Tuesday 20 October 2020

(BLAST) FROM THE PAST - SHOTGUN MESSIAH

LIKE BLUE STAHLI? - TRY THIS!

At the end of the Eighties, Swedish Glam Metal band Kingpin relocated to LA and changed their name to SHOTGUN MESSIAH upon signing to premiere guitar shredder label Relativity ( Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, etc. ).

After several lineup changes the band was reduced to singer / bassist Tim Skold and guitarist Harry Cody... and a drum machine.

Whatever happened in LA must have pissed them off mightily, because their third and final album was the apocalyptic industrial guitar blitzkrieg of 1993's VIOLENT NEW BREED. Produced by Ulf Sandqvist ( EMF, Machines of Loving Grace, Killing Joke ), and maintaining and even building on the catchiness of previous albums, VNB was more consistent and way heavier than its two predecessors.




Despite staying on-point with prevailing trends, the album was released during a difficult time for former 80's bands: The release was largely ignored and the band quit, to little fanfare. It was one of many anticlimactic endings from that era.

Skold went on to a successful career notably as sideman to Sascha Konietzko in industrial rockers KMFDM and then bassist for Marilyn Manson. Harry Cody completely disappeared from the industry, and producer Ulf Sandqvist went on to become Managing Director of BMG Scandinavia.

Whether the band's reputation has grown in the intervening decades remains to be seen... although last year Skold and Cody were reportedly planning a reunion.

Future-Rocker has always cited Shotgun Messiah's Violent New Breed as a incendiary one-off that was almost three decades before its time, predicting bands like Filter, Stabbing Westward and Blue Stahli. 

A crushing comeback album in the Post-Trump / Post-Covid world would definitely be a mouth-watering prospect.



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