The Torok Story

Torok's story begins in the fall of 1993. The original members were Bryan Erickson (vocals), Chad Martin (drums), Kurt Miller (guitar) and Chad Freezman (guitar). The lineup's main focus in the early days, was to focus on writing songs and make sure they were well rehearsed. Their first performance took place within a couple of months of the group's initial forming. Bryan asked one of his good friends, Ken Olson, to fill in on the bass for the show and it all went over very well.

Later that same year, Bryan and Kurt decided to part ways with the "Chads", and moved into a rehearsal space with Daddy Raw - a local hard rock favorite of the time. Daddy Raw was comprised of some former members of shock-rock kings Impaler. Through this newfound acquaintance, Bryan and Kurt were introduced to Mike Torok, Impaler's lead guitarist. Mike was interested in Bryan's ideas and solid vision of where this band would go and agreed to start working with the group. The three recruited another friend of Bryan's, Ray Probst to play bass. Kurt then asked a co-worker of his, Dave Valentine, to come in and play drums with the band. The group lined up some gigs and went by the name Tongue & Cheek.

After several successful shows, performing for a couple hundred people each time out, Kurt realized that he didn't want to continue with the band.  The reasons were mainly attributed to differences in each individual's influences and the collective desire of the others to go in a different musical direction than Kurt was willing to explore. Bryan and Mike shared influences of artists like Led Zeppelin, Bad Company, Badlands, the Stones, Deep Purple, Whitesnake, Van Halen and many others. Kurt, however, was more influenced by bands like Slayer.

Upon Kurt's exit from the band, it was decided to drop the name Tongue & Cheek, and go with TOROK. The four piece band rehearsed constantly and ultimately landed some high profile local gigs - performing their original material for 500 or more in attendance. These shows took place over a three month period, when Dave suddenly announced his own departure from the band. As this was an unexpected event, and with more gigs already lined up, the group quickly contacted Ken LaMere - a former drummer of Impaler. Ken helped TOROK fulfill their performance obligations, but he wasn't what they were looking for in a permanent drummer.

In early 1994, Bryan had come in contact with an acquaintance of Eric Althaus. Eric was in the middle of the recording sessions with his own band, progressive rockers Equinox, and their debut album Color Of The Time.  Bryan called Eric to ask about his interest and availability in working with a side project, and Eric agreed to check out the band's next rehearsal. Shortly after their first meeting, Eric committed to play a series of shows with TOROK and ended up contributing to the writing process of several originals. 

TOROK played the Twin Cities club circuit into early 1995, at which time Eric had to concentrate his efforts on Equinox's major label debut release with JVC/Victor, and the ensuing tour. Bryan and Mike decided that this time off would be a great opportunity to focus mainly on writing. The result of this writing process spawned their first release, simply titled "TOROK."  This self titled 'demo' album sold out in the Twin Cities - 500 copies in only a few months. It contained some original songs that Kurt Miller was involved with in the early days, as well as a cover of Deep Purple's "Mistreated."   With the success of their demo debut, and with Eric touring and writing with Equinox, Mike and Bryan decided to continue writing new material. With Eric's extended absence, the [now] duo decided to record another album, "Silence" in 1996. Silence boasted an eclectic group of songs, ranging from industrial screaming metal to  acoustic guitar ballads. The title track "Silence" is one of those such ballads, and features Mike Torok on lead vocals. Other notables include "It Could Be You", "Goodbye Tomorrow," "Tender Desolation" and "In My Bones" - a song that gained international acclaim when it was included on England-based Frontiers Magazine's annual compilation (along with Enuff z' Nuff and Glen Tipton). "In My Bones" also received air play in Europe and helped TOROK to sell thousands of copies of Silence. 

In 1997, TOROK wrapped up the promotional campaign for Silence and started to focus on assembling a solid lineup for the group's future. Mike and Bryan brought in Chris Holmes to play bass, and with Eric working on another Equinox album, Ken LaMere was asked to once again play with the band. This lineup proved to be more detrimental than helpful to the band, as the chemistry just didn't work. It was decided that TOROK would take the next year-and-a-half off to regroup and write more material.

