student Marc Almond, who, taken with Ball’s unique take on avant-garde electronic soundscapes, asked him to help in developing music to complement his performance art pieces. The two cut a 4-track EP, funded by Ball, entitled Mutant Moments, and were soon signed to the small label Some Bizarre Records. Working alongside Almond, who by this time had taken on the role of lead singer and lyricist at Ball’s suggestion, the band achieved massive success with their cover of Gloria Jones’s Tainted Love, which reached #1 in seventeen different countries and #8 in the U.S., where it stayed on the charts for 43 weeks, holding a then Guinness World Record for the longest such stay and becoming the biggest-selling UK single of 1981.

Soft Cell remained major pop stars in the UK, releasing a string of singles which all reached the UK Top 5. Two more albums, arranged and scored by Ball, were released to critical success. The duo went on their separate ways to pursue solo projects in 1983, just before the release of their third album, This Last Night in Sodom.

Ball then went on to release a solo album entitled In Strict Tempo, featuring Gavin Friday of The Virgin Prunes, and Genesis P Orridge of Throbbing Gristle. He then went on to produce electronic dance music records alongside producer Ingo Vauk and collaborator Richard Norris. Ball eventually teamed with Norris to form the techno group The Grid, which enjoyed success with the million selling hit “Swamp Thing”. The Grid also remixed many acts including Brian Eno, Erasure, Depeche Mode, David Bowie, Happy Mondays, Carter USM, David Sylvian & Robert Fripp, Pet Shop Boys, Boy George, Sophie B Hawkins and many more. Ball and Vauk also produced The SAS and the Glam That Goes With It by Earl Brutus.

In 1991 Soft Cell reunited for three songs on the album “Tenement Symphony”, under the name of “Marc Almond Feat. The Grid”.

Soft Cell reformed in 2002 and released a new album titled: “Cruelty Without Beauty” & spawned another hit “Monoculture”.

The Grid reformed recently and released a new single entitled “Put Your Hands Together” at the end of 2007 with mixes by The Grid, Paul Jackson, MHC and Kriss Darang which did very well in the clubs.

The Grid new album in 10 years entitled “Doppelganger” was released in March 2008 to critical acclaim on the Some Bizzare label & the act are set to perform at Glastonbury, Glade and Brighton Festival’s in the Sumer of 2008, as well as a major gig at the Scala in London’s Kings Cross with major support from Phil Hartnoll of Orbital and Dr Alex Paterson of The Orb.

David Nizaam Baksh (born 26 July 1980 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada), better known as Dave “Brownsound” Baksh is the lead guitarist and vocalist of heavy metal/reggae band Brown Brigade, but is most notable for being the ex-lead guitarist of Canadian punk band Sum 41.

First song Dave covered was a song called “Caught in a Mosh” by the band Anthrax. Baksh was heavily influenced by the bands Anthrax, Megadeth and Metallica which started him off playing music. Baksh met his future band members, Deryck Whibley and Steve Jocz, at highschool, but he later dropped out because he thought it was the only thing that kept him away from music.

Baksh joined Sum 41 as the third member, after Deryck Whibley and Steve Jocz formed the band in the summer of 1996. In addition to being the lead guitarist, Baksh also provided back-up vocals. He generally plays a Paul Reed Smith McCarty Double Cut Solid body, but he also plays Paul Reed Smith Single Cuts and Gibson Les Pauls and also a Gibson X-Plorers studio (Alpine White). For his pedals, he uses MXR Effects, a Digitech Whammy, and Dunlop wah Pedals. He uses Marshall Amplification as well. Baksh went by the name Pleasure in Sum 41’s alter-ego band, Pain for Pleasure. Baksh also goes by the name Dave Brownsound Baksh, or also “Hot Chocolate”, probably playing off of both his Indian heritage and brown sound, the name Eddie Van Halen coined for his own guitar tone. He has stated his favorite Sum 41 songs are Mr. Amsterdam, Machine Gun, Pain For Pleasure, and The Bitter End. On March 27th 2008 at the Kool Haus in Toronto, Dave came on stage after their final encore, Pain for Pleasure.

