During the fall of 1996, Don Anderson had just ceased publishing his fanzine, Infernal Archives and set his sights on establishing a melodic and challenging Death Metal project called Sculptured. The name represents Anderson's way of thinking of music as a monolithic mass of sound that is slowly chiseled away. In winter of the same year, Sculptured recorded and released their demo, "Fulfillment in Tragedy," in a limited run of 100 copies. The demo was sent to magazines, radio stations, and independent records labels. A handful of labels expressed interest, but the band naively signed with the problematic Polish label, Mad Lion Records.
During this time, Anderson met fellow guitarist/drummer, John Haughm who had begun writing music for his new project called Agalloch. The two discovered a mutual appreciation for European Metal bands like Dark Tranquility, In Flames, and Dissection. Haughm asked Anderson to contribute guitar solos on the Agalloch demo, "From Which of This Oak." Wanting to solely focus on Sculptured, Anderson had no plans to become a full-time member of Agalloch. However, due to the productive working relationship between Anderson and Haughm, it was decided that Anderson would continue working with Agalloch full-time on future releases.

After signing with Mad Lion, Ill Literature writer Andreas Katsambas had heard the Sculptured demo and quickly contacted Anderson in hopes of signing the group to his newly formed label, The End Records. In 1998 Andreas secured an American licensing deal with Mad Lion. Ironically, The End released the debut album, "The Spear Of The Lily Is Aureoled," before Mad Lion. Sculptured quickly became unsatisfied with the delays and lack of promotion for their debut and successfully ended the relationship with the Polish label and signed exclusively to The End Records.

Prior to the release of the debut, Anderson had made the acquaintance of Jason Walton who was an admirer of the group's demo and was interested in working with them. Walton had already been friends with Haughm for many years. It was only a matter of time before he moved to Camas, Washington to live with Anderson and begin work on Sculptured. Shortly after Walton's arrival, Sculptured drummer John Schlegel surprisingly gave up music and the drums. Again, due to Anderson and Haughm's working relationship, it seemed only natural to ask Haughm to join Sculptured on drums. Eventually Walton would join Agalloch, making the band function as two separate groups. Neither of the groups are considered "side projects" because both are radically different from one another both musically and aesthetically. Both bands also began on their own before becoming so deeply intertwined. Due to the limited amount of agreeable and talented musicians in the area, it was necessary to continue working double-time as a three piece, with the aid of Brian Yager in Sculptured, and Chris Greene in Agalloch.

Before Haughm was to join Sculptured, the group quickly cut a questionable version of the song, "Iron Maiden" with Dawnbringer drummer Chris Maycock, for the Twilight Records release, "Maiden America: A Tribute to Iron Maiden" and American Metal Compilation.

Shortly afterwards, the group entered the studio in late 1999 to record their second album, "Apollo Ends." The music was a sharp and jarring change from their debut. Gone were the keyboards and acoustic guitars. These were replaced by aggressive guitars, trumpet, and trombone. Anderson was seeking a more stripped down, less "fluffy" sound. Gone also were the "tragic romantic" themes of the debut. The lyrics on Apollo Ends concentrated on themes of illness, panic, early morning hours, and the end of the world. The album was well-received, despite some critics who could not appreciate the obtuse riffs and melodies.

As a huge fan of Italian horror cinema and the Italian progressive rock group and soundtrack composers, Goblin, Anderson and Sculptured penned a cover version of the main theme from the Dario Argento film, "Suspiria," for a tribute to Goblin CD in late 2001. Unfortunately, the man behind the Goblin website and tribute CD simply disappeared. The song remained on the shelf until being released as an exclusive track almost three years later on the End Records compilation entitled "Phases: The Dark Side of Music."

In 2003, MTV used the track "Between Goldberg" from "Apollo Ends" as soundtrack music for their reality television show, Fraternity Life. The opening chords are struck just as a group of poor college freshman are being hazed by upper classmen. Oddly, this is what Anderson had in mind during the writing of Between Goldberg.

Between Suspiria and 2004, Sculptured were incredibly quiet. After the release of "Apollo Ends," three songs were written, but soon Anderson simply lost interest in writing another metal album and began searching for new ways to compose music. Many ideas were considered, some that were far too abstract to be fully realized. During this time, Anderson was heavily involved with Agalloch and school. While completing the recording sessions for "The Mantle," Anderson graduated with a BA degree in English and a year later entered an MA English program. After a enormous bout of writer's block lasting three years, Anderson discovered a completely notated score to one of the songs he had written in 2001. This initiated a return to the composing process and a fresh outlook on writing metal music. Now that Anderson is nearing the end of his MA program, the band is currently writing new music for their third full-length album to be released by The End Records in the near future.

link : http://www.lasteve.com/sculptured/biography.html