This is a (really) early weirdo metal/hardcore/sludge band that I heard of through Jaccob Bannon's top music of 2006 list (on the deathwish website, I'm too lazy to find it). They remind me a bit of stuff like Converge, Botch, Coalesce, Neurosis and even a little Dillinger Escape Plan... except their debut Crossbearer came out in 1994 (around when most of thos bands, minus Neurosis, were just forming).
Dillinger Escape Plan's bassist even played in the group for a while, and is back playing on their new album Croaton.
www.myspace.com/starkweather666
quoth promo-type thing on their myspace (they've also got quite the list of influences, from Rites of Spring to Cryptopsy to Black Sabbath
):
Quote:
Thugcore rhythms. Slayer-esque metalcore. Faux melodic Swedish death metal. Aggro-tech fretboard gymnastics. Screamo. Genres with hyphens. Easy to swallow, run of the mill, forgettable and just like everything else crowding the Best Buy and mom n pop store shelves.
Those are things you wont find on or say about Croatoan, the first new album from Philadelphias long lost yet recently awakened tech metal band Starkweather. Emerging from a lengthy hibernating period their last recording, Into The Wire, came out in 1995- Starkweather offer Croatoan, an untamed beast of a record thatll draw fans of legendary bands like Morbid Angel and Voivod, thatll attract fans of slow, sludgy bands like Crowbar and Neurosis, and thatll entice fans of current darlings like Killswitch Engage, Shadows Fall, and The Red Chord into its lair.
Technical. Precise. Thought out. Uncompromisingly brutal. Carefully calculated, but not calculating. Those are things theyll say about Croatan. "They" being metal snobs, tastemakers, headbangers, true metal fans, and rock critics.
Starkweather formed in 1989 with Todd Forkin on guitar, Harry Rosa on drums, and Rennie Resmini on vocals. They released the extreme metal gem Crossbearer in 1993, and its an underground neo-classic that many of todays metal darlings have taken influence and inspiration from. Crossbearer was truly ahead of its time, and while many have heard of it but even fewer have actually heard it, its an album that doesnt sound like anything else and is inimitable. After Into The Wire, Starkweather released a split seven inch with Season To Risk in 1996, and contributed a track to the Definitely Not The Majors compilation collection in 1997. Ultimately, and somewhat abruptly, Starkweather disappeared off the radar. But in reality, they were flying under it. They even played shows, however sporadically, including a Hellfest appearance. Theyve endured periods of dormancy, but they never really broke up, so, please, dont call Croatoan a "comeback."
