Tommy Vext


Thomas Cummings, better known under the stage name Tommy Vext, is an American heavy metal singer and songwriter known as the lead vocalist of Bad Wolves, Snot, Divine Heresy, and Westfield Massacre. He was also the fill-in vocalist for heavy metal band Five Finger Death Punch during their European Arena tour in 2017 when lead singer Ivan Moody left the tour to check into rehab.

Career

Early career

Vext began his music career in Brooklyn, New York as a teenager singing in local hardcore bands and engaging in freestyle rap battles with the neighborhood's preeminent hopefuls. Being too young, Vext had to sneak into clubs even for his own shows. In 1996, he formed the band Maniacal Disciple with friends Jim Donovan, Steve Perlmutter and Mike Kontaras, eventually changing their name to "Vext", which eventually became his nickname after he started to be known as "Tommy Vext" in the New York hardcore scene. Vext was a local buzz band, playing shows at CBGB, The Continental, and Lamours. They also opened for Biohazard, Candiria, and many others. In 2005, at the Roadrunner Records 25th-anniversary show, Vext was invited to sing with Corey Taylor of Slipknot.

Divine Heresy

In 2006, Vext was recruited by Dino Cazares of Fear Factory to front his new band Divine Heresy. Their debut studio album Bleed the Fifth was released in the United States on August 28, 2007, through Century Media Records. The album was produced by former Machine Head and Soulfly guitarist Logan Mader.
Bleed the Fifth enjoyed a warm welcome from both the fans and the press. Dom Lawson of Metal Hammer summarized his review by saying "All in all, the portly pioneer has hit the bull's-eye and it's going to be fascinating to see what happens next", awarding an eight out of a possible 10. Eduardo Rivadavia of AllMusic felt the album "strikes a near-perfect balance between confirmation and innovation ". Scott Alisoglu of Blabbermouth.net summarized his review claiming the album is "one tough son of a bitch that may still have you humming melodies long after you've ejected the disc". Chad Bowar of About.com commented "Great musicianship, good songs and excellent production make this a very respectable debut".
Vext wrote the majority of the lyrics, which are about personal strifes and how people overcome them. Much of the lyrical content was influenced by the Book of Revelation, natural disasters, war, and terrorism.
Due to unresolvable differences with Dino Cazares, Vext parted with Divine Heresy in 2008. The highly publicised split left both the fans and the press confused. In an exclusive "Metal Injection" interview, Vext explained the real reasons behind his departure from the band:
Later bassist Joe Payne and drummer Tim Yeung both broke ties with Dino and on July 27, 2015, in an interview with MetalSucks, Cazares confirmed that he was the only remaining member of Divine Heresy.

Snot

is an American metal band from Santa Barbara, California. Formed in 1995, the band released their debut studio album Get Some with founding vocalist Lynn Strait in 1997 and disbanded after his death in 1998. In 2008, the band reformed, with Vext on vocals. Snot has played a number of shows fronted by Vext, including a fall 2008 tour in the United States, supporting DevilDriver. When later original guitarist Sonny Mayo left the band, Snot went on hiatus again.
On February 11, 2014, Snot reunited the second time at the Whisky a Go Go in Hollywood. This second reunion line-up once again featured Vext, Mayo, Doling, Fahnestock and Miller. They went on to play three more shows in the Southern California area before once again going quiet.

Vext

In 2011 Tommy Vext reformed Vext with members of Mutiny Within, ; along with guitar virtuoso Angel Vivaldi. They released the EP titled Impermanence. in 2012.
By 2013 Vivaldi and Jacobs had left the project, with Billy DiNapoli taking over on guitars. They released an EP Broke is the New Black.
Tommy then had gone on tour with Mayhem Festival 2013 as a cook, and moved to Los Angeles after the tour.

Westfield Massacre

After his stint with Snot, Vext moved on and formed a new band known as "Westfield Massacre". The band released their self-titled debut album on Urban Yeti Records 2016. In 2017, Vext began working on a side project with former DevilDriver drummer John Boecklin Vext left Westfield while he was on tour with Five Finger Death Punch.

Bad Wolves

In 2016, Vext formed a new band, known as "Bad Wolves" with former DevilDriver drummer John Boecklin. Guitarists Doc Coyle and Chris Cain, and later, bassist Kyle Konkiel formerly of In This Moment were recruited for the project. During the summer of 2016, they entered AudioHammer Studios with longtime collaborator Mark Lewis and tracked what would become the group's debut studio album. On May 2, 2017, Bad Wolves independently premiered a song titled "Learn to Live" accompanied by a music video The video was streamed over 600,000 times. In November 2017, it was announced that Bad Wolves signed with Eleven Seven Music and Zoltan Bathory, the founding guitarist of Five Finger Death Punch, took them under his wings as the band's manager.
The band released their debut studio album, Disobey on May 11, 2018 through Eleven Seven Music.
The album reached number 23 on the US Billboard 200. In May 2017, Bad Wolves released their debut single, "Learn to Live". In November 2017, Bad Wolves released their second single, "Toast to the Ghost". On January 18, 2018, they released a third single, which was a cover of "Zombie", which charted on multiple Billboard charts. The night of her death, Dolores O'Riordan left a voice message to her friend, record label executive Dan Waite, where she offered to "sing on it" on the cover that Waite had previously given O'Riordan to listen to and accredit. TMZ published this voice message on April 5, 2018. A music video was released on February 22. The song topped the US Billboard Mainstream Rock Songs chart, while the music video was viewed more than 170 million times. The single is certified platinum in Canada and the United States and gold in Germany.
The band toured with Five Finger Death Punch, Shinedown, Breaking Benjamin, and Starset for the first half of 2018.

Awards and nominations

Bad Wolves became the first rock band in 2018 to reach platinum status for their cover song, "Zombie".

Discography

Vext