Weird people, beers, and the corpses of angels... WTF?!
Shortly before the disbanding of Malicious Intent, John Longstreth got a random call from Gene Palubiki. Gene was forming a band with Kansas City metal veteran and Order From Chaos front man Pete Helmkamp and a drummer was needed. "Absolute death metal" Gene barked over the phone when he was asked what he had intended on playing. Quickly the band created a demo that was picked up by Osmose productions of France and a record contract was issued and Hammer of Gods was recorded and released cementing the creation of Angelcorpse.
A European tour and two 7" vinyl singles in a years time passed and Exterminate was written and recorded at the legendary Morrisound recording studios in Tampa Florida. Considered by many to be Angelcorpse's top album.
The beginning of Origin as we know it
The discharge from Angelcorpse proved to be a more powerful and useful fuel than the initial hiring. The original philosophy of "if your going to play death metal, play the fastest, meanest, ugliest, evilest, abomination that people have ever heard" set by Palubiki was still fresh in Longstreth's mind and soon after decided to keep pushing in that direction with local death/thrash/christian(?) band Posession.
The Posession days were short lived and only produced two recordings, a single song demo entitled "The Manifestation" and a well received rendition of Revelations by Iron Maiden for Dwell Records Iron Maiden tribute album, "Calling of Irons pt2" .
Around this time John Longstreth met Paul Ryan and Jeremy Turner at an awkwardly empty Six Feet Under show in Topeka Kansas. Origins demo "A Coming into Existence" was handed to Longstreth and he quickly went to work on learning the songs of what to this day "is simply the most insane demo tape i have ever heard". People know the story of Origin.......Longstreth joins, records two albums cuts a an interesting niche in the scene by exposing the (George Flukes) one handed roll as a blast beat to death metal fans around the world ........ and then leaves.
Migration to New York, Skinless and various session work
After a bad run with a very bad excuse of a booker, John Longstreth was ready to take some time off but was soon recruited by Sherwood Webber and Skinless. He moved to New York for a fresh start and a change and quickly wrote and recorded From Sacrifice to Survival with the band. Tours followed and it became apparent that Longstreth and Skinless simply did not mesh. Longstreth quickly stepped over to Exhumed for a fill in spot on two tours... then toured with The Red Chord... then toured with Dying Fetus. John Longstreth remembers John Gallagher and Dying Fetus as a highlight in his music career as it was a very smooth operating band on an amazing tour full of sold out shows opening for Gwar. What more could a young metal drummer want? Aside from actually playing IN GWAR of course?
Dim Maks n' Karate Chops and the REcoming into existence
At the conclusion of the Fetus tour, John started reviewing a demo that was given to him by Shaune Kelly and Scott Ruth. It was a refreshing mix of black metal, traditional death metal and the odd ball brilliance of what Dim Mak is expected to be. A quick and strong friendship was solidified amongst Longstreth, Kelly, Ruth, and Hornick and Knives of Ice was executed and the result was an unexpected kick at the throats of metal fans around the world.
"It is still one of the nicest surprises when a person talks to me about Knives of Ice, its an album based on complete self indulgence of four individuals not even the slightest bit interested in what the world would have to say about the album.......and people love it!" As Knives of Ice was being recorded Longstreth received a call from Paul Ryan, "hey man, gimme a call, James(king) quit and we're wondering what yer up to". One of the best phone calls ever!
Upon returning to New York with a completed Knives of Ice, Longstreth was excited to come full circle and finally make things right with Origin. The break up was bad. What a better way to fix things than make it work and make it work better with knowledge gained by playing in many different situations with many different people.
Origin revamped, Europe, Antithesis.....
Origin toured the states, Longstreth recorded "Of Lucifer and Lightning" for Angelcorpse and quickly dismissed himself from the band. Finally being completely focused on Origin, the quartet toured Europe for the first time. European fans had been waiting for 8 years to see Origin live. Europe provided a fresh, energetic, and fertile soil for Origin to grow in popularity.
Jeremy Turner rejoined Origin and the song writing for the 4th Origin album had begun. This was to be the return of the "classic Informis era lineup". The reception was deafening. A more melodic, mature, but bestial Origin was exposed to the metal heads of the world. Origin had placed itself a step higher than people had expected. With Antithesis, John Longstreth had unleashed a flurry of double stroke double bass, dubbed "kitten style" by dear friend Mike Heller. "It looks like a kitten nursing"....the double stroke method was developed in necessity to keep up with the sheer speed and intensity of the new material. Longstreth sites Batdorf, Darkslide, Donati, and Waterson as direct influences for the "kitten style".
Origin is currently in the middle of the Antithesis touring cycle. The writing process for the followup to Antithesis has already begun. "Im going to blow Antithesis away" says Paul Ryan.