Dale Thompson is an American singer, musician and songwriter. In 1983, along with his younger brother Troy, Dale formed the band Matrix and began writing original material. In 1986, Matrix was signed to a record deal and changed their name to Bride. Between 1986 and 2013, Thompson released 14 studio albums with Bride, along with five solo albums, before disbanding the group, with the brothers remaining the only two original members throughout Bride's career. A lyric tenor in Bride's early days, Thompson was known for his powerful and stratospheric voice, as is evidenced on such early Bride songs as "Evil That Men Do", "Hell No" and "Here Comes the Bride". Thompson was into boxing and weightlifting, and currently holds two Kentucky bench press records. He has the title as the "Strongest Man in Kentucky." Thompson and his brother retired Bride in 2013, after releasing the band's 14th and final album, Incorruptible. Thompson currently lives in New Zealand and has a new musical project, "The World Will Burn", with Kentucky-based multi-instrumentalist Alan Zaring. The duo has released their debut album, Severity. He also formed a new band called "N.O.G.", meaning "No Other God". The band are currently finishing recording their first album for a 2018 release. In 2018, Thompson announced a new project with Tiago James De Souza of Hand of Fire, called Perpetual Paranoia. They have describe their style as heavy, but not thrash metal. In December 2018 Thompson joined Myles Barfield in "Dabster Gentlemen", originally an instrumental band who builds their music with an acoustic foundation. While in this band Thompson was able to explore Jazz, Blues, Folk, Country, R&B, Soul as well as a number of various styles of music he likely never would have been able to do. While in Dabster Gentlemen, Thompson recorded daily for a year, developing a catalog of albums that would be released yearly over the next ten years. In mid-2019 Thompson began a second concept project with Myles called "Haunted no More". The duo's goal was to work deep into emotions, pain and tragedy. They wanted to create music that made people think, and take the listener on a journey ending in hope. As with Dabster Gentlemen, the band worked tirelessly recording enough songs to release an album a year for at least six years. In both of these bands, Thompson performed all vocals as well as wrote all lyrics showing a side of himself that was open and unhindered, revealing a vulnerable honesty in each song as never before.
Thompson considers himself a committed Christian and universalist and according to Scott Waters of Ultimatum, Thompson's lyrical approach of universalism has been featured most prominently in "This is it" and "Skin for Skin." In the album Skin for Skin, Thompson's lyrics claim a greater Universalist view than previous releases, most notably in the song "End of Days", where the lyrics contain what is considered Thompson's most outward implication of Universalism with the lyrics, "Every man, women and child followed Adam to the grave. Your flesh he will destroy that your spirit will be saved...concluded them all in unbelief, he'll have mercy on everyone, by His grace and peace the Spirit and the Bride say come". Despite his Universalism and several accusations that he is no longer a Christian, Thompson has stated that he is a devout Christian and does believe in a Hell, though he has not staked a clear position on other doctrinal issues such as speaking in tongues, divine healing, foot washing, and the rapture, as he believes the teachings of Christ are the most important areas of Christian Faith. He argues that the Bible does not require anything other than Believing in Christ's teachings. Thompson is often critical of many Christian churches and denominations, particularly fundamentalism, as they often refer to Christian Universalist beliefs as heresy.
Thompson was critical of Cornerstone Festival, stating "the Cornerstone staff was easily freaked out by us. They would have some bizarre goth band play or some punk band that said crazy things and put on weird shows and invite them back year after year... while we preached boldly from the stage and basically was blacklisted from the festival. Sorry state of affairs."