On May 11, 2006, Baksh announced in a statement through his management company that he was leaving Sum 41 for personal reasons. He explained that he couldn’t keep trying to express himself through guitar skills without being a pain to the band. During the post-Chuck hiatus, he decided it was time to move on from Sum 41 and to focus on his side project “Brown Brigade”, his new band that he founded with his cousin Vaughn and with which he currently plays lead guitar and does vocals.
Brown Brigade’s debut album “Into the Mouth of Badd(d)ness” was released September 18, 2007 in Canada and Japan only and became critically successful, even though it wasn’t released widely in the US and haven’t brought the band any outside attention, the band still continues to tour Canada in support of the album.
Baksh stated that the band is currently working on a bunch of new and experimental songs to be released for free on the band’s website. The new songs, unlike the band’s traditional music, would feature varied music such as Punk, Funk and Reggae and not Metal like the debut album.
In a show that took place on March 27, 2008 in Toronto, Ontario, Baksh joined Sum 41 to play “Pain for Pleasure” at the end of the show. Some think this may be a hint of him coming back, however, Deryck Whibley has said in a Youtube video that Dave would continue with Brown Brigade. Deryck said that “Brownsound is not rejoining the band. He is happy doing his own thing.”

Brian Baker (born February 25th, 1965) is an American punk rock musician. He is best known as one of the founding members of the hardcore punk band Minor Threat, and as a guitarist in Bad Religion since 1994 alongside Greg Hetson and later Brett Gurewitz as well. In Minor Threat he originally played bass guitar before switching to guitar in 1982 when Steve Hansgen joined the band, and then moved back to bass after Hansgen’s departure. He also founded Dag Nasty in 1985, was part of the original line-up of Samhain, and has had stints in Doggy Style, The Meatmen (with fellow Minor Threat member Lyle Preslar), Government Issue, and Junkyard.

In 1994, he was offered a touring spot with R.E.M. but declined, opting instead to join Bad Religion as Brett Gurewitz’s replacement. In early 2000, he was asked to join Guns n’ Roses by Axl Rose but he declined, saying that he would stay in Bad Religion no matter how much money he was offered. He has also in the past experimented with a more pop direction influenced by U2, with a band called 400. Baker briefly toured with Me First and the Gimme Gimmes in 2005 and appeared on Canadian punk band Penelope’s second album.

Ian Bairnson (born 3 August 1953, Levenwick, Shetland Isles, Scotland) is a Scottish musician, famous for being one of the core members of The Alan Parsons Project. He is a multi-instrumentalist, who has played saxophone and keyboards, although he is best known as a guitarist.

While born in Shetland, Bairnson grew up in Edinburgh, Midlothian, Scotland.

He was a session guitarist before joining up in 1973 with former Bay City Rollers musicians David Paton and Billy Lyall in the band, Pilot, and contributed the harmony guitar parts to their hit single, “Magic”. During this time with Pilot, he first collaborated with Parsons, the record producer on their debut self-titled album. It was this relationship that helped incorporate most of the band’s members (bassist/lead singer Paton and drummer Stuart Tosh) into the Alan Parsons Project. He played the distinctive guitar solo on the track “I Wouldn’t Want to Be Like You” from Parson’s I Robot album.

As a guitarist, he has been featured on every Project album, including the 1984 side project Keats. He has also been featured on albums like Kate Bush’s The Kick Inside, and with the band Bucks Fizz (he wrote two of their Top 20 hits, “If You Can’t Stand The Heat” and “Run for Your Life”).

Currently, he is a session guitarist, and has been touring with a number of different bands, the latest being Junk (Bairnson, Jesús Gabaldón, Pau Chaffer, Sarah Rope and Ángel Celada).

Randolph Charles Bachman (the Bachman family name is pronounced as “back-man”) (OC OM ) (born September 27, 1943) was lead guitarist and songwriter of the 1970s rock bands, The Guess Who and Bachman-Turner Overdrive. Bachman was also a member of the band Brave Belt with Chad Allan and a band called Ironhorse, and has recorded numerous solo albums.

Born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Bachman lives on Salt Spring Island, British Columbia, near Vancouver Island, and is married to singer/songwriter Denise McCann. They were married on March 27, 1982. Bachman is a former member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In an interview on CBC Radio One, he noted that his family is now “more spiritual.”

The guitarist had an operation on his shoulder in November of 2007 to repair a torn rotator cuff. The operation was successful and he is playing guitar now as always.

In 2000, he made a guest appearance on The Simpsons as himself with his former Bachman-Turner Overdrive band-mate, C.F. Turner. Simpsons creator Matt Groening (whose father is originally from Winnipeg), is a well known BTO fan. Homer Simpson yells at Bachman to “get to the working overtime part” while playing “Takin’ Care of Business”.

