Specimen-X

Indisputably one of the first bands in the world to establish its own web domain (specimenx.com in 1995) and to release music in the MP3 format (1997), Boston’s Specimen-X took the underground scene by storm over the course of five years, crafting out a signature brand of melodic hard rock and metal. Reknowned for the intensity of its performances, diversity in songwriting, and lyrics and performances themed around the perils of technology and social commentary, the band was the first place winner of Mass. Communication College’s 2000 Battle of the Bands, triumphing over a field of nearly 100 East Coast musical acts. In addition to headlining all of Boston’s and New England’s major venues, Specimen-X’s crowing achievement was its Fall 2000 Tour of Europe, along with distribution of its top-charting funk-metal track track “Every Picture Tells a Lie” on mp3.com‘s “Out of Bounds” compilation – 2,900,000 copies of which were distributed with various consumer computer products. Specimen-X released four critically-acclaimed albums – “The End Is Now” Demo EP (2001) upon the band’s dissolution, “Ascension to Power” Demo EP (2000), 1999′s breakthrough keyboard-laden alternative metal “The Final Hour” (on German label Roddog Records), hailed by independent music critics as “the best thing this genre has served up since the heyday of Faith No More” and 1997′s indie release “Don’t Look Back”. The band also released two professionally produced music videos which were distributed on European music television networks and online as its music received local commercial and national college radio play. Specimen-X “dissolved” amicably in February 2001 after a capstone performance which nearly sold out Boston’s Bill’s Bar – featuring a projected, integrated digital video show and multiple live cameras.