Victor Wooten Joins Progressive Metal Band

Octavision

Editor’s note: After this story went live, Victor Wooten shared more about his role in Octavision.

Here’s something you didn’t see coming: bassist Victor Wooten is in a new progressive metal band called Octavision. The group was founded by guitarist Hovak Alaverdyan and also features keyboardists Steve Weingart and Ara Torosyan with Roman Lomtadze on drums.

The band has only released a teaser for their first single entitled “Three Lives”. They describe the song as as “a three-part progressive metal piece which much like the band’s style as a whole incorporates aspects of heavy metal, progressive rock, as well as ethnic musical styles and instruments.”

Check out the teaser here:

Not much else is known about the fledgling band, but their Facebook page does promise that fans can expect an album in the near future.

Get daily bass updates.

Get the latest news, videos, lessons, and more in your inbox every morning.

Leave a Reply to Corey Brown Cancel reply

  1. MikeyOnBass

    Come on Kevin… that wasn’t long even to be a tease – Ha I’ll be looking and listening for more to come.

  2. Steve

    I have a friendly relationship with Victor through his music/nature camps. He informed me, after after I sent him congratulations on his new band, that he was not in a new band. He had simply recorded this song for a friend.

    I was very disappointed that notreble.com would report something like this without verifying.

    I am kind of used to mentally taking everything I read or see that is reported as ‘news’ in our world with a grain of salt. It is the natural consequence of our economically driven society I suppose.

    But it just seems so superfluous that we have to apply the same skepticism/cynicsm to music news of this nature, on a web site such as this. I mean is it less newsworthy that Mr. Wooten recorded just a song with these guys? Does the one-line announcement for the video need to be buffed up to an untruth for people to click on the link? I wouldn’t think so. I know I would have looked at the video anyway.

    But why do I have to wade through your BS? Why does Victor have to correct your inaccurate reporting?

    Are the ad clicks THAT valuable? Really?

    • Chris

      If what you’re saying is true then why does the band even have it listed on the Facebook page as him being part of the band? If he was just featured I don’t think he’d be listed as the bass player. Maybe he’s just a temporary bass player till they get another, but still part of the band for now, at least from the looks of it.

      • Ron Mason

        If you have Victor Wooten as your bass player, stop looking for another bass player! Lol you’ve won!

      • Steve

        Well, I can’t speak to a Facebook post. But if this is where notreble gets its’ news, maybe they should call this section of the website: Stuff We Found on Facebook!

        Calling it news kind of implies that they verified this with Victor or maybe his manager. You know, investigating for the truth.

        I think I would have tried to verify directly before I reported the plans of one of the world’s better known bass playing musicians on a bass players web site.

        Just saying.

        • Look again, Steve. It isn’t a Facebook “post”. It is the official Facebook Page for the band, linked in the original post above. We have the utmost respect for Victor, and we’ve spent time together as well. My bet is that he should probably reach out to the members of the band to clear it up. We weren’t the only ones who covered it. The band is clearly presenting him as a member, and Vic is clearly in the video.

      • Steve

        Have you reached out to Victor? His manager?

        Are you and Corey both saying you feel FB posts are valid news sources? And you stand by your FB sources?

        I mean really. What is that? We have a real shift in perception if this now qualifies as news gathering and reporting.

        I’ve enjoyed the columnists and equipment information on notreble for a couple of years, and I’ll probably continue to read the same.

        But we will have to agree to disagree about what good reporting means nowadays, and I will have to look for other sources of current news in the music business.

        I am open to suggestions for that.

        Peace

        • Kevin reached out to Victor’s manager.

          We saw this reported elsewhere, checked the official band page, and obviously saw Victor in the video. The image we used came from the source: with Victor presented first among the other members.

          And once again, it wasn’t some random Facebook post. It was an official page for the band. And Kevin did say not much was known about the band beyond what has been shared so far.