In 2001 Bachman received an honorary Doctorate of Music from Brandon University in Brandon, Manitoba along with the other members of the Guess Who. In 2005 Bachman was awarded the Order of Manitoba, the highest award in the Province of Manitoba.Bachman, along with The Guess Who, was also the recipient of The Governor General’s Performing Arts Award, Canada’s foremost distinction for excellence in the performing arts, in 2002. In 2008, he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada.

Since the summer of 2005, Bachman created and is currently hosting the series Vinyl Tap on CBC Radio One, where he tells stories about music and musicians while playing appropriate recordings.

Randy helped Kalan Porter on his CD 219 Days. He suggested that Kalan do a drone on his violin on one of his songs, In Spite Of It All. He was also featured in his song, And We Drive, playing a guitar solo near the end of the song.

Bachman tours with his own band, the Randy Bachman Band and the Bachman-Cummings Band. He has also created a popular theatre show he calls “Every Song Tells A Story” featuring Bachman live and unplugged with his band, telling the stories behind the writing of his famous hits from the 1960s and 70s. Randy Bachman and Burton Cummings toured throughout Canada as Bachman & Cummings in the summer of 2006 with Toronto’s The Carpet Frogs.

Randy Bachman has also released an album of original melodic jazz songs called “Jazz Thing” which is available on his official website.

Matt Bachand is an American guitarist born in April 29, 1977. He has very strong Death metal and Thrash metal influences and he is also backing vocalist for the metalcore band Shadows Fall. He is known for his deep growls or Death growl which is often heard in Death metal genre. In his earlier days around the early through the mid 1990s he was a guitarist for the Death metal band Exhumed(not the Deathgrind band) and did play in another Death metal called Perpetual Doom for a little while. Matt and Jon formed Shadows Fall in late 1995 and released their first album Somber Eyes to the Sky in 1997, which was Matt Bachand self produced label Lifeless Records. He also played guitar and sang in a band called Empty,who released an 11 song cd,”Before the Sunrise”, through wilderness records in 1996.The music is a far cry from heavy metal,and features Matt and Jeff Kukucka harmonizing vocals together and playing acoustic guitars throughout.

He uses a custom Ibanez Prestige RGA series guitar (MBM1 Matt Bachand Signature model) and two custom Ibanez SZ guitars. One SZ has a red finish and the other has a natural finish with a five piece neck. All of his guitars feature active EMG pickups, an 81 in the bridge position and a 60 or 85 in the neck position. He also uses Krank Revolution amplifiers and cabinets.

Ayub Bachchu is a famous Bangladeshi rock musician and the leading guitarists in the country. Born in 16 August at Chittagong, Bangladesh he was initially a member of the band Feelings and later he joined the band Souls as lead guitarist. Finally he formed his own band titled LRB (the acronym originally came from Little River Band, but since another band already had that name, Bachchu changed it to Love Runs Blind).LRB is the first band in Bangladeshi Band history to release two double albums. He is well known for his distinctive headgear and guitars. Even though he started out as a Rock musician he eventually branched out to the more mainstream music of Bangladesh. Nevertheless, Ayub Bachchu has contributed heavily to the development of Bangladeshi Rock Music. He is popular equally as a Singer as well as a guitarist and Composer. Now, he is one of the greatest singer of all time in Bangladeshi history. He dedicated himself to promote all instrument player of Bangladesh and make instrument paying more popular here. Jimi Hendrix & Joe Satriani are his inspirations as a guitarist[citation needed]. Ayub Bachchu has his own recording Studio at Mogbazar, Dhaka named, AB Kitchen.

Trey Azagthoth (born George Emmanuel III March 26, 1965) is an American musician best known as founder and guitarist of the Florida death metal band Morbid Angel.

Azagthoth has said that he is a fan of Eddie Van Halen and Jimi Hendrix. He began playing at the age of 16. His playing features much utilization of the whammy bar, complex finger tapping, extensive use of a Morley Wah-wah pedal and other effects, and wailing guitar solos that have a distinct tone fans attempt to consider his trade-mark sound. He also does synth work for Morbid Angel. He also cites Mozart as a huge influence and inspiration on his music. Paradoxically, he also claims most of his playing is purely from self-expression. His state of mind when he solos is what he refers to as the “Temple of Ostx”. A collection of some of his famous guitar solos from Morbid Angel’s six album “Formulas Fatal to the Flesh” were put on a B-side record entitled “Love of Lava” which later were included on the second disc of Morbid Angel’s 8th album, “Heretic”. His non-musical interests include anime his favorite shows are Tenchi Muyo and Gundam, his favorite video games which include the Quake series, Street Fighter, Devil May Cry, and Metal Gear Solid (he met his second wife) and using his Alienware laptop. Decibel Magazine ranked him number 1 on their list of the 20 best death metal guitarists. Trey uses Ibanez and Jackson guitars, and at one point B.C. Rich, but has stated on his personal myspace page that he has worked out a deal with Dean guitars to make, as he calls it, a personalized “X-Core” V. He is most famous for using B.C. Rich Ironbird guitars and lately Jackson Warrior guitars.

