Mixed-media/hard electronic-rockers RITES OF ASH has been electrifying fans worldwide with their amalgamation of styles ranging from hard rock, hip-hop, and industrial, to electronic rock, blues, and progressive. The band has caught the attention of MTV, who has featured them on ten of their hit shows including: "The Real World," "Real World/Road Rules Challenge," "Next," and "Pimp My Ride.” RITES OF ASH has co-written/produced U.S. DMC Supremacy Champion DJ I-DEE’s single, Eclectic Dreams, the music video for which has aired on MTVu and MTV2 and will be featured on his upcoming full-length debut, Solitude. With impeccable style and Trent Reznor-like charisma, front man lead vocalist 80-TWO sings with smooth, yet aggressive vocals, able to entrance anyone who hears him. Guitarist/programmer LAZZO ignites the mood with his original style and fierce riffs, facilitated by his distinctive guitar tone and powerful synthesizer arrangements. SIR DEVILLE, drums/percussion, delivers uncompromisingly high-energy mechanics and fluidity, while newly added bass player CHÉ COLOVITA (co-founder of Jimmie’s Chicken Shack) dazzles audiences with his precision, presence and raw dynamism. Their debut album, Beautiful Illusions, has been received with critical acclaim and described as "unique but mainstream, hard-hitting yet romantically suave...truly cutting-edge song writing." (S. Diablo, MTV) RITES OF ASH’s second release, Epidemic of the Mannequins, is a two-disc collection containing totally new recordings of all ten original songs off of Beautiful Illusions, 2 new previously unreleased tracks (featuring a cover of Billy Joel’s “Pressure”), and 11 remixes (Disc 2). For this album, RITES OF ASH collaborated with world-renowned DJ Paul Edge and Pablo Manzarek (son of Ray Manzarek of The Doors), U.S. DMC Supremacy Champion DJ I-DEE, and up-and-coming hip-hop artist DOE The Paperboy. The Epidemic of the Mannequins (Remastered Edition) was released in July of 2008 and will be available soon on iTunes, Amazon.com, and many others. The band will be re-entering the studio and recording their upcoming full-length follow-up, cogNATION, set for release in 2009. “Burn,” the first single off the album, will be made into RITES OF ASH’s first professional music video and should be airing on Fuse and/or MTV2 in the upcoming months. RITES OF ASH live is like nothing you have ever seen before. From start to finish, they give 100% of themselves in a relentless high-energy performance. Their stage show is something you would expect from a major label signed band; mannequins equipped with video-screen heads, flat-panel LCD monitor towers, large digital projector screens, lighted step-boxes with emitting fog, a 2-tiered television podium, backdrops/side-banners, a professional DMX-controlled light show, and much more! Ron Underwood and Jim Kaufman of OPIATE FOR THE MASSES sum it up: "[We’ve] seen a ton of bands, and you guys really stand out as one of the best...you've got the live show covered!"