The Anxiety Effect is a Bradford, PA based groove metal band made up of John Lockwood, Bill McDowell, Dane Hagg, Dan Kermick, and Geoff Greenman. The roots of 'The Anxiety Effect' date all the way back to 2000. Front man John Lockwood and drummer Geoff Greenman where touring regionally together in two separate bands at the time; 'Kriegspei'l and 'JUNKhead'. Lockwood's band Kriegspeil was the younger of the two groups (with all members still in high school), often jumping on JUNKhead's tour bus as the opening act. In January 2001, JUNKhead made regional headlines when their 5 song self titled E.P. landed them an entry in a Battle of the Bands contest at The Rock N' Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland Ohio. With reps from Capital Records looking on, JUNKhead would go on to win the preliminary round, only to fall short with a second place finish in the finals. After touring regionally on a regular basis for the rest of the year, often taking Kriegspeil with them as the supporting act, JUNKhead disbanded in early 2002 before the release of their first full length 'Instincts'. Kriegspeil would follow suit only one month later, leaving two full bands worth of musicians looking for a new core group. In May of 2002, just weeks after the demise of both Kriegspeil and JUNKhead, Lockwood and Greenman would find themselves touring regionally again. Only this time, it would be together in a new band called ZeroPointOne. Using contacts and resources from the JUNKhead run, ZeroPointOne started out playing few local shows, and more regional dates on the road. It wasn't long after the band started establishing a name for itself, that Greenman would leave the band. ZeroPointOne would then go through drummer changes to fill the void left by Greenman, settling on drummer Jose Crespo. The band then recorded it's 6 track E.P. titled 'Driven By Disaster' and continued it's regional touring, picking up a Jagermeister Music sponsorship along the way in 2005. This lead to them playing several dates with national bands such as Bleed the Sky, Silent Civilian, Straight Line Stitch, Dope, Stemm, 5 Bolt Main, Allele, and several others. Bass player Dan Kermick was added into the mix for a short time, as the band started experimenting with additions of a second guitar player. This experimentation would lead to constant internal issues and key member changes, bringing a 5 year close to the band in early 2007. Guitarists Dane Hagg and Bill McDowell where local supporters of all 3 bands (JUNKhead, Kriegspeil, and ZeroPointOne) and have claimed that the bands all helped inspire them to become musicians themselves. They both started playing and writing in tandem for several years, following the local music scene and constantly looking for other musicians to start their own project with. Several attempts would leave them empty handed as lack of dedication and commitment was a constant issue, and nothing came together for the two. In early 2008, Lockwood and bass player Kermick would start a new project called 'Light the Shadow'. The band was short lived and lasted only a year after releasing a 4 song E.P. No regional touring or real exposer came to the band during the short run. Frustrations and internal issues would cause the group to disband in June of 2009. In January of 2011, Lockwood and guitarist Bill McDowell began discussing possible options for starting a new project. After meeting together for one studio tryout session, Lockwood was dead set on working with McDowell. Shortly after, second guitarist Dane Hagg, former ZeroPointOne drummer Jose Crespo, and bass player Dan Kermick would all be added to the lineup. The Anxiety Effect was born. The band began writing material in March of 2011, but schedule conflicts would bring the bands progress to a halt, leading to the replacement of Crespo with original ZeroPointOne drummer Geoff Greenman. The band credits Crespo for co-writing much of their first material, and for helping kick start the project. The Anxiety Effect is now in full swing with an established lineup, and a string of common goals. The band plans to be a completely independent artist, pushing their music themselves on every level and platform possible. The band hopes that all listeners will take it in for what it truly is; honest in your face heavy music with attitude and meaning; something they feel is missing in a lot of today's music. "Heavy music in general has taken several wrong turns in recent years," states front man John Lockwood. "Most of it has become a fad. It isn't about being pissed off at the world with a message from the gut anymore . It's about putting on a fake display with uneven hair cuts, girl pants, and weeping into your mic about some slut that cheated on you. If that's what you're all about, this band isn't for you." With the world in general being plagued with corruption, power hungry politics, war, and greed, the band feels the inevitable crash of society as we know it is on the horizon. It's a thought process that the band sees many people already relate to. And they plan on sharing those thoughts on not only a national basis, but an international basis while using powerful online networking tools. With influences from bands like Iron Maiden, In Flames, Chimaira, Sevendust, and Lamb of God (just to name a few), TAE wants to bring an angry combination of classic and new age groove metal to the ear that has true meaning behind it. The band's first E.P. will be released in February 2012, and will be available on CD, iTunes, Amazon.com, and many others.