:: Introduction The dark lord of the Mountain of Regret saw the four weary travellers approaching the flanks of His sacred abode and knew all too well what they sought. They came from far to learn and praise the secret art of doom. They came to drink from the chalice of low-end brutality and unabashed metal hymns, to ride with the heathen tyrants, to move the frozen air with amps of brimstone, drums of granite, guitars with Frostian tendencies and howling vocals that rain upon the infidels like a shower of glass, all enveloped within a grinding slab of glacier bass apocalypse, gradually moving forward with menace and Tinitick Spite. The dark lord took kind to their wishes and showed them the blackened path once trodden by pioneers such as Winter, early Celtic Frost, Dream Death, Saint Vitus, Pentagram and Godflesh. It was a path not favoured by most as it mostly led to the obscure land of Üntrend Öblivium where bands were taunted and scathed for their unwillingness to conform to current (non-metal) trends. :: Biography February 1999: Steve McMillan (Guitar & Vocals) & Xavier Benoit (Drums) started jamming together again after they had both been involved in the Cower project in 1996-1997.A mix of sludge/doom/noise tracks & ultra fast grindcore songs were being worked on. A few months later, Mondi joined on bass guitar. July 1999: With a handful of original songs & an Obsessed cover (To protect & serve), TPOG entered the Farmstudio in Aalbeke, Belgium to record a demo. A rough version of "The Ocean has no sides" was also recorded. After the recording session, it was obvious that the quality of the songs & recording were not up to standard, so the demo was never released or distributed. Mondi shortly left TPOG after this to continue his studies & his other bands. September 1999-March 2000: Enter bassist Paul Lamont from Nahende Vernichtung. Things picked up nicely with Paul in the ranks & old songs were reworked & new ones were forged. TPOG started planning some live concerts. April 2000: TPOG first gig was at the "Geniep" café in Kortrijk, Belgium. A very small place & it was packed to the gills. A lot of people were shocked by the volume & heaviness of the music & quickly escaped via the fire door!! The day after TPOG played the Frontline club in Gent, Belgium. Again, a very good impression was left & more gigs/contacts were made. The day after that, TPOG were scheduled to play with Eyehategod, Crowbar & Soilent Green at the LintFabriek in Kontich, Belgium.The club agreed to TPOG playing there with this package, but as soon as the tour manager heard about this, He demanded that TPOG pay a large fee to play on this package. All the bands & venue staff were shocked by this, let alone TPOG. Some threats were made by TPOG to the tour manager & calling him on his bullshit. Anyway, TPOG didn"t play & the venue staff paid TPOG their gas money & that was that. July 2000: TPOG entered CCR studios in Zulte, Belgium to record a split 7" with American Heritage (us) to be released in November 2000 on Xavier"s own label Delboy records. November 2000: A short tour in Belgium & Holland with American Heritage happened. Some gigs were good others were not. The split 7" was released on yellow/clear vinyl with a pressing of 300 copies. They all sold out in less than a month. A killer show with Electric Wizard & Sons of Otis in Leuven, Belgium was another highlight. December 2000: Relations between band members were not going smoothly, as were ideas for musical direction. After a big argument, TPOG decided to quit with this line-up. January 2001: Enter David Stubbe (Drums) & Karel Busschop (Bass & backing vocals). Steve had played in Neuthrone (1991-1995) with David & knew Karel from going to gigs etc. A much Heavier & extreme version of TPOG would arise with this line-up. Many of the old fast songs were scrapped & the tunings became even lower, going from C down to G!! A quick decision was made as to what songs were going to stay in the new TPOG set & new material was being worked on. The first song that this line-up worked on, was a cover of Winter"s "eternal frost" as to set the atmosphere for the new line-up. February-August 2001: Many new gigs & songs happened. TPOG booked 3 days at the Yellow Tape Studio in Gent, Belgium to record its "Motown Misfortune" CD EP/demo in August. "As cold as they come" ,"razorpollen", "Motown Misfortune" & "Gnostic revelation" were recorded & mixed & sounded massive. TPOG was very satisfied with these new recordings & started to make pro CD-r copies with printed sleeves, Lyric sheets etc. This CD EP ended up selling about 700 copies & receiving great response from the zines & websites it was sent to. Many more gigs were organized & played mainly around