Southern Live Band Promotions

Low Twelve began in July of 1998 as founder Pete Altieri, decided to end his 10-year departure from heavy metal. He decided to name the band Low Twelve after reading the phrase in an old book on Freemasonry, which simply meant midnight. The band is based out of Bloomington, Illinois, a city of about 50,000 in Central Illinois.

Pete began to write material, develop the logo and band presentation as he found guitarists Tim McCleland and Les Aldridge. Together with original drummer Steve Chestney, Low Twelve practiced a rigorous schedule to perform their debut show at Club Edge in Bloomington Illinois on February 6, 1999. It would be the first of many brutal live shows.

Shortly after that show, the band released their debut 4-song demo, "Blunt Force Trauma". The demo received praise by metal zines world wide and sold nearly 1,000 copies. After only a couple of months, the band decided to hit the studio again and released the EP, "Kill Floor", and sold another 1,000 copies of it by hand duplicating and assembling each one! Several cuts from "Kill Floor" dominated the metal charts on mp3.com and they began to get airplay in stations throughout the US as well as Germany, The Netherlands, and beyond.

In 1999 Pete Altieri founded Heavycore, a union of heavy bands world wide. Heavycore has proven to be a great way for bands to network and promote themselves in markets they never dreamed of. Low Twelve has made countless contacts and established great gig exchange relationships. Heavycore also sponsors benefits to help those less fortunate, and helps bands any way they can.

Steve Chestney left the band and was replaced in November of 1999 with Wes Pollock. Dubbed the "Kill Floor Kid", Wes brought a new slant on the style of the band. The new material began to transform into a faster and more intricate sound. In June of 2000, Low Twelve recorded the epic full length cd, "Flesh of the Weak". The 70-minute metal triumph was released in December 2000 as they supported Pro-Pain on the "Round 6" tour for a few dates.Reviews continue to pour in for "Flesh of the Weak" and many of the songs have appeared in other formats. "Twelve" and "Trench" were selected for the Siren Jukebox 2.0 software, which has sold in the millions to date. "Brutal World" was featured in the movie trailer and during the film "Jigsaw" released on Full Moon Pictures on DVD. "Jigsaw" was released nationwide throughout Hollywood Video and Family Video stores. In addition, "Brutal World" and "Sex Sin Sermon" was on the soundtrack for Falcon Videos "Horrortales 666" that came out in early 2003. Low Twelve has played nearly 200 shows and continues to slam venues throughout the Midwest. They have taken their show outside their home state of Illinois to Kentucky, Iowa, Missouri, Wisconsin, Indiana, Kansas, Ohio, Michigan, Maryland, and New York.

During the summer of 2002, the band embarked on a tour to New York City and back - as they tore it up night after night, gaining new Twelve Heads in mass. Low Twelve shows are known for being hellishly loud, rough and nasty in the pits. Many fans comment on how tight the band is live, and how the songs are pulled off with precision and intensity. The band thrives in a live environment, when their amps are up full tilt and providing the necessary concussion up front.In June of 2001, Pete Altieri was diagnosed with cancer and went under emergency surgery to remove the tumor. Tests later showed Pete still had many tumors left, and so the cancer had spread. The only option being chemo therapy, Pete endured the treatments while continuing to play live shows and rehearse twice a week. During the entire summer, the only show Low Twelve missed was on the day of Pete's emergency surgery. Trips were made to Missouri and Wisconsin, and the support from the fans was a huge reason for Pete's persistence and determination to beat the cancer. With a sigh of relief, on September 11, 2001, Pete found out the cancer was gone. Each monthly check up shows the cancer remains gone, and his health slowly has improved. He's still in remission 3 years later.Tim McCleland left the band in October 2001 and after a short period of try-outs, the band decided to remain a three piece. After posting a poll on the site, 2/3 of fans voted to keep the band intact, and to not get another guitar player. At live shows, the fans love the new approach, and with some adjustments, the band is able to perform many of their classic tunes.

They continue to write new material as the set list evolves constantly. Low Twelve publishes a quarterly 16-page magazine called Low Times, which features stunning artwork from world renown artist Jeff Gaither. The entire magazine is written, edited and published by the band members together with contributing correspondents Bonesaw and Casey Waltrip. With a circulation of 1,500 the Low Times is the most unique form of band promotion on the planet. They passed 30 issues in 2004. Not satisfied with only the printed magazine, Low Twelve's web site gets over 50,000 hits per month. The online webzine, the Brutality Report, is posted every weekend. It features pics only hours old, live reviews, features, and complete updates on the goings-on of the band. They've been posted nearly 300 straight weeks and are legendary to web users who like things dark, nasty, and ever so brutal.Sadly Tim McCleland committed suicide on February 26, 2002, and even though he was not a member of the band, he was still a good friend to every member of Low Twelve. It was a very rough time, but the band forged on yet again. Pete, Les, and Wes reached down and decided the only thing to do was continue to fight. After dealing with the adversity of Pete's cancer fight and Tim's untimely death—Low Twelve felt stronger than ever.In the summer of 2003, Low Twelve released it's next cd, "Unfit For Human Occupancy" with 5 newly recorded songs and 2 live tracks with Tim still playing. The reviews have been strong and the metal media is eating it up. The cd was released with a DVD entitled "Maggot Ridden Rotting Movie", but it had to be removed from the jewel case due to a legal problem that arose with a young kid on the DVD. To avoid litigation, Low Twelve agreed to remove the DVD and sell only the "Unfit" cd.The shows they've done in support of "Unfit" have been strong as the band continues to gain notoriety and respect in the metal community. They headlined several outdoor metal fests in Illinois, opened for death/grind freaks Lividity at a death metal fest in Urbana Illinois, opened up for Roadrunner artists Ill Nino in November 2003, and will be passing their 200th show milestone in 2005. The band also participates in several benefit concerts throughout the year—such as the Melissa Berning Benefit (Urbana, IL), the Dutch Whitmore Cancer Research Benefit (Milan, IL), American Cancer Society Research Benefit (Taylorville, IL), and Core For Cancer (Bloomington, IL). In late 2004, they recorded a new full length cd, and will be producing a dvd along with it called "This Side Toward Enemy". They plan on releasing the new cd in April of 2005 and to follow with the film and book later in the year.Low Twelve rolls on in the face of adversity and waves the metal flag high and proud.