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SAN DIEGO BAND out of ESCONDIDO! A Brief History…

Starting in early 2000 Matt Arbaugh (Lead Guitarist) had an idea to fulfill his dream and start a band, for most talented musicians this seems like a normal step to take. As a Kid he had taken Piano lessons and then picked up a Guitar in early adulthood and found his true calling, his biggest influences have come from Guitarist’s such as Alex Lifeson, Ted Nugent and later with Legends like DimeBag Darrel Abbot and Zakk Wylde. But Matt started with a bit of a disadvantage, from an early age he had fell into the grips of addiction and had his fair share of run-ins with the law, these life experiences would come to form the name of their band "Caustic Felon".

Paul McFadden has been playing music since he was eight but didn’t come to love the Bass until a stint in prison where a guy by the name of “Killer” told him to never play a guitar again, his instrument is the Bass, Paul took that to heart (and who wouldn't) and took it up full time. When he got out he had heard about Matt’s band and wanted in, in typical Paul fashion he walked right up to Matt and said “Meet your new Bass player” Matt told him he already had a base player, two months later he was in the band. He added a singer by the name of Eric who by Matt’s own admission had a great set of pipes and started practicing cover tunes from Bands like Black Sabbath, Pantera Etc.

They started playing local clubs as a cover band, and had a great time entertaining audiences all over North County. While performing live covers of other bands Matt and Paul had the idea to start writing their own music with the intent of cutting a full length CD. With this in mind they started looking for a new drummer and found Anthony Christopher, Anthony began playing drums or anything else he could bang around the age of 6, it wasn't until about the age of 11 that he really became serious with it. His main influences musically are Led Zeppelin, Metallica and Terry Bozzio(Missing Persons), Anthony has been in about four bands over his musical career and has done some studio work as well.

The aforementioned experiences have surely honed his skill's because he surely can wail out a Metal Beat! About that time they felt at a crossroads with there former singer Eric and with great regret had to release him from the band. They began going thru auditions with some of the top talent in North County and found Charlie. His main influences musically come from Alice in Chains and Nirvana, Charlie has a vocal style all his own and feels very comfortable behind a microphone. He has wanted to be a singer ever since he can remember and comes from a history of performers, there is no doubt that Matt and the guys made the right choice.

With everybody in place they cut their first demo in 2007, At Exum Studios in Escondido, Ca. on ADAT Tape and even though it was a rough cut which included Hellraiser, Downtown, Touching God and Beginning of the End, you could already hear the beginnings of a unique flavor of Metal that reminds you of where it started along with the tones and innovative styles of today’s Metal bands like Lamb of God and others. Using the demo as a launching pad they began the long and time consuming task of having their Demo heard and setting up live show Dates. It turns out Charlie has a gift similar to Lars of METALLICA, he can sell a show! Soon after they were playing shows up at the Whiskey a Go Go, Del Mar Fairgrounds along with other venues, which included entering into the Emergenza “Battle of the Bands” where they found themselves playing in the finals in front a crazy sold out 4th and B audience. By the bands own admission "one of the highlights of our musical career" to date. It’s obvious that Matt loves Heavy Metal and when asked to describe the band he answered with this. “Although we love the Heavy stuff, we don’t want to be a wall of sound. Some bands are very talented but they hit you with everything all at once and climax too early. We have a unique Metal Groove that is bent on Rock and a little blues, No over the top screaming and barking, yet heavy and fast at times. The members of CAUSTIC FELON are all family men, they have full time jobs and all the other responsibilities that come with raising a family, yet when we get together we are all about the music”.

To bring you up to date the Band has finally completed their debut album “DOWNTOWN” with ten kick ass songs with a lot of flavor, it was produced by Don Budd and recorded at Tone Freq in San Jose Ca. and will be releasing it on May 16th 2009 at Brick by Brick in San Diego, Ca. as part of a NSD Productions headlining show!