The Pacific Northwest has cultivated a tradition of edgy rock 'n roll since the emergence of The Sonics in the 1960s. The region's most notable contribution to the ever expanding tome of modern rock hit in the 1990s with the emergence of a power-chord heavy and melodic genre labeled grunge by the hipster press and personified in the clubs and concert halls by local heroes Nirvana and Soundgarden. Now, nearly 10 years after the death of grunge, a new musical movement is stirring in Seattle's underground.
Like a reanimated corpse clawing its way out of the grave, a slew of local bands are merging the decade's old styles of metal, punk and hardcore into a hybrid style that's gripping the Seattle music scene's throat. Included among these groups are the furious upstarts Himsa and ferocious old-guards The Accüsed.
New metal mavens
When they're not touring or taking a brief breather from the demands of the road, Himsa can be found sharpening their metal chops in Sodo at Studio Seven, where drums, guitars, microphones and amps crunch together in a small practice room. The group formed in 1998, played their first show in 1999, and experienced a few years of steady membership changes. Ranging in ages from 26 to 33, they have been traveling and playing steadily for the past 18 months in support of their latest album on Prosthetic Records, "Courting Tragedy and Disaster."
"The audience is younger, they weren't around for any of the hair metal days [of the '80s]," observed bass player and sole remaining founding-member Derek Harn, who lives on Capitol Hill. "To them, it's just something aggressive and exciting and new. It's a combination of hardcore and metal. It seems to range from a lot of diverse [genres] stemming from punk."
Guitarist Kirby Johnson elaborated on the music's origin by asserting that the latest wave of heavy metal bands are taking cues from the punk rock movement's do-it-yourself (DIY) attitudes and rules which gelled in the late '70s through the late '80s. So, instead of having their creative paths heavily guided by a large recording and distribution company, Himsa members find themselves rounding up their own help to produce and record their albums and DVDs, create and sell their own band merchandise, and cart themselves from show to show across the country in a van.
This hard work is paying off. Last month Himsa was signed to MTV's Headbanger's Ball Tour, a concert package featuring some of the metal movement's hottest new national and international acts. The ball comes to Seattle in November and slices across the United States and Canada until the end of December.
"We're just cutting out the middle man, in a way," said Johnson. "I think when you don't go the major label route, you're probably not going to be played on MTV in every other video, like Nelly. But that's not really the goal for us overall. It'd be a dream come true if we can keep things as we're doing them and [our popularity] keeps building and building."
The result of such hands-on work, combined with their personable natures, graces the group with a very approachable feel.
"I think kids connect with the [DIY metal scene] because of our involvement," said Harn. "When the kids get to know us personally it makes them take ownership of what we do."
As for their somewhat intimidating, death-heavy aesthetic that features horror and tragedy-drenched lyrics cradled in a barrage of raging sound, the group laughingly chalks the imagery up to social introspection in a dreary winter climate combined with a drive to entertain.
"You play this horribly heavy music, and you're not going to have flowers on your album cover or penguins on your t-shirts. You've got to fit the way the music is, and that's why you sing about Satan and have demons and fire on your [band] t-shirts," said drummer Chad Davis with a chuckle in his voice. "It's like a horror movie, the lyrics. You get entertained by it, and it's not really meant to be taken seriously."
When asked how deep this imagery goes, guitarist Mathew Wicklund reinforced that, for the most part, the latest wave of metal merchants are much more personable than their black clothing and demonic posing suggests.
"I've met a lot of people in the death metal/black metal scene, and most of them are not very evil in person," observed Wicklund. "I sang karaoke with some of the most evil looking black metal guys from Norway, but they weren't so evil once they were singing "Pour Some Sugar on Me" by Def Leppard. They were dressed up like cowboys. Not too evil."
Following
bloody footsteps
While Himsa is part of Seattle's latest crop of bone-crunching rockers, their style closely follows the trail of other Emerald City bands that were laying down horror-inspired, metal-infused punk rock back in the early '80s. In his spare time, Blaine Cook descends to his basement with his on again, off again group, The Accüsed, to scream, pound, and thrash out a furious collection of new and old songs drenched with horror heavy, politically sharp and socially conscious lyrics.
The ground-breaking band put out their first, self-titled album in 1983 and continued performing until the mid-1990s before calling it quits and going their separate ways in Seattle to follow careers and form families. Now, largely inspired by a global, internet-savvy fan base searching for information about The Accüsed, the members have come back together in their late 30s and early 40s to record a new album and head out on a spat of upcoming mini-tours to the East Coast, Japan, and, of course, Seattle.
"We haven't done anything in 10 years," said Cook, the group's lead singer who is married, has an eight-year-old daughter and works with young children in a Headstart program. "We really want to get new material out there so we can play for a younger audience. We don't want to just be a bar band doing some reunion thing. That's kind of stupid. I think we're still viable. We're just as good now as we were back then."
While never quite reaching the notoriety of some of their contemporary punk-metal hybrid peers such as The Suicidal Tendencies or Corrosion of Conformity, they are nevertheless icons in their genre. Additionally, their DIY spirit has remained strong with their return, and Blaine is quick to mention his group's increased ability to market themselves and set up shows in the electronic information culture. Along with selling their merchandise worldwide, The Accüsed are currently negotiating a deal with Relapse Records for the winter release of their recently recorded album, "Oh Martha," which is named after their female, zombie-vigilante mascot, Martha Splatterhead.
A change of scene
While it's true the new rise of metal is heavily entrenched in the underground, as well as the popular, hard-rock music movements of the '70s and '80s, there are distinct differences in the scene now as compared to 20 years ago.
"I don't think the clubs [in the '80s] were quite as established as they are now," observed Cook. "We were doing [dance] hall shows and having the cops come and bust it up after two bands. I don't even know if that happens anymore. There was that element of danger: The police showing up and closing down the show, or people starting fights and busting **** up."
Capitol Hill's Johnny Pettibone, Himsa's lead singer and a 33-year-old punk stalwart, remembers growing up in the scene Cook and his contemporaries were forging in the 80s.
"For today, kids are a lot more fortunate. More bands come through town. There are a lot more tour packages, and it's a lot safer at shows. There's not a sense of fear," asserted Pettibone. "There is a definite separation between now and what it was. There used to be a more DIY feel at the shows, a lot more house-basement show kind of things. For me, personally, I miss that a lot. Back then, part of the thrill was the fear [in going to a show]."
Despite the increased safety at shows and the preponderance of choices for today's fans, the scene is definitely flying below popular culture's radar due to a lack of radio airplay major media outlets typically provide popular music.
For now, aside from dedicated shows popping up here and there such as KEXP's three-hour Saturday-night program Sonic Reducer, today's fans depend on exploring the genre themselves, through word of mouth, and by sheer curiosity. It's one of the current sub-culture's DIY traits that can be traced back to its aggressive, blue-collar '70s roots.
"I feel like the crowds are a little bit smarter [than the mass-media crowds], because the music wasn't force fed to them," said Harn. "They had to go out and find it themselves, or hear about it from friends. They can take ownership and know [the scene] is more of a personal thing for them."
Is curiosity killing your cat? Find out more about Seattle's metal underground by visiting himsa.org, The Accüsed's site splatterrock.com, or check out a show at the following metal-friendly venues: Capitol Hill's Graceland or the Sodo District's Studio Seven and The Premier.
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