Leviathan (punk)
Encyclopedia
Leviathan was a hard rock
band that formed in New York City
, N.Y.
in 2001, and despite a three year hiatus, continues to perform today. During their career, they've played with Glenn Danzig
, The Exploited
, Nuclear Assault
, Body Count
, Jello Biafra
, Clutch
, Michale Graves
, The Misfits, Hirax
, Six Feet Under
, and Testament
, Agent Orange
to name a few. Before their hiatus, Caustic Truths Magazine named the band alongside Sum 41
and The Hellacopters
as one of the fifty "hardest touring bands in the USA" in 2004, and they're listed in the "New Wave Of North American Heavy Metal", published in 2005. By mixing traditional metal distortion and heavy beats with horror punk, funk, and hard rock, the band is very versatile within what are usually very exclusionary micro-genre factions of rock & roll, able to open for many varying headliners.
and Warren Zevon
. This recording was released as their self-titled debut EP in August 2002. The band donated 20% of the money made from this record to benefit the West Memphis Three
defence fund, and the liner notes indicate this.
The choice of using "Leviathan" as a band name has caused an amount of debate, since that name had been used before, by many groups over the years, including a band from the UK, a band that opened for Three Dog Night
in the 1960s in the US, was the name of Chris Barnes unsigned and unpublished solo demo in 1986-88, and is the name used by various groups today. However, the band members of Leviathan are the US Trademark owners of the name
In late 2003, the band again began the recording process, this time at Smash Studios in New York City, with tensions from touring and monetary pressures running high. This recording was to be the band's only full-length record so far, titled "Internal Inferno", it was released at their performance at the SXSW festival in Austin, Texas in March 2004.
The band lineup seen most often in their shows consisted of Shane Tierney (vocalist), Mike Otero (guitar
), along with Chris Gardiner (bass
), and Danny Rivera (drums
). The band's frequent infighting lead to Danny being fired, replaced, and then rejoining the group on two occasions.
One of the band's main marketing campaigns was done through old school concert posters, and were a very big part of their notoriety. These posters, illustrated by JayJay Jackson (Marvel Comics
, Valiant Comics
, Broadway Comics
), still can be seen on online auction sites like Ebay, due to their limited number and collectability.
The band's label was the independent Judas Cradle Productions, founded by Shane Tierney, and later renamed to Seventh Level Records
, which has gone on to publish over 22 independent releases since 2005.
Since their breakup, Shane Tierney has gone on to sing for Primer Black and the other members formed a new band named Guileface, each releasing one recording before Shane and Chris reunited in 2007, at first under the name "Tentacle", and then appearing opening for the Misfits, Agent Orange, and other shows as "Leviathan" once again. It was during this time that Leviathan was listed in the book, "The New Wave of North American Heavy Metal" by Gary Sharpe-Young, published in 2005 by Zonda Books. (ISBN 0-9582684-0-1)
According to their various social networking pages, Leviathan are back together with a new lineup, featuring original members Shane Tierney and Chris Gardiner, with Tommy Stubenvoll on guitar and Dan "Chopper" Carillo on the drums. They say that they've been working on new material while searching for a full-time drummer over the last three years, and recently a demo recording of five new songs, titled "Nasty" has been for sale at their shows, but not online. The band has said that they're ready to do a full-length recording yet again in the Fall of 2010, and that the budget for this project has already been settled.
Hard rock
Hard rock is a loosely defined genre of rock music which has its earliest roots in mid-1960s garage rock, blues rock and psychedelic rock...
band that formed in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, N.Y.
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
in 2001, and despite a three year hiatus, continues to perform today. During their career, they've played with Glenn Danzig
Glenn Danzig
Glenn Danzig Glenn Danzig Glenn Danzig (born Glenn Allen Anzalone; June 23, 1955 is an American singer-songwriter, musician, author, entrepreneur, and a progenitor of the horror punk subgenre of music. He is a founder of bands the Misfits, Samhain, and Danzig...
, The Exploited
The Exploited
The Exploited are a Scottish punk band from the second wave of UK punk, formed in 1979. Originally a street punk band, they transformed into a faster hardcore punk band with a heavy political influence. From about 1987 on they changed into a crossover thrash band...
