Band formation Benedictum was formed originally as Bound by vocalist
Veronica Freeman and guitarist Pete Wells in
San Diego, California in 2005. The two founding members had been in the band known as Malady for over ten years. Freeman and Wells recruited drummer Blackie Sanchez and keyboardist Chris Morgan, whom Freeman had played with in the
Dio tribute band Evilution. Freeman's acquaintance with Dio's guitarist
Craig Goldy, brought the band to meet the former Dio and
Dokken bass player
Jeff Pilson, who produced their first three-track demo and contributed playing bass guitar.
History After signing with Locomotive Records, Benedictum entered in the studio to record their debut album with production by Jeff Pilson and mixing by Pilson and former
Warlock member
Tommy Henriksen. The band recorded eleven songs including the covers of
Black Sabbath′s songs "
Heaven and Hell" and "The Mob Rules", songs the group members had played for years in tribute bands. Prior to commencing work on their third album,
Dominion, the band underwent significant lineup changes with only core members Veronica Freeman and Pete Wells remaining. Benedictum would also leave their original record company, Locomotive Music, and sign a new deal with
Frontiers Records. Due to Jeff Pilson's commitments with
Foreigner, main producing duties for the new album were handled by
Grammy Award winning engineer/producer,
Ryan Greene, whose credits include
Megadeth and
NOFX. Pilson and Craig Goldy would make guest appearances on the album as did legendary bassist
Rudy Sarzo on the song "Bang". Continuing the tradition of covering at least one cover track on each album, the band cut "Overture" / "The Temples of Syrinx" / "Grand Finale" off of
2112 by
Rush, which is featured as a bonus track. New members Rikard Stjernquist (ex-
Jag Panzer) on drums and Aric Avina on bass were recruited in 2012 to record their latest album
Obey, released in November 2013. The band toured to promote the album, including supporting
Y&T in their 40th Anniversary Tour in 2014, though there is no known activity from the band since then. == Members ==