Jason Viebrooks

History

Born August 9, 1971 in Cincinnati, Ohio. Graduated from Hamilton High school in 1989. Started playing bass in 1987 and wanted to pursue a career in music, so after graduating high school he moved to San Francisco Bay Area and met Craig Locicero from the band Forbidden. Through Craig he was introduced to Lee Altus of Heathen and was invited down to audition. That went well and he spent the next few years in Heathen until Heathen went on hiatus, and Lee joined Die Krupps from Germany. After Heathen Jason went on to be the original bassist for Grip Inc., the band formed by Slayer's Dave Lombardo and Voodoocult guitarist Waldemar Sorychta. While in Grip Inc. Jason played on the first 2 CDs, Power of Inner Strength and Nemesis. That line up also did 3 tours, 1 of the US with Morbid Angel, 1 supporting Motörhead in Europe and another co-headlining with German band Kreator. After 2 CDs and 3 tours it was time for Jason to move on, due to personalities conflicting among members.

Once he left Grip Inc. Jason took a break from the music business full-time and started a landscape/ home remodeling business and focused on that. Burnt from the business side of music he felt jaded and needed to step back a while. He formed a band called The Allknowing, based in Cincinnati; they did regional shows and released 1 CD. After The Allknowing project Jason was ready to dive back into the game, so he hooked up with longtime friends Steve Tucker, x-Morbid Angel vocalist/bassist and Steve Jacobs, x-Forbidden, Manmade God drummer. Together they formed a band called LOWA and recorded a demo, but before anything could happen, Tucker left to join the Nader Sedek project. With that happening Jason started to play bass in Cincinnati-based band Lorenzo and did countless shows with them. Jason also played on Lorenzo's latest CD. While in Lorenzo Jason got the call to start getting ready to tour with Heathen. They had since reformed and recorded Evolution of Chaos with Jon Torres on bass, but Jon was no longer able to tour so Heathen wanted Jason back. He quickly had the set down and they were on their way to Europe to do the Killfest 2011 tour supporting Overkill. After that tour Heathen did more touring of Europe and the US with bands like Exodus, Destruction, Sepultura, and others. Between tours Jason also was the last bass player to play bass in NOLA thrash legends Exhorder. He did a handful of shows with them until they disbanded. Currently Jason is still with Heathen, signed to Nuclear Blast records and are preparing the next studio CD and more touring in 2013.

Beginning in the spring of 2011, he went out on tour with Heathen, a band who he had last been with in 1992.

Over the past few years, Viebrooks has been playing with the Cincinnati band Lorenzo. Prior to Lorenzo, he was the original bassist for Grip Inc., with Slayer drummer Dave Lombardo and Voodoocult guitarist Waldemar Sorychta.

Design work

In 2010, Jason designed a bass guitar with Esh Bass as a tribute to the late goth metal legend Peter Steele of the band Type O Negative. There were 13 instruments produced in this limited edition, and each was authenticated and signed by Viebrooks and the CEO of Esh.

This bass is my Tribute to Peter Steele. I have been working with Ralf Scholl, owner of Esh basses with A&R when he asked me to re-sign Peter to Esh. In the mid 1990’s, Peter and I were the only US sponsored Esh artists. I contacted Peter and told him that Ralf wanted to do a “Signature” model for him and we had been working together for several weeks to get the details perfect. Peter was very excited and proud that Esh wanted to bestow this honour on him.

Unfortunately, the world suddenly lost Peter. I had just finalized the last of the details with Peter two days before we heard the news. So now Ralf of Esh basses and myself present the “Jason VieBrooks’ tribute to Peter Steele” bass.

Discography

with Grip Inc.

with Heathen

with The Allknowing

with Lorenzo