This Saturday's show featuring the local metal band From the Wreckage offers one of the most unfortunately ironic - and appropriate - uses of a band name.
On September 3, 2004, the band was driving home from a gig in Kankakee when its vehicle was rear-ended by a truck and pushed into a lane of oncoming traffic. No one was seriously injured, but the band's instruments, equipment, and trailer didn't survive. The band salvaged only two cymbals and one guitar.
"Our equipment was trashed ... spread all over [Interstate] 280," said Steve Cravens, the band's vocalist. He described the scene as a "metal piñata."
The band members, all of them between ages 25 and 30, couldn't replace their equipment - "We don't have those kinds of means," Cravens said - and a settlement with the insurance company was slow in coming. So the band took an extended and unwanted hiatus. The logic was pretty simple: no settlement meant no money meant no equipment meant no band.
"It didn't look like we were ever going to get the thing settled," Cravens said. Did he miss the music? "Oh god, terribly," he said, adding that he only went to one live show in the half-year the band was out of commission.
The settlement did come through in February, and with some bargain prices from West Music - "They have our business for life," Cravens said - the band bought equipment and started rehearsing again in March.
So on Friday, From the Wreckage emerges from the wreckage, playing a show at Lumpy's in Davenport with Cavitation and Soul Shock - which along with Cravens' outfit was one of the two new bands that resulted from the breakup of Hoth Wampah. From the Wreckage is also planning an all-ages show in May with Speedfinger.
Featuring Kris Beck on guitar, Chad Eng on bass, and Tony Barber on drums, From the Wreckage practices a brutal brand of metal, with pummeling drums, intricate, flat-toned riffs, and vocals that consist almost entirely of growls, barks, and guttural screaming.
If that doesn't scare you off, the band's seven-track CD from last year, That's What I'm Talking About, is pretty compelling. A lot of black-metal bands use speed, attitude, and tunelessness to mask a deficiency in talent, but From the Wreckage has the genuine chops. Buried underneath the roar are complex song structures, interesting rhythms, and - sometimes - something approaching a melody. The introduction to "Vice Grip" has the meaty allure and riffs of Slayer, and "T-1000" has a strong groove. Cravens' vocals sound filled with genuine bile, and conviction is half the battle when it comes to metal.
From the Wreckage plans to get back in the studio this summer to record three songs, and Cravens promises that this Friday's show will feature two new tunes. He said that since the band got back together earlier this year, the sound is more intricate, with the players willing to diverge in terms of time signatures and parts.
Just don't expect something radically different. "We're always going to play metal," Cravens said. "It's something in our blood."
"Our equipment was trashed ... spread all over [Interstate] 280," said Steve Cravens, the band's vocalist. He described the scene as a "metal piñata."
The band members, all of them between ages 25 and 30, couldn't replace their equipment - "We don't have those kinds of means," Cravens said - and a settlement with the insurance company was slow in coming. So the band took an extended and unwanted hiatus. The logic was pretty simple: no settlement meant no money meant no equipment meant no band.
"It didn't look like we were ever going to get the thing settled," Cravens said. Did he miss the music? "Oh god, terribly," he said, adding that he only went to one live show in the half-year the band was out of commission.
The settlement did come through in February, and with some bargain prices from West Music - "They have our business for life," Cravens said - the band bought equipment and started rehearsing again in March.
So on Friday, From the Wreckage emerges from the wreckage, playing a show at Lumpy's in Davenport with Cavitation and Soul Shock - which along with Cravens' outfit was one of the two new bands that resulted from the breakup of Hoth Wampah. From the Wreckage is also planning an all-ages show in May with Speedfinger.
Featuring Kris Beck on guitar, Chad Eng on bass, and Tony Barber on drums, From the Wreckage practices a brutal brand of metal, with pummeling drums, intricate, flat-toned riffs, and vocals that consist almost entirely of growls, barks, and guttural screaming.
If that doesn't scare you off, the band's seven-track CD from last year, That's What I'm Talking About, is pretty compelling. A lot of black-metal bands use speed, attitude, and tunelessness to mask a deficiency in talent, but From the Wreckage has the genuine chops. Buried underneath the roar are complex song structures, interesting rhythms, and - sometimes - something approaching a melody. The introduction to "Vice Grip" has the meaty allure and riffs of Slayer, and "T-1000" has a strong groove. Cravens' vocals sound filled with genuine bile, and conviction is half the battle when it comes to metal.
From the Wreckage plans to get back in the studio this summer to record three songs, and Cravens promises that this Friday's show will feature two new tunes. He said that since the band got back together earlier this year, the sound is more intricate, with the players willing to diverge in terms of time signatures and parts.
Just don't expect something radically different. "We're always going to play metal," Cravens said. "It's something in our blood."
