THE REUNION YOU HAVEN’T BEEN WAITING FOR
Friday, September 19th, 2008 at 10:58am by Axl Rosenberg
In hindsight, that time you were a kid and went camping with your friends and some sketchy dude in a car rolled up out of nowhere and rolled his window down just an inch and spoke real low so you’d have to get close to his car because he was probably trying to abduct and rape you might seem like a funny story to tell people – but it doesn’t mean you’d necessarily wanna re-live it. I mean, it probably sucked at the time, the realization that you were a half-step away from living out a Friday the 13th movie.
So Spineshank have gotten back together.
Even if Spineshank were one of the (slightly) less annoying nu-metal acts of the late 90s/early aughties, I can’t imagine anyone was really clamoring for a reunion. But they’ve already posted a new, incredibly awful song, “Born Conform Repent,” on their MySpace page.
Somewhat sadder (relatively speaking) is that this signals the death of Silent Civilian, the better-than-average (but by no means great) metalcore band that Spineshank lead singer Jonny Santos formed after quitting The ‘Shank (no idea if people actually call them “The ‘Shank” or not, but I think it’s funny) in ‘04. They released one pretty decent album, the horribly named Rebirth of the Temple, on Mediaskare in 2006, but have been plagued by line-up problems, and I guess Jonny gotta eat, too.
And I imagine that somewhere, probably in the mid-west or wherever Edsel Dope is still considered a “rock star,” there is someone who’s happy to hear that Spineshank are back together. And, um, how lucky for that guy.
Here’s Spineshank’s video for “New Disease”…
…and here’s Silent Civilian’s video for “Rebirth of the Temple.”
Even if you think both bands suck, there’s no denying that one was considerably better than the other.
-AR
Sounds more like someone who jumps on a trendy bandwagon – albeit with less than modest success – then moves onto the next. Honestly, I had only heard OF Spineshank but wouldn’t have been able to pick them out of a lineup or the music out of a sound lineup. And the follow-up band, Please be Silent Civilian, even less so.
i really enjoyed the first 2 record from SpineShank… i thought that third one was a steaming turd, so i can’t imagine that in a reunion they would move towards something better. i can do without it.
I have the Silent Civilian album and its a good listen. Most of the tracks sound the same but there are some good ones worth a repeat listen. IDK how I feel about this even though I used to own all the Spineshank albums. Hopefully it sounds like Silent Civilians second album….
God damn that sucks. I always thought Silent Civilian had some potential. Their first and only album wasn’t the greatest, but it really showed that Johnny Santos knows his shit when it comes to metal. It’s kinda like DevilDriver’s first album… far from great, but it was the start of some really good shit. For him to let a band like Silent Civilian go to go back to the steaming pile that was Spineshank just blows me away.
I heard GGGarth pretty much convinced the band to find a new singer after recording the last Spineshank record cause Johnny couldn’t get his shit together. Although I’ve only consulted the Grapevine, and we all know how reliable that is.
No thanks. I think I’ll hold out for the hotly anticipated Five Pointe O reunion that’s sure to coalesce any day now…
featuring Fall Out Boy guy’s fat twin brother!
i love how in the Silent Civilian video they mute a part of the solo yet they show the guitarist do a sweep
Next, Ill Nino gets resigned to Roadrunner after being laughed off that record label.
Quick somebody re-open the birch hill in oldbridge nj..
i had to see these guys w/ fear factory and system of a down back in the day a few times..when they were prone to tour together.. funny story.. outside one of their shows evan from biohazard was having a confrontation with the lead singer of spineshank by the buses.. and well, i was reall yhoping for a good view of a beatdown, but alas.. it wasn’t meant to be… i always wondered what the 2 were argueing about
Spineshank was great live, so good in fact I bought their first two albums at the show.
Spineshank were hardly the worst nu-metal band…in fact they were around before nu-metal exploded.
@bucketochicken: Five Pointe O was by far one of the top-tier nu-metal acts, despite disbanding pretty quickly… (and yes half the band has reformed under a new name).
For what it’s worth, Santos is going to be staying in both bands. I’ve always dug Spineshank, so I can’t exactly agree with the “oh so witty” negativity of the article. Their last album was pretty weak though. I never really considered them nu metal (not that I’d immediately write a band off if I did)
Spineshank is for people who stopped listening to new music after (and if) they graduated high-school.
Both bands are terrible, but I admit that Spineshank are more tolerable than Silent Civilian. Mostly because Silent Civilian tries harder to be more metal, and manages to fail even more than Spineshank (who don’t even try).
I own all the Spineshank and I liked the SC record. But when Johnny left, I wasn’t upset. The sound is really dated now and this will flop.
There is too much current metal out there to even care about a reunion like this.
KRISUN!!!!!!!!!
Sorry typo..
KRISIUN!!!!!!!!!!
spineshank is okay. it’s good to put a few of their songs on your 4gb mp3 player so you hear them once every 1000 songs. your story at the beginning makes no sense to me in relation to the rest of the article though.
I used to be a massive fan of Spineshank, particularly the Height of Callousness. I’m pretty pleased to hear they’ve reformed, I’d love to see them live again.
Hope they do a UK tour.
This, and Peter Wichers back in Soilwork?
Been a good week :)
Hey fuck all u haters Spineshank are one of the best metal bands around and it’s awesome they they’ve reformed. SD and SDP were awesome albums. Yeah I always thought Jonny was wasting his talent in SC glad he came to his senses and rejoined the shank!!!!