Steve Rowe

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Steve Rowe
Birth nameStephen Andrew Rowe
Born (1965-01-19) 19 January 1965 (age 58)
Origin Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Genres Christian metal, [1] thrash metal, death metal, [2] power metal
Instrument(s)Vocals, bass guitar
Years active1986–present
LabelsRowe Productions, Nuclear Blast, Intense
Website Rowe Productions

Stephen Andrew Rowe [3] (born 19 January 1965) is an Australian musician who is the founder, bass guitarist, and vocalist of the Australian Christian death metal band Mortification, which is considered to be a pioneer in the genre. Prior to forming Mortification he was in a traditional heavy metal styled Christian band known as LightForce. He was diagnosed with leukemia in 1997, but made a full recovery. He is currently the owner and head of the Rowe Productions record label. In 2015, Rowe announced his retirement from Christian music. [4] However, his career has continued, while Mortification has been inactive the members' side project, Wonrowe Vision, have remained active.

Contents

Early life

Steve was first introduced to heavy metal bands like AC/DC and Deep Purple by his older brother Scott when he was just eight years old. By the time he reached the age of 15 his favourite bands were Iron Maiden, Motörhead and Judas Priest. Because Steve grew up in a Baptist home with strong Christian values he became disappointed that the music he enjoyed appeared to be so focused on themes that cut against his faith. In 1980 he began to feel as if he did not fit in with the people he knew at church and started spending his spare time partying with his heavy metal friends.

In 1983 Steve purchased his first bass guitar and began learning how to play. The main influences on his style as he was learning were Lemmy of Motörhead, Joey DeMaio of Manowar, and Steve Harris of Iron Maiden. In that same year a youth pastor from the church he used to attend invited him to come back to church and gave Steve a copy of a Resurrection Band album. The album changed Steve's views on what Christian music could be like and was a major factor in his decision to return to the church. Seeing how much rock music combined with a Christian message had helped him, Steve vowed to form a Christian metal band that would change the world. Initially, he formed a band with a few friends back at his church, but it soon became clear that finding people with the same vision and goals would not be an easy task. It was while he was attempting to start this band that Steve became unhappy with the Church he was attending, and as a result, he left and joined the Harvest Christian Centre, which had engaged in outreach to groups like metalheads and punks. It was here that Steve finally found a home for his Christian metal vision.

Musical career

After several failed attempts with different bands and constant lineup changes, Steve formed LightForce in 1986. Initially that band was a failure as well as their first lineup, which was disbanded after only one show. Steve then reformed the band with a new lineup that won the "Melbourne Heavy Metal battle of the bands competition" in which it was competing with five secular metal acts. LightForce was instantly accepted into the Australian metal scene and went on to record their first full album Battlezone and tour across Australia. In 1988 the band released the album Mystical Thieves. The album went on to sell very well and they toured constantly in support of its release, opening for bands such as Stryper, Whitecross and Leviticus.

Just when it seemed set for LightForce to make a big name for themselves in the Christian metal scene, two of the band's members announced they were leaving the band. Steve spoke with the remaining members about forming a more extreme thrash metal oriented LightForce with him handling vocal duties as well as playing bass. The remaining members did not think it would work so Steve reformed the band with guitarist Cameron Hall and Jayson Sherlock on drums. The band changed their name to Mortification in 1990 and recorded Break The Curse which was later released in 1994.

Mortification went on to record many more albums and the band is considered to be one of the pioneers in the extreme Christian metal scene. The 1992 album Scrolls of the Megilloth is considered to be a great classic of death metal. In 1997 Steve was diagnosed with leukemia. Despite doctors giving him only hours to live on several occasions and a seemingly failed bone marrow transplant, Steve managed to make a full recovery. Mortification then went on to release the 1998 album Triumph of Mercy which dealt with the personal issues Steve faced while receiving treatment for the disease. Mortification is still currently making music and to date has released 13 studio albums. Steve is also the owner and head of the Rowe Productions record label and has performed guest vocals on a song on Microscopic View of a Telescopic Realm by Tourniquet.

Rowe Productions

Rowe owns a label named Rowe Productions. Here is a list of Current and Former artists.

Current Rowe Productions artists

Former Rowe Productions artists

In the beginning of the label they also released many Compilations that included bands of the label. [5]

Discography

Mortification

Studio albums

Demo albums

EPs

Live albums

Compilation albums

Bootlegs

Wonrowe Vision

Studio albums

Guest performance
Production

Bibliography

Related Research Articles

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Mortification is the debut studio album by Australian Christian extreme metal band Mortification. It was released on 12 October 1991. This album leans more towards death metal than the band's demo album Break the Curse, but retains thrash metal elements. Five songs from the demo album were re-recorded for Mortification. In 2002, The Billboard Guide to Contemporary Christian Music described the album's sound as "punk-meets-metal grind-core". A bundle containing Mortification and Scrolls of the Megilloth was released on KMG Records in 1998 and on Rowe Productions in 2015, with the latter being exclusively on cassette. Soundmass Records re-released the album with five bonus tracks in 2020, and again in 2022 with new remastering and nine bonus tracks recorded at Q.U.T. Campus Club in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia on 27 September 1991.

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<i>Live Planetarium</i> 1993 live album by Mortification

Live Planetarium is the first live album and fifth release of Australian Christian extreme metal band Mortification, released in 1993. It contains live versions of material from the band's three previously released studio albums, Mortification (1991), Scrolls of the Megilloth (1992), and Post Momentary Affliction (1993), as well as two new songs, "Symbiosis" and "Time Crusaders", and a cover of "Black Snake" by American Christian metal band Bloodgood. A video version of Live Planetarium was released on VHS in 1994 and later on DVD in 2006. A segment on Mortification's history, from the video of Live Planetarium, was included on the Tourniquet/Mortification Collector's Edition CD Single in 1994; the disc also contained songs from Mortification's Blood World album and American Christian metal band Tourniquet's Vanishing Lessons album. A studio recording of "Symbiosis" was included on Blood World. Soundmass released a reissue of Live Planetarium in 2019 on vinyl with new cover art and on CD in 2020 with the studio version of "Time Crusaders" as a bonus track; the track "Black Snake" was removed from the reissues.

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Microscopic View of a Telescopic Realm is the sixth studio album by the American Christian metal band Tourniquet. It was released on Metal Blade Records in 2000. The title track includes Steve Rowe of the Australian Christian metal band Mortification as a guest vocalist and the song "The Skeezix Dilemma Part II " is a sequel to "The Skeezix Dilemma" from Tourniquet's 1992 album Pathogenic Ocular Dissonance. This album marks the return to the band's neo-classical technical thrash style of metal.

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References

  1. ↑ "MORTIFICATION: New Audio Interview With STEVE ROWE Available". Blabbermouth.net. 5 May 2008. Retrieved 20 May 2016.
  2. ↑ Sauers, Isaac (19 July 2016). "Steve Rowe of Mortification Talk to Metal Mofos". Metal Mofos. Retrieved 8 September 2016.
  3. ↑ "LOCK UP THE NIGHT". ASCAP. American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers. Retrieved 16 November 2023.
  4. ↑ "Mortification's Mainman Steve Rowe Announce Retirement". The Metal Resource. 21 May 2013. Retrieved 20 May 2016.
  5. ↑ Morrow, Matt. "Various Artists - Raise the Dead". The Whipping Post. Retrieved 20 May 2016.
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