, Nuclear Assault
Nuclear Assault
Nuclear Assault is an American thrash metal/crossover thrash band formed in 1984.-History:After the release of Anthrax's debut album Fistful of Metal, bass player Danny Lilker, a founding member of the group, was fired by the band...
, Body Count
Body Count
Body Count is an American heavy metal band formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1990. The group is fronted by rapper and actor Ice-T, who founded the group out of his interest in heavy metal music, taking on the role of vocalist and writing the lyrics for most of the group's songs. Lead guitarist...
, Jello Biafra
Jello Biafra
Jello Biafra is an American musician, spoken word artist and leading figure of the Green Party of the United States. Biafra first gained attention as the lead singer and songwriter for San Francisco punk rock band Dead Kennedys...
, Clutch
Clutch (band)
Clutch is an American rock band from Germantown, Maryland, formed in 1990. The band's first release was an EP entitled Pitchfork, which debuted in October 1990. Their first studio album, Transnational Speedway League, was released three years later in 1993. To date, Clutch has released nine studio...
, Michale Graves
Michale Graves
Michael Emanuel , better known by his stage name Michale Graves, is an American singer and songwriter, singing for the late 1990s re-incarnation of The Misfits from 1995 to 1998 and again from late 1998 until late 2000. Graves grew up in Dumont, New Jersey...
, The Misfits, Hirax
Hirax
Hirax is an American thrash metal band from Cypress, California. Starting in 1984 under the leadership of vocalist Katon W. De Pena , the band played in Los Angeles and San Francisco with the other new thrash metal bands of the area such as Metallica, Exodus, and Slayer...
, Six Feet Under
Six Feet Under (band)
Six Feet Under is an American death metal band from Tampa, Florida, formed in 1993. The band was originally a side project by Cannibal Corpse vocalist Chris Barnes with guitarist Allen West of Obituary...
, and Testament
Testament (band)
Testament is an American metal band from Berkeley, California, formed in 1983. They are often credited as one of the most popular bands of the 1980s thrash metal scene...
, Agent Orange
Agent Orange (band)
Agent Orange is an American punk rock band formed in Orange County, California in 1979. The band is one of the first to mix punk rock with surf music. They first gained attention with their song "Bloodstains" which they released on their own 7" E.P. An early demo of the song was presented to...
to name a few. Before their hiatus, Caustic Truths Magazine named the band alongside Sum 41
Sum 41
Sum 41 is a Canadian rock band from Ajax, Ontario. The band was formed in 1996 and currently consists of members Deryck Whibley , Tom Thacker , Jason McCaslin and Steve Jocz .In 1999, the band signed an international record deal with Island Records...
and The Hellacopters
The Hellacopters
The Hellacopters were a Swedish garage rock band that was formed in 1994 by Nicke Andersson , Dregen , Kenny Håkansson and Robert Eriksson . Andersson had been the drummer for death metal band Entombed and Dregen was taking a break from his full-time band Backyard Babies...
as one of the fifty "hardest touring bands in the USA" in 2004, and they're listed in the "New Wave Of North American Heavy Metal", published in 2005. By mixing traditional metal distortion and heavy beats with horror punk, funk, and hard rock, the band is very versatile within what are usually very exclusionary micro-genre factions of rock & roll, able to open for many varying headliners.
Career
Shane Tierney and Chris Gardiner had known each other since kindergarten, and grew up less than a block away from one another, in the county of Westchester, New York. They had a band in high school named "All For Nothing". Leviathan formed after lengthy auditions for a guitarist and drummer beginning in July 2001, and ending in March 2002, since it was especially hard to organize a group after the September 11th attacks in New York. After practicing with Mike Otero and Danny Rivera for three months, the band decided to record a demo at Spike Recording with the help of engineer/producer Matt Chiravalle, who had worked with KittieKittie
Kittie is a Canadian heavy metal band formed in London, Ontario in 1996. A quartet of women, the group rose to success in 1999 when the track "Brackish" from their debut album Spit became a hit single...
and Warren Zevon
Warren Zevon
Warren William Zevon was an American rock singer-songwriter and musician noted for including his sometimes sardonic opinions of life in his musical lyrics, composing songs that were sometimes humorous and often had political or historical themes.Zevon's work has often been praised by well-known...
