What successful bands have emerged from Ohio?

According to Wikipedia, Marilyn Manson and Relient K hails from Canton, Ohio and Maynard James Keenan was also born not far away in Ravenna. Jani Lane of Warrant fame and the one who wrote “Cherry Pie” is from the Akron area, along with the indie rock band The Black Keys.

Bone Thugs n Harmony formed in Cleveland and KiD CuDi was also born in the Rock n’ Roll capitol of the world. “Whip It” by Cuyahoga Falls-based Devo is still recognized by listeners of every kind of music and still receives airplay on radios stations today.

Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame inductees from Ohio includes The Isley Brothers and The O’Jays, the latter still famous today for their hit “Love Train.” Many more bands claim origins from Ohio, including the rock band Cheyne-Stokes from Medina, OH.

Cheyne-Stokes is a five-piece progressive rock and metal band formed while the original members were still in their high school career. Some of the members today are still finishing up their high school education.

The name for the band was originally titled Endeavor, but was soon changed to the medical term for the “death rattle” one breathes before his or her death. The band cites influences from Dream Theatre to Black Sabbath and sound similar to the largely unknown 80’s metal band Omen, especially the Omen album “Battle Cry”.

“I think the biggest thing that we’ve always had as our goal as a band is just to entertain people,” says Ashland University freshman and Cheyne-Stokes lead singer Josh Mewhinney, “Our focus is definitely playing live, especially since we don’t really have money to find good recording time.”

Cheyne-Stokes is still a purely local band, only playing in venues inside Ohio. Cheyne-Stokes has performed at venues in Cleveland such as the Powerhouse Pub, Peabody’s Downunder and the Hi-Fi Concert Club.

“We actually played at the House of Blues for the Tri-C High School Rock-Off,” Mewhinney explains, “We’ve been a part of that competition for the last three years and that’s been hands-down the favorite place we’ve played because we’ve been on the same stage as major bands that have toured the states.”

The band plans on touring outside of Ohio sometime in the future but first wants to gain enough notoriety before doing so. Mewhinney is attempting to get the band on campus sometime next semester to perform for students.

“When we first started our goal was to be fast and hard and everything like that,” Mewhinny explains, “But now I think as we’ve matured as a band, we just want to write good songs. We come from all sorts of rock n’ roll background influences and we just look to write the best songs we can.”

Cheyne-Stokes has independently recorded one CD so far, “Burned in Permanent Thought.” The CD hold eleven songs that show their progressive style of music: old classic rock-type vocals mixed with exciting and energetic guitar and bass surrounded by a constant rhythm of methodical drums in the background. Many of the songs sound similar to Crimson Glory, Omen, and Dream Theater.

One song in the album is a ten minute song that quickly changes from a mellow melody to a faster paced guitar takeover that is similar to songs such as Badlands by Metal Church.

The ballad of the album, “Wayside,” slows the band down more to show the variety of band’s skill. The CD is available for listening and download on CDbay.com and on their MySpace page.

“We need to focus on doing what we do best and that is playing live,” Mewhinny said. Cheyne-Stokes will be playing live next on December 11th at Lafayette United Methodist Church in Medina, OH.

The concert is about thirty or forty minutes outside of Ashland and starts at 7:00 P.M. Cheyne-Stokes will be the headliner band supported by other local bands All That’s Left, Maddie Sinn, and Stephani Reeder.