Tantric

Tantric's story begins with a split. In late 1998, guitarist Todd Whitener, bassist Jesse Vest and drummer Matt Taul walked out of Days of the New after creative and personal disagreements, and they soon found a singer in Hugo Ferreira, whose baritone had impressed them on tour. The group first called itself C-14 before settling on Tantric. Ferreira is the sole survivor of that original line-up, and his voice remains the constant at its centre.

Their self-titled 2001 debut, produced by Toby Wright for Maverick Records, spawned the singles Breakdown, Astounded and Mourning, peaking at No. 71 on the Billboard 200 after entering at No. 193. It was certified gold in November 2001 and had sold over 600,000 copies by mid-2002, carried by tours with 3 Doors Down, Lifehouse, Kid Rock and Creed. After We Go followed in 2004 with the single "Hey Now", debuting at No. 56 but stalling short of gold. Jesse Vest left in 2005 and Maverick parted ways with the band in 2006, so Ferreira rebuilt the line-up, and The End Begins arrived in 2008 on Silent Majority Group. The Sum of All Things, their eighth full-length, came out in 2021 via Cleopatra Records.