Stabbing Westward

The group first formed in 1985 when Christopher Hall and Walter Flakus, former students at Western Illinois University, moved from a small Southern Illinois town to Chicago. Their response to the area's exploding music scene was to form Stabbing Westward (with Hall on bass and Flakus on keyboards). Hall switched to guitar when Jim Sellers -- whose alternative Goth band was playing with Stabbing Westward in the clubs of Chicago -- joined as bass player.



In 1990, after developing a strong following, the band released a 4-song EP. Hall took a brief "respite" touring with Die Warzau as that group's percussionist and the break convinced him that Stabbing Westward had something special and worthy of major attention. Columbia Records agreed.



With drummer David Suycott and guitarist Stuart Zechman (formerly with Filter) in place, the band flew to London in 1993 to record Ungod with producer John Fryer (NIN, Love & Rockets). After extensive touring behind Ungod, Stabbing Westward parted ways with Suycott and Zechman and recruited Andy Kubiszewski (an accomplished drummer/programmer/keyboardist who was a founding member of the Exotic Birds and who'd toured with The The and Crowded House). Now a foursome with guitar duties shared, the band entered the studio with Fryer to record 1996's Wither Blister Burn + Peel. After flying in guitarists from across the country to their rehearsal space outside Chicago, the four Stabbing Westward members were impressed by a local guy, Mark Eliopulos. Eliopulos was made the fifth member of Stabbing Westward.



For their next album, Stabbing Westward enlisted the talents of producer Dave Jerden, best known for his work with Jane's Addiction and Alice in Chains. Recording during the Summer of 1997 in a Los Angeles-area studio, Jerden used his keen ear to obtain the live sound. Though Darkest Days was completed a year-to-the-month after Stabbing Westward concluded their global tour in support of 1996's RIAA certified-gold Wither Blister Burn + Peel, the new album has been, in a sense, 10 years in the making. With two major-label, full-length records, an early EP, and more than decade's-worth of touring under their belts, the quintet has ignored preconceived notions and over-used labels to create a fully-realized sonic document of Stabbing Westward '98.

Vocalist Christopher Hall and keyboardist Walter Flakus met in 1985 and formed the industrial rock band Stabbing Westward in Chicago. They released an EP in 1990, and recruited guitarist Stuart Zechman, bassist Jim Sellers, and drummer David Suycott. In late 1993, Columbia issued the band's major-label debut, Ungod. Although the album wasn't a success, the group promoted it relentlessly, touring constantly and doing scores of interviews. The groundwork paid off in 1996, when the group released their second album, Wither Blister Burn & Peel. The touring and promotion had built a solid, albeit small fan base which provided the launching pad for the second record's first single, "What Do I Have to Do." The single became a Buzz Clip on MTV, and by the summer, it was a modern rock radio hit that pushed the album to gold status. Stabbing Westward received further exposure that summer when they opened several dates for the reunited Sex Pistols.

Following the success of Wither Blister Burn & Peel, Stabbing Westward spent most of 1997 in seclusion, working on their third album. That record, entitiled Darkest Days, was finally released in April 1998. However, it failed to match the sales figures of its gold-certified predecessor, and Columbia dropped the band in the spring of 2000. A year later, the band inked a deal with Koch Records and issued a self-titled release. Plans for a fifth studio effort were in the works in late 2001, however things abruptly stopped when Stabbing Westward disbanded in February the following year. Material culled from those sessions were likely to turn up on solo efforts from Hall and Kubiszewski. ~ John Bush, All Music Guide