Affiliated project

WhileHeavenWept

A major chapter in the musical lives of Scott Loose, Michelle Schrotz, and Trevor Schrotz, connected closely to Bravemusic but standing firmly as its own band.

Read the connection Listen on Bandcamp
While Heaven Wept backstage in Athens, Greece, March 2026
Athens, Greece · March 2026 Trevor Schrotz · Michelle Schrotz · Rain Irving · Tom Phillips · Jim Hunter · Scott Loose

Where the paths meet

A separate band, a shared history

While Heaven Wept grew from the same Northern Virginia musical world that shaped Arise From Thorns and Brave. Scott and Michelle joined the band in 1998, followed by Trevor in 2004. Together, they carried that connection through recordings, festivals, and tours in Europe and the United States.

Tom Phillips also belongs to the earliest part of the Bravemusic story through his time in Arise From Thorns and Brave. Those relationships make While Heaven Wept an important branch of this history, even though the band remains wholly its own project.

Not a Bravemusic project, but an essential part of the musical history behind it.
Scott LooseGuitars · Member since 1998
Michelle SchrotzKeyboards and vocals · Member since 1998
Trevor SchrotzDrums · Member since 2004

Beyond Virginia

From the underground to a wider stage

1998–2004A lasting connection takes shapeScott and Michelle join in 1998. Trevor follows in 2004, deepening the shared musical history.
2009Vast Oceans LachrymoseThe core lineup heard by a new international audience comes fully into focus.
2011Nuclear Blast and the roadFear of Infinity arrives through Nuclear Blast, followed by a European run and ProgPower USA.
2014Suspended at AphelionA single expansive composition pushes the band further into progressive and orchestral territory.
2018European stages againThe Vast Oceans lineup returns for dates in Germany, Greece, the Netherlands, Portugal, and Spain.
2026AthensWhile Heaven Wept returns to Greece for Up the Hammers Legacy, reconnecting the same musical family onstage.

Selected listening

Four points in the journey

2003Of Empires Forlorn

Scott on guitars, with additional keyboards from Michelle. The record that opened the band to a much wider international audience.

 2009Vast Oceans Lachrymose

The full Scott, Michelle, Trevor, Rain, Jim, and Tom lineup captured in its defining era.

 2011 · Nuclear BlastFear of Infinity

A concise and emotionally direct record that carried the band onto larger stages.

 2014 · Nuclear BlastSuspended at Aphelion

A forty-minute work in eleven movements, expanding the band’s progressive scope.

Onstage

Two moments, sixteen years apart

Triumph: Tragedy: Transcendence

Hammer of Doom III, 2009. The performance was released as a live album in 2010.

Vessel in Athens

Up the Hammers Legacy, March 2026. The most recent chapter in a relationship stretching back decades.

Psychosis album artwork by Mark Riddick
Psychosis · 2025 · Artwork by Mark Riddick

Affiliated project · Woodbridge, Virginia

As theSea Parts

Formed in 1995, silent for nearly two decades, and active again today. Scott Loose helped shape the band in the late 1990s and returned for the long road to its first full-length album.

Follow the return Listen to Psychosis

1995 to 2025

Thirty years to the first album

Paul Vanderslice and Erik Sayenga began As the Sea Parts in 1995, recording the material that became the cassette demo Trilogy of Sorrow. Scott Loose joined soon after, bringing this heavier branch into the same Northern Virginia musical circle that also produced Arise From Thorns.

A second recording was begun in 1999 but never completed. The band went quiet, and what looked like an ending lasted almost twenty years. Paul revived the project in 2019 with Erik and Scott. New songs followed, and on July 11, 2025, Psychosis finally completed a story that had started three decades earlier.

As the Sea Parts is not a Bravemusic project. It is an independent band and an important part of Scott's musical history.
Paul VandersliceVocals · Guitars · Bass · Keyboards
Erik SayengaDrums · Vocals
Scott LooseGuitars · Bass · Keyboards

The long passage

From cassette underground to Psychosis

1995–96Trilogy of SorrowRecorded in 1995 and circulated on cassette in 1996, rooted in death, doom, and the early-1990s underground.
1999An unfinished passageSessions for the planned follow-up ...And the Journey Begins remain incomplete as the band becomes inactive.
2019The returnPaul brings the project back with Erik and Scott, reconnecting the core musical relationship.
2021–22New music surfacesThe title track and “Where Paradise Lies” offer the first signs of the full album to come.
2025PsychosisThe ten-song debut album arrives independently on July 11, thirty years after the band began.

The album

Psychosis

ReleasedJuly 11, 2025
Ten songs53 minutes of melodic death metal, death-doom, and blackened atmosphere
Created byPaul Vanderslice · Erik Sayenga · Scott Loose
ArtworkMark Riddick
Hear the full album Bandcamp discography

Where Paradise Lies

Released in 2022, one of the first complete glimpses of the band's return.

Solace

An official lyric video from Psychosis, released in September 2025.

AS THE SEA PARTS is a Virginia-based melodic death metal band that was founded by Paul Vanderslice in 1995. Later that year, Paul teamed up with Erik Sayenga (WARTHRONE, KRISTEL DAWN, ex-DYING FETUS, ex-WITCH-HUNT) on a three-song demo/EP entitled ‘Trilogy of Sorrow.’ The EP was released on cassette, and drew influences from the emerging death/doom scene in Europe as well as the classic Tampa Bay area death metal bands from the early 1990's. Shortly after, AS THE SEA PARTS was joined by guitarist Scott Loose (BRAVE, STELLAR DEATH, DAY OF DEPARTURE, WHILE HEAVEN WEPT), and bassist Jason Ian-Vaughn Eckert (AURORA BOREALIS, TODESBONDEN), and the band began working on a follow-up EP roughly titled '...And the Journey Begins'. The recording was never completed, and in 1999 the band went on a seemingly indefinite hiatus. In 2019, Paul completed writing a new album and resurrected the band with Erik Sayenga and Scott Loose. The new album is entitled ‘Psychosis,’ and picks up where the band left off in the late 1990s – drawing influence from the classics of the genre, while also fusing elements of old school melodic death metal with some aspects of epic death/doom and black metal. A new single has been released on June 4th 2021 titled Psychosis. The new album is set for independent release late 2022/early 2023.

While Heaven Wept has existed in various forms since 1989 and co-founding guitarist/composer Tom Phillips has been the one constant for the past 30 years. Since the beginning, there has been a wide range of influences, transcending forms, styles, and genres from epic metal to kosmiche musik, prog to neo-romanticism.