The Empire Hideous
THE EMPIRE HIDEOUS has had a long and intriguing history steered over the course of 15 years by the enigmatic Myke Hideous. Created in 1988, in the New Jersey-New York area, The Empire Hideous became a dominant force in the dark gothic rock scene of the East Coast until it's first phase ended in 1998. Afterwards, vocalist Myke Hideous pursued other projects including a stint as the lead singer of The Misfits., singing for The Bronx Casket Company and for a short time fronting a new project, SpySociety99. Now in 2003 amidst turbulent times, The Empire Hideous has reformed with a new line-up and album: Say Your Prayers.
In the past, The Empire Hideous has been compared to Type-O-Negative and Tool, and darker British bands like the Sisters Of Mercy, Fields Of The Nephilim, The Mission UK and The Cult. Myke is the only original member of The Empire Hideous to see the band rise to it's popularity through continual forward motion, writing and composing the music as well as choreographing the complex theatrical stage performances of their intense live shows.
The Empire Hideous have performed in venues around the country and have participated in special events and tours such as: The Pilgrimage Tour '93, (which was the first American Goth Fest of it's kind); Vampyre's Ball (#'s I, III, IV & V); Mephisto Cathedra (#'s I & II); Dark Harvest (# II); A Night Of Misanthropy (#'s III & IV); a more notable special performance in '96 for cable tv station USA Network's “Up All Night” Halloween special with hostess Rhonda Sheer, where several performance clips were featured throughout the airing of 2 Halloween movies and broadcast nationally; and their very own Time Tour '97, (a mini tour of Eastern/North America and the Midwest).
During The Empire's hiatus between 1998 and 2001, Myke Hideous has had a varied career participating in numerous projects. In 1998, he sang lead vocals for the world famous MISFITS, performing to nearly 100,000 people in just 4 months for a European and South America tour. In 1999 & 2001, has recorded two albums with the hard rock band THE BRONX CASKET CO. – a side project created by bassist DD VERNI of OVERKILL. In 2000-2001, Myke created SPYSOCIETY99, a rock-a-billy, swing, death rock, punk project (now on hiatus).
In addition to all these efforts, Myke has written his experiences in his autobiography entitled KING OF AN EMPIRE TO THE SHOES OF A MISFIT (1st Books Library). Unlike other rock biographies, it chronicles his experiences from the unique perspective of a cult status artist in the dark alternative scene.
In November 2001, Myke revived The Empire Hideous with a new line up of musicians performing A Dark World Only Gets Darker Tour 2002, a mini tour of the East and West Coast's. The line up currently includes: guitarists Jeff Austin, (who has re-joined HIDEOUS from '98), Byron Barbieri (SpySociety99) on drums and newest member's David Hugh Reid (Five Star Dive/Untitled Art) on bass and Fred Hayes on guitar (Five Star Dive/Untitled Art).
Say Your Prayers (Hell's Hundred Records), was released November 2003 to rave reviews including several notable Album of the Year mentions in 2004. The record was followed by East and West Coast live dates.
2006 saw the release of the Empire Hideous retrospective album "Body or Work" which collects rare and out-of -print tracks, most on CD for the first time, all digitally re-mastered for re-birth into a cold cruel world. Hopefully this will continue to plant seeds of cultural unrest while Myke puts the next Empire Hideous studio album through its completion phase.
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