In 1994, he joined the band Stigmata, a prominent hardcore band in the New York scene, and over the course of the next 7 years, recorded 3 albums, released a home video, and toured the U.S. and Europe with this outfit. Bittner also played in death metal band Burning Human. They recorded 7 songs that would appear on the album "We The People: A tribute to upstate NY's hardest." Most of these songs would be rerecorded for their first album which would not come out for another decade after Bittner joined Shadows Fall. Burning Human would eventually disband in the late 1990s. Stigmata disbanded in 2001; the following fall, Bittner joined Shadows Fall. Initially, he had signed on just to do one tour of Europe with the band, but subsequently decided to remain as a permanent member.