 atomic opera are a hard rock band from houston, texas. their style blends progressive rock, art rock, metal, medieval influences, and eastern music. ==history== formed in september 1991, the band began when founding member frank hart moved from missouri and joined forces with producer/manager sam taylor. the lineup consisting of frank, jonathan marshall, mark poindexter, and len sonnier (brother of dane sonnier of the galactic cowboys), was fleshed out with a few different houston-area musicians over the next few years. in december 1991, atomic opera went into rampart recording studio with producer sam taylor, and engineer steve ames to record a demo consisting of the songs "for madmen only", "daze of love in grey", "the meaningless word" and "everdream". they recorded more demos at rampart in 1992. in september 1992, sonnier quit the band, and was replaced on bass by his good friend and bass tech, jonas velasco. in 1994, after derek shulman, president of collision arts (a subsidiary of giant records) saw the band play live at zelda's in houston, he signed them the spot. soon, they released their first full album,for madmen only. during this time, the band toured with such artists as dioconcert review from dio tour and king's x. the band's video for "justice" was played approximately 20 times on mtv.band history on atomic opera website often compared with king's x (who was also managed and produced by taylor) or the galactic cowboys, atomic opera forged their own path with poetic lyrics, varied instruments, and strong christian influences. unlike some of their contemporaries, the band did little to hide its faith in its lyrics, but in some ways avoided the stereotypes of christian rock, as most songs focused on challenging the norms of christianity and on the relationship between god and man. the band was also vocal about their dislike of the christian music industry. the band's label collision arts ceased operations, and atomic opera found itself without a home, and released their next two albums wi
Former_Metal_Blade_Records_artists Heavy_metal_musical_groups_from_Texas Magnatune_artists Musical_groups_established_in_1991 Musical_groups_from_Houston,_Texas