Dirty Rotten Imbeciles

Dirty Rotten Imbeciles
Dirty Rotten Imbeciles in 2010
Background information
Also known as	D.R.I. US D.R.I.[1]
Origin	Houston, Texas
Genres	Crossover thrash hardcore punk
Discography	D.R.I. discography
Years active	1982–present
Labels	Dirty Rotten Metal Blade Beer City Fringe Product
Members	Kurt Brecht Spike Cassidy Greg Orr Rob Rampy
Past members	See below
Website	dirtyrottenimbeciles.com

Dirty Rotten Imbeciles (often abbreviated and referred to as D.R.I.) is an American crossover thrash band that formed in Houston in 1982 and would later relocate to San Francisco. The band is currently composed of two of its founding members, lead vocalist Kurt Brecht and guitarist Spike Cassidy, as well as bassist Greg Orr and drummer Rob Rampy.

D.R.I. never gained a mainstream audience, but the integration of their hardcore punk roots with thrash metal influences was a stylistic catalyst for their contemporaries – most notably Suicidal Tendencies, Corrosion of Conformity, Stormtroopers of Death, the Cro-Mags, Nuclear Assault, Adrenalin O.D., and Cryptic Slaughter – alongside whom they are considered to be one of the major pioneers of what would later be called "crossover thrash". These bands had a heavy influence on modern thrash metal.

To date, D.R.I. has released seven full-length studio albums. Other than three new songs on the 2016 EP But Wait... There's More!,^[2] they have not released a full-length studio album since Full Speed Ahead in 1995. Despite this, the band has continued to tour almost every year, and gone on hiatus intermittently, notably between 2004 and 2009, when Cassidy was diagnosed with colon cancer. Since the late 1990s,^[3] D.R.I. has been working on their eighth full-length studio album, which remains unreleased.