Helios Creed

Helios Creed (born November 3, 1953 in Long Beach, California) is an American guitarist, singer and bandleader. He first came to prominence in the mid 1970s with the San Francisco band Chrome, afterwards establishing a solo career.

After Chrome, Creed released his first solo album, X-Rated Fairy Tales, in 1985. He has since released at least one almost every year, some of the standouts being Superior Catholic Finger and The Last Laugh both in 1989, Boxing Clown in 1990 and his most accessible to date, Kiss To The Brain.

Members of Creed's bands have included drummers Bill Roth, Paul Della Pella, Rey Washam, bassists Paul "Bean" Kirk and Mark Duran, and a mysterious woman named "Z" on keyboards. The music is usually mid-tempo to slow-tempo mixtures of space rock, hard rock and acid rock. He has released records onSub Pop, Amphetamine Reptile, Cleopatra and other indie labels.

The Butthole Surfers, have cited Helios Creed as a major influence. Creed even contributed guitar work to their album Independent Worm Saloon.

Creed released two albums under the name Dark Matter. The Dark Matter albums are much more electronic and ambient than his guitar heavy solo work. They have been compared to early electronic krautrock.

Creed uses a large number of effects on his voice and his guitar, including space echoes, phase shifters, flangers, guitar synthesizers, fuzz, and octave dividers.

Creed has said that he invented his trademark sound while trying to replicate the sound he heard in his head while "listening to Black Sabbath on LSD through headphones when I was a teenager."

Creed has lived in Hawaii, San Francisco, and currently lives in Oklahoma. He still tours sporadically.

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