History

Emphasizing their intellectual bent is the fact that the band was formed as Heresy at the University Of Arizona as, where Chris Lykins and Brian Zimmerman agreed to form a band while conducting endurance experiment on a lizard. Despite the less than flourishing scene in their hometown of Tucson, Brian and Chris kept the band together with a revolving door roster until April of 1987, when the rest of the current line-up solidified itself. Recruiting Rick Skowron (guitar), James Gulotta (bass) and Tim Kelly (drums), the band rushed into the studio to record a six track demo called 'Chemical Dependency' in 1987.

The response from underground was nothing short of spectacular, as fanzines world wide sung Atrophy's praises, and both Kerrang! and Metal Forces placed the demo on their year-end Top Ten list. In fact, Metal Forces liked them so much that they put two of the demo tracks on 'Metal Forces: Demolition - Scream Your Brains Out!' sampler album.

The second demo tape 'Advanced Promo' came out in 1987. Roadrunner Records caught the buzz, and signed the band in June of 1988.

The album 'Socialized Hate' (1988) was an impressive debut, featuring heavy-duty riffing, screaming guitars and thoughtful lyrics. Its lyrics dealt with serious issues such as war, drugs, racism, and the environment. The album was recorded in Los Angeles and given a fine production by Metal Blade aficionado Bill Metoyer. With the album, Atrophy deliver good solid thrash, with an added highlight of the inclusion of some of the most intelligent and well put together lyrics seen and heard in a long time. They are very much on the ecological and social ball with tracks like 'Chemical Dependency', 'R.I.P.', 'Urban Decay' and the very effective 'Socialized Hate', which instead of just hysterically bemoaning certain social conditions attempts to take a measured look at the reasons which lay behind them. Musically the tracks are noticeable for their powerful insistence, repeating very strong refrains that eventually start to grind the listener into a littered submission. Rumor has it that they wanted to come across as an intelligent, professional band. They managed it. The album was eaten up by the metal community, as Kerrang called it "a great album by a band with a big future", and Faces said that the LP was "a totally homicidal dish to set before the masses". Metal radio also absorbed Atrophy, as the Metal Radio charts had the album in their Top 20.

The band followed the album's release with a three month tour of America, opening up for fellow Arizonians Sacred Reich. The bands played 42 dates nation-wide, and the enthusiastic responses showed that audiences were ready and willing to be engulfed by Atrophy's brand of thinking man's speed metal.

With their sophomore Roadrunner release, 'Violent by Nature', they took their evolution further on up the road, as they displayed technicality, and broadened their lyrical horizons to include such concepts as the aggressive stereotyping of children, product testing on animals, the right that the dying have to a dignified death through euthanasia, and many other topics that people face every day in life, but rarely in music. The album was produced by Bill Metoyer (Slayer, D.R.I., and Flotsam And Jetsam), who also worked the boards on the first album, and it contains tracks that co-founder Chris Lykins feels contain some unique differences from the average metal tunes: "In our songs, both the lyrics and the music are treated equally. Sure the music is important, and we make it as tight and exciting as we can, but we give the lyrics equal billing as well. We like to bring speed metal to a higher level, and by paying attention to all sides of a song, I feel that we accomplish that."

Atrophy reformed in summer 2015.

(source: Metal Mind and Displeased Records, October 2011, partly edited by AM - Updated in January 2018)