Place Of Skulls

Place of Skulls was founded in 2000 by Victor Griffin (guitar/vocals), Lee Abney (bass), and Tim Tomaselli (drums). Victor and Lee were lifelong friends who had played in Death Row in the early '80s. After Lee had left that band, it eventually became Pentagram. Victor left Pentagram for good in 1996. Following the split, Victor quit drugs, got married, found Jesus, and left Maryland for Tennessee, where he had grown up. The band was originally signed to Man's Ruin Records but when the label folded the group moved to Southern Lord. Lee Abney left the group in 2002 after the release of their first LP, "Nailed". In what looked to become a doom super group, both Scott Weinrich, a longtime friend of Victor's, and former Trouble (5) bassist Ron Holzner joined the group in 2003. Unfortunately, Holzner's tenure was brief, as living in Chicago posed problems logistically. Greg Turley joined the group for the recording of 2003's "With Vision". Dennis Cornelius joined as bassist afterwards. Another line up change came as Scott Weinrich departed since his residency in the Washington DC area made rehearsing regularly with the group an impossibility. In 2004, Tim Tomaselli quit the band to pursue other musical interests and the band briefly called it quits. Tomaselli returned the following year, however, and the band recorded "The Black Is Never Far" in 2006. In 2008, Lee Abney returned to the group, replacing Dennis, who had moved to Oklahoma.