Point Of Ares - About Point Of Ares

Point Of Ares Is

Bill Michalson: guitars	Ryan DesRoches: drums, backing vocals	Karen Michalson: bass guitar, lead vocals, keyboards
Photos courtesy of Pops Stentor, Vampyrum Publicity

About Point Of Ares

Point Of Ares writes and performs hard rock with a dark, progressive edge. Their lyrics are artful, literary, sometimes mystical, and always intelligent. They have received airplay and critical acclaim throughout the United States, Canada and Europe.

Their name is emblematic of the aggressive, take-no-prisoners attitude of rock n' roll at its best, a name that represents their vision of the sweeping majesty and power of the rock genre, what they whimsically refer to as the "point of Ares" -- Ares being the ancient Greek god of war and aggression.

Of Note

Enemy Glory Darkly Blessed was featured as "CD of the Month" for August 2001 by Indie Productions. It was released by Arula Records on May 24, 2001. It is a new version of Point Of Ares's critically acclaimed debut release, Enemy Glory. Both albums are based on Karen's epic fantasy series, Enemy Glory, published by Tor Books.

Point Of Ares was voted a Top Rated Band on Virtual Tunes in February 2000. "Asphodel" (from The Sorrows Of Young Apollo) won a Collegemusic.com Top Ten Song Award on November 5, 1999. Point Of Ares performed with the Women 'N Rock Charity Concert Tour in summer 1999. "Second Epilogue" (from Enemy Glory) charted #1 in Adventure Rock and "Apollo in Picardy" (from The Sorrows Of Young Apollo) charted #6 in Progressive Rock on MP3.COM in May 1999. "Second Epilogue" was also MP3.COM's Featured Adventure Rock Song in May 1999. In February 1999, Point Of Ares won the Independent Distribution Network (IDN) Best Progressive Rock Band Poll. "Hypatia" (from The Sorrows Of Young Apollo) was played throughout 1999 as the theme song for the "Rebel Café" radio show, broadcast on Radio Free Cambridge (106.1 FM, Cambridge MA). Their second album, The Sorrows Of Young Apollo, was released on January 1, 1999. Prior to release it was featured as "CD of the Week" for the week of December 18, 1998 on StarVoice, a multi-media site that, at the time, was receiving over a half million hits per day. Point Of Ares was chosen by The Blue Room as Artist of the Month for March 1998.

"Threle" (from Enemy Glory) charted #3 for six weeks in summer 1997 on CKLU (96.7 FM, Sudbury, Ontario Canada). Point Of Ares was voted Best New Artist 1997 in The Worcester Phoenix Best Music Poll. They were chosen by Rock Online as Indie Band of the Month for February 1997. "Slouching Towards Chaos" was nominated by The Worcester Phoenix as one of the ten best indie singles of 1996. It charted #1 for five weeks on WDOA (89.3 FM, Worcester MA) in spring 1996. Enemy Glory was released on October 31, 1996.

The Members

Karen Michalson came to bass playing and singing out of her literary pursuits, and then to keyboard playing. Her epic fantasy series, Enemy Glory, which was the inspiration for Point Of Ares's first and third albums, is published by Tor Books. Her short pieces have appeared in several national publications. She has recorded one full-length spoken word album, Of No Importance, a reading of her short story of the same title. Karen created and runs Arula Records.

Bill Michalson learned guitar at an early age, put it aside to pursue graduate studies in electrical engineering, and picked it up again when Karen decided to form Point Of Ares. His electrical engineering expertise has earned him a position as Point Of Ares's resident wizard technician and chief recording engineer. Besides creating music, Bill designs audio signal processors and other recording equipment. His studio credits include drum and synthesizer programming and session guitar work. He has done engineering and production work for City Boy Records. Other credits include mastering Soul Tee's Highlife Extra "O" (Rexam African Music USA), as well as albums for God Stands Still and Rawhead Rex. He has also engineered Pheen, as well as engineered and co-produced All Else Fails, Cooler Than Smack (Linoleum Records), Room With A View, and many other bands.

Ryan DesRoches has been drumming most of his life in various bands, orchestras, theatrical productions, and local Native American Drum performances, acquiring an impressive versatility in rock, jazz, and classical music. He has past experience in theater, acting in such plays as Wiley and The Hairy Man and Tom Sawyer. He has also worked backstage as stage manager, lighting designer and technical director for Worcester Children’s Theater for many plays including Scrooge and The Emperor's New Clothes. His drumming influences include John "Bonzo" Bonham of Led Zeppelin, Neil Peart of Rush, and Buddy Rich. He is an avid water skier.

Bessie the Dragon is the official mascot of Point Of Ares. Bessie's name was a long-kept band secret, for dragons dearly love to keep secrets. Those few fans who knew her name could often persuade the band members to give them free CDs and merchandise at shows, just to keep the secret and appease Bessie. Bessie often changes her dragon form, and can be found on Point Of Ares stickers, CD covers, and other band paraphernalia. She is not to be confused with Alex, Karen's personal dragon who sometimes accompanies her to shows and protects her bass rig.

Wolf, also known as Lakota, was found in the rural areas near Woodstock CT and has become the second official mascot of Point Of Ares. Wolf is the protector of Ryan's drums. He guards the portal to Ryan's bass drum and howls silent dreams. Wolf loves a good party, and when Ryan works up a heat on his kit, Wolf rocks out with the best of them.

Ensemble

Before the invention of printing most people saw no separation between literature and music, and most artists who practiced one practiced the other. In fact, the ancient Greeks recognized this unity in the god Apollo, who presided over both. Their first storyteller, Homer, was also a musician. By combining original spoken word pieces with rock n’ roll, Point Of Ares place themselves in the tradition of storyteller-minstrels, except that they're definitely rockers, not folk players.

Having been often told that rock music is a much more Dionysian than Apollonian endeavor, Point Of Ares offers the following little recognized fact: At Apollo's oracle at Delphi lay the grave of Dionysus. It was believed that for three months out of the year Apollo went north to the land of the Hyperboreans, and his shrine then became holy to Dionysus. In many parts of Greece, Apollo and Dionysus were not viewed as opposites, as reason vs. emotion, but as literally manifestations of the same deity to be honored at different times of the year, often surprisingly, with the same symbols. The Boeotians (and others) honored both Apollo and Dionysus at the same place: on Mount Parnassus, where they understood both the Delphic oracle of Apollo and the caves of Dionysus to be dedicated to a single god. It took a nineteenth-century German philosopher like Nietsche to separate them while announcing that God is dead.

If you're interested in this sort of thing, read Walter F. Otto, Dionysus: Myth and Cult, trans. Robert P. Palmer (Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press, 1965) 202-208 and Macrobius, The Saturnalia, trans. Percival Vaughan Davies (New York: Columbia University Press, 1969) Book I, Chapter 18, 128-132.

Point Of Ares honors their Apollonian-Dionysian sensibilities as noncontradictions, as manifestations of the same impulse. They think with their feelings and feel with their thoughts.

About Point Of Ares

Point Of Ares Is

About Point Of Ares

Of Note

The Members

Ensemble