. This recording was released as their self-titled debut EP in August 2002. The band donated 20% of the money made from this record to benefit the West Memphis Three
West Memphis Three
The West Memphis Three are three men who were tried and convicted as teenagers in 1994 of the 1993 murders of three boys in West Memphis, Arkansas. Damien Echols was sentenced to death, Jessie Misskelley, Jr. was sentenced to life imprisonment plus two 20-year sentences, and Jason Baldwin was...
defence fund, and the liner notes indicate this.
The choice of using "Leviathan" as a band name has caused an amount of debate, since that name had been used before, by many groups over the years, including a band from the UK, a band that opened for Three Dog Night
Three Dog Night
Three Dog Night is an American rock band best known for their music from 1968 to 1975. During that time the band charted 21 Billboard top 40 hits in America, three of which reached Number One...
in the 1960s in the US, was the name of Chris Barnes unsigned and unpublished solo demo in 1986-88, and is the name used by various groups today. However, the band members of Leviathan are the US Trademark owners of the name
In late 2003, the band again began the recording process, this time at Smash Studios in New York City, with tensions from touring and monetary pressures running high. This recording was to be the band's only full-length record so far, titled "Internal Inferno", it was released at their performance at the SXSW festival in Austin, Texas in March 2004.
The band lineup seen most often in their shows consisted of Shane Tierney (vocalist), Mike Otero (guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
), along with Chris Gardiner (bass
Bass guitar
The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
), and Danny Rivera (drums
Drum kit
A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
). The band's frequent infighting lead to Danny being fired, replaced, and then rejoining the group on two occasions.
One of the band's main marketing campaigns was done through old school concert posters, and were a very big part of their notoriety. These posters, illustrated by JayJay Jackson (Marvel Comics
Marvel Comics
Marvel Worldwide, Inc., commonly referred to as Marvel Comics and formerly Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, is an American company that publishes comic books and related media...
, Valiant Comics
Valiant Comics
Valiant Comics is a comic book imprint published by various publishers since its inception with Voyager Communications, Inc. in 1989, later Acclaim Comics, Inc. Its assets were purchased from the bankruptcy of the Acclaim Entertaintment by Valiant Entertainment, Inc. in 2007.-Voyager...
, Broadway Comics
Broadway Comics
Broadway Comics was a short-lived comic book publishing company started by Jim Shooter in 1995, after his former company, Defiant Comics, had folded...
), still can be seen on online auction sites like Ebay, due to their limited number and collectability.
The band's label was the independent Judas Cradle Productions, founded by Shane Tierney, and later renamed to Seventh Level Records
Seventh Level Records
Founded by Shane Tierney, Seventh Level Records was previously known as Judas Cradle Productions from 2001-2005. Judas Cradle Productions was the label for Leviathan, a metal / punk band that Shane Tierney was the front man for at the time...
, which has gone on to publish over 22 independent releases since 2005.
Since their breakup, Shane Tierney has gone on to sing for Primer Black and the other members formed a new band named Guileface, each releasing one recording before Shane and Chris reunited in 2007, at first under the name "Tentacle", and then appearing opening for the Misfits, Agent Orange, and other shows as "Leviathan" once again. It was during this time that Leviathan was listed in the book, "The New Wave of North American Heavy Metal" by Gary Sharpe-Young, published in 2005 by Zonda Books. (ISBN 0-9582684-0-1)
According to their various social networking pages, Leviathan are back together with a new lineup, featuring original members Shane Tierney and Chris Gardiner, with Tommy Stubenvoll on guitar and Dan "Chopper" Carillo on the drums. They say that they've been working on new material while searching for a full-time drummer over the last three years, and recently a demo recording of five new songs, titled "Nasty" has been for sale at their shows, but not online. The band has said that they're ready to do a full-length recording yet again in the Fall of 2010, and that the budget for this project has already been settled.