Shooting Hemlock Was the brainchild of manager Brad Keene Who had worked with guitar player Joe Stump (Boston Mass.) on his solo projects. Brad wanted to put together a band comprised of members from different regions of the country, and with the addition of Jeff Tortora and Jimmy Puma (Syracuse N, Y.,) Brad had the monster rhythm section he had been searching for. Both Jeff and Jim were playing with Joey Belladonna from Anthrax at that time, and for one reason or another it didn’t work out. Brad then set his sights on a lead vocalist to fill the last remaining slot in the line up, enter Brian Troch (Chicago IL.), who just had left the Band Cyclone Temple and was looking to break free of the dictatorship he experienced in that band. Brian now had the the ability to write his own material as well as collaborate with his other band members in the songwriting department. What ensued was a mixture of styles and influences that made a very different but awesome sound. The band wrote all their material via mail and E-mail and flew into one central location (Boston) to rehearse ,do pre production work and record the actual tracks , Brian would eventually move to Boston and the project was finished!!! Dark star records now brings you these two releases, BIG GREEN MONSTER and COLORED SPACKLED EMPTY and with worldwide distribution Shooting Hemlock now stands ready to ROCK THE ENTIRE WORLD!!!!!!!!!!!