Moros Eros

Upon relocating to his grandparents’ residence in the Atlanta suburb of Marietta, Georgia, singer and guitarist Zach Tipton assembled a group with several recent acquaintances: drummer Bobby Theberge, keyboardist Chris Firebaugh, and an unnamed female vocalist. Dissatisfied with their prevailing dance-rock orientation, Tipton prompted the ensemble to replace the additional singer with bassist DJ Schulz, after which the quartet pursued a more earthbound indie-rock clamor under the moniker In Vitro. Early in 2006 the four-piece committed to tape the three-song EP I’m Dying But I Still Don’t See Anything; by spring they had unexpectedly secured a contract with Victory Records, an imprint ordinarily associated with hardcore-leaning releases. Scarcely had the agreement been finalized, however, when a French punk band already holding rights to the name In Vitro surfaced, forcing the musicians to adopt the new designation Moros Eros—Moros signifying both “impending doom” in Greek and the son of the god of night, while Eros denotes the Greek deity of love. Their expansively titled Victory debut, I Saw the Devil Last Night and Now the Sun Shines Bright, appeared on Halloween 2006, and Jealous Me Was Killed by Curiousity followed nearly twelve months afterward.