Necrophagist was a German technical death metal band founded and fronted by guitarist and vocalist Muhammed Suiçmez. The band used baroque music-influenced compositions paired with extreme metal drumming. The name originates from the Greek roots νεκρο- nekro- ("dead body") and -φαγος - ("eater of"). This figuratively translates to eater of the dead; literally the eater of dead bodies. History 1999–2004: Onset of Putrefaction and Epitaph Necrophagist's debut album Onset of Putrefaction has been out of print for years. The percussion on the album was handled by a drum machine. Eventually, a new edition with drum samples recorded by Hannes Grossmann was created. All of the old guitar, bass guitar and vocal tracks were mixed along with the brand new drum samples. The re-release also features two songs from Necrophagist's 1995 self-titled demo tape. The whole album was also engineered by long-time Necrophagist engineer and producer Christoph Brandes at The Iguana Studios. It was mastered by Bob Katz at "Digital Domain", Orlando, Florida. The re-release was issued in 2004 by Willowtip in the United States/Canada and Relapse in the rest of the world. In August 2001, Necrophagist performed at the Brutal Assault open air festival in the Czech Republic. The band also returned to perform in the years 2003, 2005 and 2010. 2004–2008: Touring and continued lineup changes On 10 February 2006, it was announced that Christian Münzner had departed the band due to scheduling conflicts. Later on, he joined the death metal band Obscura. A replacement guitarist was found, Sami Raatikainen, who is from Helsinki, Finland. Sami also plays in the band Codeon. In 2006, the band undertook an American tour called "Carving North America's Epitaph". Necrophagist was joined on this tour by Arsis, Alarum, Neuraxis, Ion Dissonance, Cattle Decapitation and Thine Eyes Bleed. They, along with Dying Fetus, supported Cannibal Corpse on their U.S. tour in the fall, which also included some Canadian venues. In 2007, the band announced on its Myspace profile that after the 2007 California Metalfest, drummer Hannes Grossmann would leave the band. Hannes stated that he was unable to commit to the band's full-time touring schedule. Marco Minnemann (who has played with Paul Gilbert, Terry Bozzio, Chad Wackerman) was the official permanent replacement for Hannes. Necrophagist was a headlining act for The Summer Slaughter Tour in 2007, which featured a wide variety of other extreme metal bands including Decapitated, Arsis, The Faceless, Cephalic Carnage, As