But somehow, it all comes together in Slave to the System, a band that contains members of both aforementioned acts, and sounds like a combination of their influences, from both the old and new schools of rock and metal (Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Thin Lizzy, Audioslave, and Velvet Revolver). Slave to the System's drummer, Scott Rockenfield, is best known as one of the longest-tenured members of Queensrÿche, which is where he first came in contact with guitarist Kelly Gray. Gray initially served as a guitarist for Queensrÿche -- replacing original member Chris DeGarmo and appearing on 1999's Q2K -- as well as producing other artists, including Dokken and Candlebox. Singer/guitarist Damon Johnson and bassist Roman Glick were both members of Brother Cane (while Johnson has also toured with Alice Cooper's band). The group first got together to write music just for the fun of it (fueled by "coffee and jamming") -- Johnson and Gray had been working together on a Brother Cane project, when Gray suggested they give Rockenfield a call. Going completely against the way Queensrÿche has been known to write and record their albums (which usually takes extended periods of time), the newly formed quartet penned and recorded an entire album's worth of material in a mere three weeks. The group then sent out demos to various record labels, and found a taker with the metal-based Spitfire, which issued the self-titled debut by Slave to the System (whose name hints at the bandmembers' dissatisfaction with the record industry) in February 2006. ~ Greg Prato