In the time between 1997 and 1999, Bryan recorded solo albums under the moniker Son Of Eric. These albums also featured guest appearances by Mike Torok. CD sales were solid - selling out in the Twin Cities within only weeks. More importantly, it kept Mike and Bryan working together on music - further fueling the driving force behind TOROK.

1999 found Bryan and Mike working with a young guitar player named Matt Graunke. The trio wrote several songs, and brought in bassist Arron Davis to round out the sound. TOROK then began looking at the possibility of recording the new material. Once again Eric Althaus was contacted, and because Equinox had just started the process of finding a new singer - Eric was available to record the new TOROK album. The new incarnation of the band went out and played several local shows around Minneapolis and St. Paul. While performing to audiences again, the band determined that they would try to capture the live energy of these performances in the recording process of the new album. It was decided that the production should rival the quality of the group's main influences - 70's & 80's Hard/Funk/Rock bands like Led Zeppelin, Badlands, Rolling Stones, Deep Purple, Grand Funk Railroad, and others. In the Summer of 1999, the group entered Sugar Shack Studios in Minneapolis to record the drums for Binge & Purge - the band's third album. Much heavier and more organic than the Silence CD - which had drum loops and machines used in the recording process - Binge & Purge was recorded totally 'old school' on tape and for the most part live. Mike's playing on Binge & Purge is raw and aggressive blending many styles, while  Bryan's vocals are completely over the top. Eric Althaus plays at a level that only a handful of drummers are even capable of and Arron Davis keeps it all together with his rock solid play.

In 2002, Binge & Purge was officially released world-wide by Nightmare Records. To support their latest release, TOROK  played a series of shows starting with a gig in front of better than 500 people at the University of Minnesota's Coffman Union Hall.  The lineup consisted of Bryan Erickson (vocals), Mike Torok (guitar), Ken Olson (bass), and Eric Althaus (drums).  Torok played an average of two shows a month through 2003, including the twentieth anniversary show in support of  Mike's old band Impaler in front of a capacity crowd at the Turf Club in St. Paul. During this time, Torok's CD Binge & Purge continued to sell very well both at shows and through Nightmare Records.  Binge & Purge also received countless positive reviews from magazines like BW&BK, Throat Culture and metal websites like Metal Eagle and Strutterzine.com.  Tracks like "Shame" and "Amidst the Lies" from Binge & Purge got airplay all over the world, as well as regionally.   In late 2003 Bryan released another solo CD under the moniker of Son of Eric mainly to get feedback on the tracks for later use on the next Torok CD.

After a holiday break Bryan and Mike regrouped in the early spring of 2004 to start the writing process for the next Torok CD.  For this project it was agreed that it was time to bring in other people as sounding boards to help refine the Torok sound.  After tracking about 20 demo songs each band member would give copies of these songs to various people they know for their input.  People like Lance King from Nightmare Records, Todd Duane former GIT instructor/guitar player extraordinar, Mark Westlund vocalist for local hard rock veterans Touched and Strange Sects, Bill Holmberg MPLS musician/booking agent, Tim Temple keyboard player for to many bands to mention and owner of Savage Studios, Mike Jezmer from Bryan's side project Son of Eric along with to many other incredibly helpful co-producers to mention.  The new Torok CD titled Addiction of Fools is now available here at Torokmusic, Nightmare Records and CD Baby to name a few.  The new band started rehearsals the first week of December hoping to be ready to take the stage by late January early February.  The new band line up is Tim Davis on the drums, John Jankowski on the keys, Bill Holmberg on the bass along with Mike Torok playing guitar and Bryan Erickson handling the vocals.  Torok will start the new year with a new band and a new CD.  Hope to see ya out there.....

Biography by: John M. Jesmer