Dreadnaught (band)

Dreadnaught is a metal band from Melbourne, Australia. The group was formed out of the remnants of some Tasmanian bands including Fridge from Launceston who recorded an album in 1994.

The band recorded a single titled Flowers in 1995 that was released on cassette by Melbourne label Subversive. The following year the full-length album Body.Blood.Skin.Mind saw release on Deported. This album displayed a combination of dark, introspective rock and melodic, progressive thrash metal. Citing a breach of contract from the label that stemmed from inadequate promotion, Dreadnaught had the album re-released on BlahBlahBlah Records in 1997.

In the meantime, the band was forced to change the spelling of its name from the original "Dreadnought" to the current affectation when it was discovered that Queensland finance company Dreadnought Finance held a trademark on the name. The independently released EP Idiosyncrasy appeared in 1998 and at approximately the same time, drummer Aaren Suttil (aka Suds) formed a thrash metal band called Atomizer while still remaining a member of Dreadnaught.

During 1999, Dreadnaught began touring more widely, supporting Cathedral, Pitchshifter and Nevermore on Australian tours. The band also signed to Roadrunner Records through what was at the time an Australian-based development roster called Dark Carnival. Dreadnaught's first album release for the label was 2000's Down to Zero. The style of music on the album was less progressive and with more of a rock feel. Shortly after its release, bass player Andy Livingston-Squires (aka Squiz) left the band. He was replaced by Ando McDougall; in the interim, Dreadnaught recorded an EP in early 2001 called One Piece Missing with Michael Meagher on bass. A national tour was mounted with fellow Dark Carnival signing Frankenbok. This was followed by tours with Devin Townsend and Nickelback later the same year.

Dreadnaught was less active nationally for the next two years before beginning work on the third full-length album in 2004. Almost immediately, Suttil resigned from the group in order to concentrate on his other band Atomizer and he was replaced by Sandy Bettenay. Suttil recorded three albums and a number of singles and EPs with Atomizer until his death on 27 December 2006.

Dreadnaught's third album was released by Roadrunner in late 2005. Dirty Music showed that the group's transformation from progressive metal to groove rock was complete. The band supported Testament's tour of Australia in early 2007. Matt Racovalis (ex-Alarum, ex-The Berzerker) replaced Sandy Bettenay on drums in 2008. In mid-2009, the band issued their self-titled fourth album, which was a return to the heavy metal, progressive metal style from the early albums. The self-titled LP was released in Japan on Soundholic, and independently in Australia, which was followed with a Japanese tour later that year. The Japanese release also contained most of the Idiosyncracy EP as bonus tracks.

Dreadnaught toured Australia with Testament again during 2010.

Marty O'Shea replaced Matt Racovalis as drummer in 2012.

2016 saw the release of Caught The Vultures Sleeping (LP).

Members

Current members

• Greg Trull – vocals (1992–present)
• Richie Poate – guitars (1992–present)
• Scottie Anning – guitars (2017–present)
• Tim Joyce – drums (2019–present)
• Mark Kelson - bass (2022-present)

Former members

• Damon Alcock – guitars (1992–2016)
• Andrew Harold Livingstone-Squires – bass (1992–2000)
• Aaren Sutti – drums (1992–2004; died 2006)
• Sandy Bettenay – drums (2004–2008)
• Matthew Racovalis – drums (2008–2012)
• Marty O'Shea – drums (2012–2018)
• Andy McDougall – bass (2001–2020)

Timeline

<timeline> ImageSize = width:800 height:auto barincrement:18 PlotArea = left:100 bottom:60 top:0 right:15 Alignbars = justify DateFormat = mm/dd/yyyy Period = from:01/01/1992 till:05/10/2026 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal format:yyyy Legend = orientation:horizontal position:bottom ScaleMajor = increment:4 start:1992 ScaleMinor = increment:1 start:1992

Colors =

id:vocals    value:red       legend:Vocals
id:guitar    value:green     legend:Guitars
id:bass      value:blue      legend:Bass
id:drums     value:orange    legend:Drums
id:Lines1   value:black      legend:Studio_album

BarData =

bar:Greg text:"Greg Trull"
bar:Richie  text:"Richie Poate"
bar:Damon text:"Damon Alcock"
bar:Scottie text:"Scottie Anning"
bar:Andrew text:"Andrew Squires"
bar:Andy text:"Andy McDougall"
bar:Mark  text:"Mark Kelson"
bar:Aaren    text:"Aaren Suttil"
bar:Sandy  text:"Sandy Bettenay"
bar:Matthew    text:"Matthew Racovalis"
bar:Marty   text:"Marty O'Shea"
bar:Tim      text:"Tim Joyce"

LineData =

at:11/01/1994  color:Lines1  layer:back
at:11/01/1996  color:Lines1  layer:back
at:05/01/2000  color:Lines1  layer:back
at:12/09/2005  color:Lines1  layer:back
at:05/01/2009  color:Lines1  layer:back
at:07/22/2016  color:Lines1  layer:back
at:01/15/2025  color:Lines1  layer:back

PlotData=

width:11 textcolor:black align:left anchor:from shift:(10,-4)
bar:Greg from:start till:end color:vocals
bar:Richie from:start till:end color:guitar
bar:Damon from:start till:12/31/2016 color:guitar
bar:Scottie from:01/01/2017 till:end color:guitar
bar:Andrew from:start till:12/31/2000 color:bass
bar:Andy from:01/01/2001 till:12/31/2020 color:bass
bar:Mark from:01/01/2022 till:end color:bass
bar:Aaren  from:start till:07/01/2004 color:drums
bar:Sandy  from:07/01/2004 till:07/01/2008 color:drums
bar:Matthew  from:07/01/2008 till:07/01/2012 color:drums
bar:Marty  from:07/01/2012 till:12/31/2018 color:drums
bar:Tim     from:01/01/2019 till:end color:drums

</timeline>

Discography

Studio albums

• Body.Blood.Skin.Mind (1996)
• Down to Zero (2000)
• Dirty Music (2005)
• Dreadnaught (2009)
• Caught the Vultures Sleeping (2016)
• Shutdown In A Heartbeat (2025)

Extended plays

• Flowers (cassette 1994)
• Idiosyncrasy (1998)
• One Piece Missing (2001)

External links

• Dreadnaught official website Template:Webarchive
• Dreadnaught current website