Dominic St. Charles

Lead Vocals, Guitars, Keyboards

 

Dominic St. Charles has been active in professional rock music for the better part of twenty years.  Having founded the dark metal band URN back in 1994, which he best describes as his catharsis from his most inner demons and allows him to integrate the darker aspects of his personality into a more constructive manner.

 

Dominic trained classically at the Catalano Conservatory of Music in Pennsylvania for two years for guitar also trained in classical voice under Dr. Carol LoVerde at Columbia College in Chicago for three years.  He also was an upright bassist for the John Carroll University Jazz Ensemble for four years and had won awards at various jazz competitions such as the Tri-County Jazz Festival and the Boston College Invitational.

 

After graduating from John Carroll University in Cleveland, OH with degrees in Psychology and Communications, he worked in commercial radio in Cleveland at WNCX (98.5) and the ill-fated WENZ (107.9) and was involved in their coverage of the ribbon-cutting of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

 

Early in Dominic’s professional career he formed URN, originally as a death metal band and also performed in another band called Sacrosanct, a gothic-rock band, which his long time friend Michelle Belanger was the lead singer and had collaborated with Ed Douglas (of Midnight Syndicate fame) through various projects during their days at John Carroll together.

 

The current version of URN is more of a hybrid of the original URN and Sacrosanct but would open for many major acts in the genre as they came through the rust belt area.  One of those, Morphine Angel, Dominic would later go on to join in 1997 and relocated from Cleveland to the Chicago area to do several national tours with them.

 

In 1999, Dominic would leave Morphine Angel and joined the Electric Hellfire Club and did a couple national tours with them.  Eventually, during this time, Dominic laid the groundwork for the new URN  and in 2001 officially left the EHC to concentrate full time on URN.

 

URN over the past sixteen years has since released five albums and have toured extensively throughout the United States, Canada and Central America logging over 1,200 live performances and in the process shared the stage with honored acts such as Moonspell, Type O Negative, To/Die/For, Katatonia, Virgin Black, Trouble, Bella Morte, Novembers Doom, Celtic Frost, Bile, Daylight Dies, Impaler, Seraphim Shock, The Dave Brockie Experience, The Dayglo Abortions and many notable others.

 

The band has also appeared at many high-profile conventions throughout North America such as Ancient Ways in Chicago, KiNvention North in Kitchener, Endless Nights in New Orleans, Radio Active in Detroit, GenCon in Indianapolis, The International Body Art Expo in Columbus, Paganstock in Michigan, Doomsday Metal Festival in Milwaukee and the Long Black Veil in New York.

 

Dominic when not overly involved in music is devoted to his wife Jenny and his daughter Rain and spends great amount of time with them.

 

GEAR:

 

1975 Gibson Les Paul Standard Tobacco Sunburst

1990 Gibson Les Paul Standard Translucent Amber

2003 Gibson Les Paul Custom Silverburst

2001 Gibson Gothic Flying V

2001 Gibson Gothic Explorer

2002 Gibson Tony Iommi Signature SG

2012 Ibanez XXV RG Translucent Yellow

2012 Ibanez 2228GK RG

2014 Breedlove Studio 12-string

 

Fryette Pitbull CL (100w)

Fryette Fat Bottom (4 x 12")

Fryette Fat Bottom (2 x 12")

Fryette Boostasio Pedal

Boss NS-2 Noise Suppressor

Boss DD-7 Digital Delay

Sennheiser G2 guitar Wireless

Sennhieser e609

EV 767 mics