1995 - 2005

Its been just under 10 years since a bunch of young guys decided to get together and write music for a style that they felt was sorely lacking in this town. The year is 1995 and Syzygy begin writing material and are set to become one of Perth’s most respected progressive bands, but first they have to get through their opening show at a Melville Senior High School social event…

That was a long time ago, and come June 3, 2005, Syzygy will be playing their unique style of instrumental progressive metal one last time. Earlier in the year Syzygy had announced their intentions to disband after two final shows… Why?

Says Damien Petrilli (drums) of the departure; “I and others in this band are always around music and will continue to do what we love most – playing and writing. Syzygy has had an ongoing problem when it came to writing songs, even from the very beginning. On average, it would be a few months to a year just to nail a single song! Its not that we were overly picky with perfection, but we all came from such diverse musical backgrounds that we’d often scrap ideas before we really got to thoroughly explore them.”

In addition he states: “When we were younger, all we had was music and the occasional bit of work. Slowly but surely, as happens so often, everybody’s lives start to fill up with priorities other than music and eventually, for some music cannot be seen as their priority. Being that we are all so busy with less and less time for the band, the decision was made that it be better to end on a high note, than to drag ourselves down show by show until eventually we wouldn’t be offered gigs anymore. I couldn’t bear to see a band that Ive worked so hard for go down the gurgler because we can’t maintain the amount of effort that the listeners deserve from us.”

“We all remain great friends, but we felt as a band it was time to move on. Personally I’m very excited about the options I can now pursue and really look forward to working with different musicians. Im keen to look into something heavier down the track just as soon as I get organised!”

“I definitely have some regrets about it all though! We had (and still have) a very strong fan base, we were well organised with what I felt was the most unique band sound I’ve ever been associated with, and yet our sound/style is such that we couldn’t land a single international support or tour in nine years!”

“We’ve seen the whole prog-scene discarded for grunge in the early-mid 90’s, then it reappeared around 2000 with the advent of a few new bands on the scene in the Droogs, Modus Vivendi, Fret Zero, Ravenshead, Voyager, etc. Unfortunately, with the exception of Voyager, most of the others were relatively short lived and are no longer with us. Syzygy has always been there and doing our thing. I don’t take one day of it back, to hell with those who didn’t like it.”