The Rocket Summer is an indie rock/power pop band from Colleyville, Texas, composed of musician Bryce Avary who plays and performs all instruments and vocals. Stylistically, The Rocket Summer is characterized by the optimistic nature of his songs.

Bryce Avary became interested with music around the age of 12, when his father bought him his first guitar from a pawn shop. He then started playing various other instruments. Avary started performing local shows as a teenager in Dallas and Fort Worth. As Avary’s local fan base grew, he released his first EP at the age of 16 in limited release during 2000. Distributing the EP himself under the name The Rocket Summer (the name inspired by Ray Bradbury’s short story) to local stores to be sold on consignment, his music appeared on The Adventure Club segment of the KDGE radio station, and quickly became the most requested local band on the program that year.

With increased interest in the music from local, national, and international magazines and the EP selling in 5 continents, in 2003 Bryce recorded and released his debut album Calendar Days. The album title comes from a line in the song “TV Family”. Using a $15,000 budget, the album was recorded in Kansas on the label The Militia Group. The album was critically praised as being extremely uplifting, and included varied music (for example, a track including a 6th grade choir that his younger sister was in from Texas). The album sold well throughout the United States and Japan and went bronze in 2005.

Seth Brewton on guitarIn November 2004, Bryce began working with producer Tim O’Heir in Brooklyn to record his second album Hello, Good Friend - the album title coming from the song “Never Knew”. This album included more piano central songs than his previous album. The Rocket Summer has toured the US and Japan extensively and has gained a large fan base. The album was subsequently released by a Christian music label to Christian retail outlets. Although it is not immediately obvious in his lyrics, Avary is a Christian and lets his faith influence his lyrics and his music.

He signed with Island Def Jam Records for his third record, Do You Feel, which was released on July 17th, 2007. The first single from the album is So Much Love. The Rocket Summer has released the music video for So Much Love. On May 16th, the song “Break It Out”, from Do You Feel was added to the TRS website and Myspace. Also, tracks such as “Do You Feel” and “So In This Hour”, after being included on a CD Sampler, and “Save” have been leaked online. On July 11, the entire album was leaked online.

The Rocket Summer toured with the Vans Warped Tour in the summer of 2007 for two months. Although Bryce records all of his own instruments for his records, he tours with a band mostly made up of high school friends. His band currently consists of Seth Brewton on guitar, Matt Bergeland on bass, and Tommy Quinn on drums. His wife, Tara, tours with him as his business manager and sells merchandise at his shows.

When asked what he would do if he weren’t a musician, he replied, “I’m deathly afraid of ‘not’ doing this because I have no idea what I would.”

In January 27, 2008, The Rocket Summer played a series of dates in the UK including major cities such as London, Manchester, Newcastle and Cardiff, with The Secret Handshake and Between the Trees supporting. Before The Rocket Summer’s set every night, Jamie Tworkowski spoke briefly about To Write Love On Her Arms.

Beginning March 14, 2008, The Rocket Summer co-headlined the Alternative Press tour. It started in Houston, Texas and ended in May in Cleveland, Ohio. Also co-headlining was All Time Low, with The Matches, Sonny, and Forever The Sickest Kids supporting - Live Photos from AP Tour.

The Rocket Summer will be returning to the UK with a headlining show beginning on June 28, 2008 in Yeovil and ending on July 16, 2008 in Birmingham.

It has been revealed that The Rocket Summer will be returning to the United States for a headlining fall tour. According to a video blog posted by Bryce Avary on June 4, 2008, The Secret Handshake, Phantom Planet and The Morning Light will be supporting The Rocket Summer for the fall tour in the United States. Dates for this tour are currently available on The Rocket Summer’s website. In the mean time between tours, Bryce Avary has stated that he will be writing and recording new songs.