Biography

Discipline is an internationally celebrated progressive rock band from metro Detroit who spend as much time working in Europe as they do in the U.S. They have been regular performers at many of the world's most renowned pro-music festivals including Nearfest, RosFest, and ProgScape, and have recorded intermittently. The band was formed in 1989 by high school students Matthew Parmenter (vocals, keyboards, saxophone, violin, guitars), Jon Preston Bouda (guitar), rhythm guitarist Don Bakerian, and drummer Woody Saunders; this early version of the group left behind the self-released cassette Chaos Out of Order. Less than a year later, Matthew Kennedy joined the band on bass. In 1991, Paul Dzendzel replaced Saunders on drums. During the group's early years, Parmenter augmented the group's live shows by changing into elaborate costumes for each song -- inspired by Peter Gabriel's theatrics during his membership in Genesis. Parmenter's intensely personal lyrics, as well as his ability to play multiple instruments, have invited critical comparisons to Van der Graaf Generator and Marillion. Thanks to incendiary live performances and cassette-only releases (which have since become quite collectible), Discipline built a solid reputation in Detroit -- quite a feat considering the city's music scene during that era wasn't exactly friendly toward prog. In 1993, Discipline issued Push & Profit on the independent Strung Out Records label and toured the continental United States, opening for Steve Howe and Anekdoten as well as playing their own shows. Buoyed by postive reviews for both the recording and their performances, they issued a concert video entitled Discipline Live 1995, and followed the studio set with Unfolded Like Staircase in 1997. The latter album offered a fleshed-out portrait of the band's expansive compositional style -- four of its five tracks clocked in at over 15 minutes and drew positive critical reviews internationally. Following a period of rigorous touring, the live album Discipline Live: Into the Dream... was released in 1999. While they did tour occasionally over the years, Discipline were basically in a period of hibernation. Parmenter issued his debut solo album, Astray, in 2004, while Discipline Live 1995 re-appeared on DVD a year later. The vocalist and multi-instrumentalist issued his own Horror Express in 2008. He toured with and without Discipline, but their shows were documented on the double-disc Live Days in 2010 by Cyclops/GFT. A year later, the band's most acclaimed studio offering, To Shatter All Accord, was issued by Strung Out Records and received universally positive reviews. They toured in support, hitting every major prog festival and playing their own showcases in clubs and theaters. In 2014, guitarist Chris Herin (from Detroit's other major prog band Tiles) joined Discipline, replacing Bouda. The ties between the two groups were longstanding; Parmenter had guested on the Tiles' recordings Presents of Mind and Window Dressing. Parmenter signed a solo deal with the U.K.'s Bad Elephant label for his third solo album, All Our Yesterdays, in the spring of 2016 followed by a tour. Upon his return, Discipline re-entered the studio. Signing with Laser's Edge, they enlisted producer Terry Brown (Rush, Fates Warning), and emerged with Captives of the Wine-Dark Sea in the early summer of 2017. It marked the band's first-ever studio album not on their Strung Out Records label. ~ Geoff Orens, Rovi