Dave Astor started his musical career playing drums at age fourteen, and soon after, started his first band. Born July 18th, 1978, he fell into a world of musical lineage, as his parents played in one of San Diego’s early punk bands, The Standbys. More importantly, Dave’s father was also one of the founding members in the infamous Battalion Of Saints. Being submerged in music as well as punk ethics, it was only a matter of time till Dave would put together one of punk’s most influential and legendary bands of his generation, The Locust. Dave appeared on the bands earlier recordings, which were originally released by Three One G, GSL and now soon to be re-released by Anti, Epitaph’s mature imprint. Before Dave’s departure from The Locust to move on to more gore crushing death metal, he and The Locust managed to tour the U.S. as well as Europe, Japan, Canada, and Mexico time and time again. While in The Locust, the band managed to play an impromptu gig for Troma’s “The Toxic Avenger Pt. 4, Citizen Toxie” at the world-renowned Playboy mansion. Fortunately, or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it, the scene was edited out of the film due to legal matters between Troma and the Playboy estate. During Dave’s Locust years, the band also landed themselves on the soundtrack of one of John Water’s best films to date, Cecil B. Demented, where two of the band’s tracks appear on the movie sound track, connecting the full spectrum of campy cinema between Mr. Water’s work and Troma.

One of Dave’s other better known accomplishments happened just before Dave left The Locust, when he and then guitarist, Gabe Serbian, started one of metal’s all vegetarian brutal grind onslaught known as Cattle Decapitation. Taking cues from bands like Carcass, Napalm Death, and Discordance Axis, the band put their own spin on things, making something all their own. Again, releasing Cattle’s earliest material on Three One G, the band made a huge mark in not only the punk and hardcore scenes, but also in the metal community. Cattle has gone through many line up changes over the years, such as when Dave started the band playing bass, then quickly moved over to drum duty, where he fine tuned his signature drumming style and technique. The band went from merely a side project during The Locust’s downtime to a full time heavy hitter in the world of metal, making the leap over to metal’s most influential record label, Metal Blade. Due to inner band conflict, Dave parted ways with Cattle and moved on only after releasing one full length album with the new line up and new label.

Currently, Dave is focusing on his band, Pathology, who was signed to Victory Records 2010-2013 and has been touring heavily in support of the bands heightening success. Dave Astor has managed to make a name for himself over the years and has proven to be one of the leading drummers of modern times. Keep an eye (and ear) out for Dave and Pathology in the years to come.