          Here are a handful of other places that have reported it independently:
          http://www.metalinjection.net/latest-news/bass-god-victor-wooten-has-a-prog-metal-band-now-and-it-sounds-insane

          https://www.ultimate-guitar.com/news/upcoming_releases/victor_wooten_has_a_prog_metal_band_now_heres_what_they_sound_like.html

          http://liveforlivemusic.com/news/victor-wooten-now-part-progressive-metal-band-called-octavision/

          http://www.theprp.com/2016/09/09/news/acclaimed-bassist-victor-wooten-new-progressive-metal-band/

          http://www.metalsucks.net/2016/09/12/victor-wooten-releasing-progressive-metal-album/

          http://www.truthinshredding.com/2016/09/victor-wooten-hovak-alaverdyan-steve.html

          • Steve

            you know Corey,

            this is just me, and maybe I am weird, but if I was a correspondent, or an editor for that matter, of a magazine or newspaper or say, even a web site, holding itself up as a hub of information about music, specifically music from and about bass guitarists, and I came across something like this Facebook page mentioning something about one of our current greatest bass players – that would really pique my interest!

            A guy like Victor Wooten, apparently stretching out into a completely different genre like a progressive metal band? I would want to know more, as a news gatherer, as a bass lover, as a fan of a given musician. In fact, if I had any relationship with him or way to contact his management, then I would do that, if only in the hope of maybe getting a little bit more information than my numerous competitors, something more to offer my readers.

            I would really try to cultivate easy interactions with musicians like Victor. Because, he like a lot of other high level musicians, really has things to say. And whether or not he has a ‘new band’ or is perhaps trying to help another musician, I’d want to give him an opportunity to represent himself. And I would want to make sure I am not misrepresenting ambiguous internet copy.

            I would really seriously be trying make my publication a go to source for music fans, as well as an outlet for musicians, so that when they would like to speak with words, they have a place they feel comfortable communicating their thoughts. In that regard, I would try to be as thorough for the musicians as well as the readers. I would want them to feel confident that what they, the musicians as well as the readers, are reading is pretty much a sure fire thing, because I’ve done my homework.

            In fact, if I were you, I would not have responded to me in the comment section of the article that is still posted here, until I had done everything reasonable to verify with Mr. Wooten that what I was reporting is actually true from his perspective. I don’t think he is that inaccessible of a person, particularly if you have a solid foundation from which to interact.

            I would not be using the ‘reporting’ of these numerous other outlets as a justification for me posting the same info that they are posting. I would have verified with the person I was basing my article on, and hopefully maybe gotten something a little more interesting to share than my competition.

            And then I would have crafted a response for the commenters in the comment section.

            But hey, that’s just me!

  3. Yep, you’ve made yourself clear, Steve. I stand by what Kevin and I said. If what you say is true, I guess Victor will clear this up with the band. I’m sure you’ll find other publications more suited to your standards as well. Best of luck.

  4. Lorenz Inez

    Jeezy Creezy, Steve, I’m sure Mr Wooten sleeps better at night knowing you are out there vociferously defending his “reputation”. I mean, really. This is a free website that posts all kinds of news about the bass playing world–it’s not the Associated Press. If the band thought enough to put his name FIRST on their official page, it was probably okay with Mr Wooten. Ya think?

    Was it really worth the time and the posting to bitch out the author and the website like they just made the error of a lifetime? Really? Should every NoTreble article be published with a Bibliography? A wikipedia or Snopes link?

  5. Hovak

    Hi guys,

    This is Hovak, the guitarist and founder of this project. Figured I would chime in here to help clear this up. I see this article was posted prior to me releasing a statement on our Facebook page. So you can read it on there but I will address this direct thread. To clear things up, this whole project is something that I put together and asked different musicians to participate in. Victor, being a good friend of mine, was one of them.

    It is not his band, or something he formed, rather something he was asked to join.

    We have other works planned and I am writing more material as we speak. Depending on the material, there may be even more musicians or extra appearances as well. That’s something I’m excited about as well as it stretches creative boundaries.

    Think of this as a special project that I put together with a dream team.

    • Thanks for sharing that Hovak, and for confirming what we said in the article. Looking forward to seeing what you guys do with the lineup and music.

  6. Bored with Steve

    I look forward to the news article “Steve” posts on his website devoted to bass players. I hope his dissertation details everything we need to know about the relationship between Victor and this band. Because that’s really the most important thing. Semantics and minutiae. Steve, you sir, are a troll.