Belgium. September 2001: TPOG get invited to play at the 3rd Stoner Hands of Doom fest, being held in Dallas, Texas in October 2001.TPOG couldn"t believe their luck & started to make plans to do a short tour based around the festival together with Dragongreen from Pennsylvania. October 2001: Just 3 weeks after the 9-11 Terrorist attacks in Nyc & Washington DC, TPOG nervously boarded the plane in Brussels to fly out to Dallas. The Stoner Hands of Doom festival brought together a fantastic collection of incredible bands such as Solitude Aeturnus, Las Cruces, Well of Souls (Us), Slowhorse, Ironkind, Place of Skulls, Oversoul, Acid King, Men of Porn & many more. The tour with Dragongreen didn"t happen in the end, so TPOG basically flew out to the US for ONE gig. As for the TPOG gig itself, the band suffered from some technical troubles, but pulled through & made a very favourable impression with the US crowd. All the shirts & cd"s that the band brought with them were sold out & the band even did 2 interviews for metal magazines. November 2001: A short tour in Belgium & Germany was done, playing in Leipzig, Zchopau, NeuKirchen, Bautzen & Kortrijk with Gorilla Monsoon & Monster DVD (With KK null of Zeni Geva). Great gigs & response, even some people travelling around to see the band on more than one occasion. November-December 2001: TPOG hit the Yellow Tape studio again to record their 2nd CD EP/demo called "Banishment of Serpents" & the Winter cover "eternal frost" for a 4 way Split LP on Painiac records with Sloth(us), Wuzor(Us) & Dom (Fin).The "banishment of serpents" CD EP was pressed in a much smaller quantity this time (250 copies) & these sold out very quickly. TPOG did a live radio show at the end of December for a college radio station Gent, Belgium. David then announced that he was quitting TPOG. Karel & Steve were pretty upset by this, but decided to forge ahead & to try & find another drummer. April 2002-October 2002: after 4 long months & one very drunken nutcase drummer (who auditioned), TPOG returned to the fold adding Eddy Delogi (From Legendary Belgian 80s Occult metallers Ritual & Dream machine) on Drums & even added a second guitarplayer called Steven Vergauwen (from local shredders Monster Joe). Again, a set was completed & decided & the first gig that TPOG did with this line-up was supporting Electric Wizard & Warhorse (us) in Antwerpen, Belgium. TPOG"s twin guitar attack & double bass drum onslaught added even more volume & mayhem to their set. TPOG were back stronger & more determined than ever before. Many more gigs were played & the Metal scene was starting to take notice & more requests for CD's, shirts & interviews were coming in. October 2002: Again, TPOG were invited to play the 4th Stoner Hands of Doom fest, this time being held in Mesa, Arizona. TPOG definitely wanted to make sure that a tour would be included with this US visit. So a 6 date tour was organized with Denver doomers Ironkind & Melvins-disciples Core of the Earth. Gigs were played in Denver, Colorado(2x). Albuquerque, New Mexico, Mesa, Arizona & Fort Collins, Colorado. TPOG got a fantastic response at the SHOD festival, playing along with Sourvein, The Rubes, Eternal Elysium, Unida, Ironkind, Dixie Witch, Suplecs & Slowhorse amongst others. Also present in the audience was Greg Anderson from Southernlord records, who was so impressed he asked TPOG to record an exclusive 7" to be released later on. This trip was by far the highpoint in TPOG"s existence & breathed new life into their weary, jet-lagged bodies & minds. November 2002: Another short tour of Germany came around & TPOG played in Leipzig, Bautzen, Bischofswerda (With Deicide& Centinex), Neustadt & the 1st Dutch Doom Festival in the Baroeg club in Rotterdam, Holland. With Pantheist(Bel), Jack Frost(Aut) & Officium Triste(NL). January-May 2003: TPOG concentrated on writing new material for various upcoming releases like the Southernlord 7" & various compilation appearances. Gigs were occasional & varied. June 2003: TPOG entered the Yellow Tape studios again & put down another 3 tracks in 2 days. "Battleburns" & "Pressure & time" were chosen to be included on the Southernlord 7". The 3rd track "Human Toolbox" was left unmixed & never to be used or played again. August 2003: TPOG gigs were not working out that well lately, with Steven Vergauwen seeming not to be that interested in turning up to rehearsals & playing badly at gigs. Relations between Steve & Karel were also very strained. TPOG played the Kleudde Open Air Metal fest near Mechelen, Belgium & once again, many mistakes were made & the band played sloppily. So a few days after the fest, Steven was asked to leave, followed by Karel who left a few days later. This really was