Born in Oakland and raised in the Bay Area, Nick Vasallo's involvement with music began in high school where he picked up the electric guitar and formed a punk band. As his interest in music grew so did his tastes, and he soon developed an affinity to Classical music and Extreme Metal . The powerful gestures of Beethoven and chaotic noise of Discordance Axis would have permanent effects upon his compositional aesthetics. At age 23 he decided to "start over" and switched majors to Music, focus...