One of Canada's premiere power metal bands, Toronto's Eidolon centers around brothers Glen (guitar) and Shawn Drover (drums), who launched the group simultaneously with their own studio (also dubbed Eidolon) in 1993. Vocalist Brian Soulard and bassist Criss Bailey eventually joined their ranks, as the siblings evolved from their early experiments with instrumental heavy metal into a more fleshed-out, power/heritage metal direction. This resulted in a pair of independent albums (1996's Zero Hour and 1998's conceptual Seven Spirits), whose promise led to a deal with Los Angeles' Metal Blade Records. This relationship, in turn, produced four well-regarded LPs in 2000's Nightmare World, 2001's Hallowed Apparition, 2002's Coma Nation, and 2003's Apostles of Defiance (all of them featuring bassist Adrian Robichaud and the last two vocalist Pat Mulock), which may have fared better if not for Eidolon's reluctance to tour. This, among other reasons, led to their departure from Metal Blade in 2004, but a new deal was quickly struck with Sweden's Escapi Records. ~ Eduardo Rivadavia