Three (3)

Three, also stylized as 3, is an American progressive rock band formed in Woodstock, New York in 1994, founded as a three piece with Joey Eppard on guitar and lead vocals, Josh Eppard on drums, and Chris Bittner on bass. The band's roots run deep in the Hudson Valley music scene, as Joey Eppard burst onto the Woodstock scene in the early 90s as a talented kid who turned a lot of heads, and within a few years was playing the Main Stage at Woodstock '94 under the management of Michael Lang. That performance, delivered while the band members were still teenagers, became a foundational moment in their story, as noted in later interviews where Eppard recalled that "when we were real young we played the main stage of Woodstock '94." The band's path to a wider audience was anything but smooth. They came to the attention of Universal Records after well-received performances at the Woodstock festival in 1994, eventually getting signed in 1998, but following an unstable relationship with the label through its series of corporate mergers, the band was left with little prospect of releasing their album. Undeterred, the band decided to release it on Planet Noise Records, a small indie label, and thenceforth managed themselves independently, until their 2005 signing with Metal Blade, on whose label they re-released Wake Pig in late 2005. That album, along with the group's four earlier releases on Planet Noise, helped the band forge its name through acclaimed albums culminating in 2004 with Wake Pig, which was hailed as an instant classic of the progressive metal genre for its blending of epic, searing arrangements with Eppard's emotionally charged vocals. The band's lineup has always centered on Joey Eppard, though it was marked by several line-up changes, most notably Josh Eppard's departure to join Coheed and Cambria, with the two bands becoming regular touring partners. Following Wake Pig, the band's momentum only grew. Their most widely recognized album, The End Is Begun, cemented their reputation, and reviewers praised it as an ambitious work of modern progressive rock, with one critic calling it "an excellent record" and ultimately "a masterpiece of modern progressive music." The group toured extensively during this period, including dates opening for Coheed and Cambria and, notably, an epic run on the first Progressive Nation Tour with Dream Theater, Opeth and Between the Buried and Me. They continued to build their catalog with 2009's Revisions and then 2011's The Ghost You Gave to Me, an album widely regarded as their most critically acclaimed effort, released on Metal Blade in November of 2011. Over the years the current lineup solidified around Joey Eppard, Billy Riker, Daniel Grimsland and drummer Chris "The Gartdrumm" Gartmann, a stable core that carried the band through its most productive creative stretch, including collaborations and tours alongside acts like Porcupine Tree, Opeth, Cynic, and Scale the Summit.