In 2002, a seemingly new band appeared on the Fort Wayne metal scene. Bass player/Vocalist Matthew Craig with longtime guitarist Jeff Cole and drummer Eric Biesiada had started playing around the area on a regular basis. In 2003 a full length CD entitled "Awaken The Ancients" was issued and Shroud had been asked to play Chicago, Detroit as well as some "festival" shows in the Midwest.

Although it may have seemed like these guys came out of nowhere, there was a serious history. Matthew and Jeff had started playing together in 1992, when they met at The Art Institute of Pittsburgh. But the band's history goes  back in time a few more years...

In 1989, Matthew Craig connected with drummer Matthew Knott and guitarist Mike Kalmbach. Over the next year, they made a name for themselves on the death metal scene in Buffalo, NY which was then home to the now famous "Cannibal Corpse".  This original incarnation of Shroud played shows with the then unsigned Cannobal as well as Baphomet, Atrosity and other  bands that were popular in the growiung Buffalo metal scene. Shroud then had the chance to open for Canadian thrash bands Sacrifice and Razor. The band also began circulating their first demo "Society Subject to Change" through the world wide tape trading metal scene, thanks to their pals in Cannibal Corpse.

At the end of 1990, Craig was interested in pursuing this Music and Video Production degree from the Art Institute of Pittsburgh, so he and Mike Kalmbach headed out of Buffalo to do this. Although the original plan was to continue with Matthew Knott on drums, distance proved to make that too difficult. So, Matthew and Mike ran into Chris "Elvis" O'Leary and put together a second demo called "Echoes of a Distant Past". It wasn't long after this, that Matthew and Jeff Cole became friends through the school. Cole was brought on to add another dimension and fresh insight to Shroud.

Before they knew it, Kalmbach was off following the Greatful Dead and O'Leary was moving away to open a record store. Craig and Cole then picked up drummer Dan Sopata and recorded a 6 song "EP" called "Soul Cleansing" on start up record label "IAE" (that Craig and O'Leary helped kickstart). The sound on this recording was a bit of a departure from the hardcore/thrash/death metal influences from earlier and brought in more of a slow, doom metal approach with the death metal vocals. The band also added keyboards and female vocals in this recording just to give it some added depth.

By 1994, Craig and Cole had began to pack up for Florida, which had been home to big time death metalers like Obituary, Morbid Angel and Death, to name a few. Craig had a plan to become involved with Morrissound Studios in Tampa, where most of the big metal albums at the time were being produced. He ended up working as an intern on and off again with Scott Burns - the main producer of the Florida metal bands at that time. This also marked a pretty stagnant period for Shroud as the search for a new drummer proved difficult and burnt the boys out.

By 1997, Cole had suffered a back injury causing him to move back to his home state of Indiana, while Craig went home to Western NY to regroup figure out his next move. It wasn't too long after this (late 1998 to be exact) that Craig had spoken with people at Sweetwater Sound in Fort Wayne about joining their sales staff. So in January 1999, he moved out to Fort Wayne and insisted that he and Cole get back together and continue their musical chemistry. After tracking a 2 song demo with Geoff Montgomery (now of Ensomberroom Studios) on drums, Craig met Eric Biesiada at a local metal show. The 2 hit it off and that is when Eric Biesiada joined the band (2001) and has been with the group ever since. Matthew says that the name Shroud stays in place due to one member always sticking around to continue this journey. At the beginning of 2015, after a long hiatus and determining that Jeff Cole could not continue with them, Eric and Matthew brought in Travis Rose from Necrodemon (South Bend) and Rafael Palacios (Snakehealer/Karkosa, Fort Wayne) on guitars to make Shroud a four piece band again.

The band is currently back to the production of the long awaited "Hekate's Call" - the follow up to the "Awaken The Ancients" album from 2003. The recording had been plagued with problems until recently and now it is going in the right direction. Shroud hopes to complete production this coming year, to celebrate 30 years of playing underground metal!