Solstice

Although they were initially touted to follow Paradise Lost and Anathema as leading lights of British doom metal into the 1990s, Solstice (not to be confused with the American new age proggies using the same name) released only two albums and one EP before vanishing from sight on the eve of the new millennium. Formed by vocalist Simon Matravers nearly a decade earlier, Solstice also included guitarists Richard M. Walker and John Piras, bassist Lee "Chaz" Netherwood, and drummer Lennaert Roomer by the release of their sorrowful Candlelight Records debut, Lamentations, in 1994. The Halcyon EP (featuring guitarist Gian Pyres, later of Cradle of Filth) followed the next year, but numerous business-related and internal difficulties delayed Solstice's second full-length, New Dark Age, until 1998. By then, only two original members (Walker and Netherwood) remained, and despite the helping hands of new arrivals Morris Ingram (vocals), Hamish Hamilton Glencross (guitar), and Rick Budby (drums), the album would ultimately prove to be Solstice's last.