a blow in the continuity of TPOG"s goals as more & more interest was building up in the band & imminent release of various comps & that ever elusive Southernlord 7". Steve & Eddy discussed what was to be done & Eddy decided that it was worth to continue, so a search for a new bass player & 2nd guitar player went ahead. September 2003: As if our prayers were being answered, enter Frederic Caure (2nd guitar ex Pantheist, Deathanos) & bass player Steven Van Cauwenbergh (Welkin,Ex Leng t"che) showed definite interest in playing in TPOG. They had both been long time friends of Steve & were almost always present at past TPOG gigs. To say that the atmosphere was electric & ultra motivated at the first rehearsals of this new line-up, would be an understatement. Both Frederic & Steven showed their true professional attitude, motivation & incredible initiative. A full live set was ready in just 3 weeks of them joining TPOG. No gigs were missed in the transition from the old to the current line-up & TPOG played their first show at the Frontline, Gent in October with Elephantum(NL),the audience was astounded with the incredible transformation that TPOG had involved into. Much tighter & intense execution of the songs, a far superior stage presence & just a 200% increase of their own self-confidence, lifted the band back to the level where they felt they were unbeatable. Ex members were in the audience that night & it was obvious that some of them had a chip on their shoulder. But onwards & upwards TPOG went. January-February 2004: A few more months had passed & TPOG had extended their live set, even including newly penned songs & trips to Nürnberg & a trip to London to play with Esoteric (UK).TPOG entered Yellow Tape studios again & recorded the "Your Love is King (Of the Dead)" Trilogy. Part 1 was used for the inclusion on the "Dark Word" compilation CD (Final Chapter records) & Book of Doom double compilation CD. Part 2 & 3 were used for the "Dreams of how life could have been" compilation CD (Psychedoomelic records) which also included unreleased tracks by Grief, Fistula, Moss, Soulpreacher, Ramesses etc. After playing in Nürnberg, some members of the German Doom Shall Rise festival organizers were in the audience & were thoroughly impressed enough to add TPOG to the next DSR festival, that would see TPOG play along side Count Raven, Spiritus Mortis, Orodruin, Penance, Mirror Of Deception & many more European & international doom acts. April 2004: A major tour was set up based around the DSR festival. A package including TPOG, While Heaven Wept(Us) & Mourning Beloveth (Ire) played all around Germany, Holland & Belgium at the Belgian Doom Night & Sulfer festival. TPOG"s appearance at the DSR fest blew away everyone's expectations & got a phenomenal response.75% of TPOG"s merch & cd"s were sold at the festival alone. Interviews were done etc & many people followed the band around on this tour. Shortly after the tour, I Hate records from Sweden approached TPOG with a proposition for a Full-length album. All of a sudden, it felt like TPOG were in a slipstream, gaining interest & momentum like never before & all it seemed to have happened ever since the last line-up change. Co-incidence? No, not very likely. May-December 2004: Again, TPOG started concentrating on new material & re-working older songs for the upcoming full-length that was going to be called "Primula Pestis" & was going to be recorded in December at CCR studios in Zulte, Belgium. TPOG played a number of gigs during this period in Belgium & Holland. Notably at the Ashes to "Ashes, Doom to Dust" festivals in Gent & Tilburg, Holland. The latter being recorded on 16 tracks by newly aquired Soundman-Extraordinaire Nico & the whole show was also pro-filmed by a 3-man camera team, which was to be used as inclusion on the CD version of Primula Pestis CD as video bonus footage. January 2005-Present day (March 2005): The recordings for the Primula Pestis album went great, as did the artwork courtesy of Manuel Tinnemans of Bunkur(NL).Some more local gigs & another trip to Tilburg happened with increasing interest by the metal public. The album shall be arriving in a couple of days & a tour with The Gates of Slumber (Us) will take TPOG to Denmark, Sweden, Germany, Holland, Belgium & the UK for nearly the entire month of April, ending with a prestigious appearance at the Face Your Underground festival in Antwerpen, Belgium playing along side Pig destroyer, Aborted, Leng T"che, Illdisposed & Exhumed. TPOG shall also be sharing the stage in Scandinavia with Reverend Bizarre (Fin) & Isole (Swe).New songs are being worked on as we speak, as are other tours in the Autumn of 2005 & a LP version of Primula Pestis with a special Bonus track.