Andy Sneap

Andy Sneap
Andy Sneap in 2007
Background information
Born	(1969-07-18) 18 July 1969 (age 47) Derbyshire, England
Genres	Heavy metal, thrash metal
Occupation(s)	Musician, songwriter, sound engineer, record producer, guitarist
Instruments	guitar
Years active	1988, present
Associated acts	Hell, Sabbat

Andy Sneap (born 18 July 1969) is a British musician, songwriter, guitar player and record producer, best known as a successful Grammy winning producer with over 100 albums produced at his Backstage Recording studios in rural Derbyshire and as guitar player of British heavy metal band Hell. He is one of the most active and successful music producers in the metal music genre and has worked with bands such as Accept, Saxon, Opeth, Amon Amarth, Arch Enemy, Exodus, Megadeth, Kataklysm, Kreator, Nevermore and Testament

Andy was born on 18 July 1969 in Belper, Derbyshire, England. He got his first guitar and amplifier from his parents at age 12 as a Christmas present. He started learning guitar with founding Hell member, Dave Halliday, who had a huge affect on Andy and left him all the rights to all his songs and equipment, in his will following his death. Andy joined a British heavy metal band called Hydra as the second guitarist when he was 15 years old. But two weeks later, the original guitarist and drummer quit, Simon Negus joined them and the band's name changed to Sabbat.

After disbanding Hydra and forming a new band, they chose Sabbat as the new name, which came from a book on witchcraft. After one year of rehearsing, they recorded a four-track demo tape, Fragments of a Faith Forgotten. Andy distributed the demo tape to many record companies, but on listening, Berlin-based recording company Noise Records showed interest and asked for more material. In 1987, Noise Records offered the band a recording contract, but the contract could not be signed until Sneap turned 18 years old in July 1987. So they made a plan to start recording the band's first full studio album, History of a Time to Come. Andy wrote all the music while Martin Walkyier was responsible for the lyrics. Sabbat released the album on 20 April 1988 via Noise Records, which received positive attention from journalists and fans alike.