We are not Progress

The scene was Oakland,mid nineties, an era I admittedly knew absolutely nothing about. I was just a 15 year old twerp in good old isolated Vermont and the closest thing to Crust I had heard were the first couple of Sepultura albums. Back then I would of thought Amebix was something I ignored in Biology class. I had no idea that on the other side of the country, Skaven was alive. It wasn't until I was at a show at the Lafayette Center in L.A. and I bought their 7inch from Reggie Rosales that I discovered them. I brought the record home, put it on, and immediately stopped. The sample seemed a bit out of place but the instrumental at the beginning was one of the most epic passages I've ever heard. The term "Stenchcore" gets used as a lot these days and there are a slew of great bands that have really carried the tradition spawned in the early eighties, some memorable, other's not so much. Skaven just stands out more than the rest to me. Zeb's lyrics are more Nietzsche than "Cal" Morris, they reek of Lovecraft or Camus rather than Penny Rimbaud. For all the bands who get dubbed with the honor of being called "Apocalyptic", Skaven is one of the few that really feels that way. There are no forced, cliche-sounding growls here. Zeb comes across on these songs sounding like the fucking Omega man, telling his stories to the ground. The dual bassists, Shane and Mick work perfectly serving their own function and Geoff Evans, well he's just Geoff Evans(Asunder, his current band, will make an appearance here soon.) Some would call this blasphemy,and believe me I do love these bands, I would choose Skaven over Axegrinder or Hellbastard any day. My only reservation saying this is the relatively small discography Skaven treats us to. Beyond the 7inch I mentioned earlier, there is the split LP with Dystopia and the split with Stormcrow. I contacted Zeb and asked for his blessing and he said it would be alright to put a few things up. So I'll put the EP's up because they are my favorite. There should be a discography CD out in the future and I hear they recorded a demo but I'm not sure about either. You can a read a review of their split with Stormcrow here.

Severed/Flowers of Flesh and Blood

split with Stormcrow

Zeb lives in Montana and plays in a great new band called Demonsteed. They have an album out called Nitro Ground Shaker which I 'll post once I get a copy. They kind of remind me of Tony Iommi obsessively reading a Cormac McCarthy book??? Sounds about right!! Geoff Evans plays in Asunder and the rest of the guys, I have no idea where they are or what they are doing? I 'll let Skaven lie now with this alternate version of the song "The Swarm" .
Contact Zeb through the Demonsteed link about that discography CD.

........and with that tribute paid, it's now time for a fun little lesson in Existentialism.
Charles Manson's 1987 interview with the one and only Geraldo Rivera. I'll be damned if I just didn't make some sense out of this diatribe. I realize this was the guy's chance to paint himself in a certain life, but while he was digging himself a hole he would never be free of, I soaked up a bit of wisdom out of this when I first saw it as a teenager.

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7


Charles Manson: LIE-Love and the Terror Cult

an interesting listen and I'll leave it at that.....Troy