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In the next couple of years, I was asked to contribute to The Ripple Effect, It’s Psychedelic Baby Magazine, and am a regular monthly contributor to the Doom Charts. With this volume out, and people already looking forward to Volume II, I questioned Tony about how the two albums compare. Songs like “Worth Dyin’ For” and “Terminator Oscillator” are standouts for me, being my picks for the best on Project Regeneration. Both tracks are a bit different from each other, with “Worth Dyin’ For” employing the solid eighth note chug for, and carries a serious groove throughout its run time. While “Terminator Oscillator” is more aggressive in its attack, especially in the vocal department. I absolutely love these two tracks, and they get played repeatedly on a daily basis ever since the promo landed in my inbox. “I’m including a candid photo that I snapped of Static-X drummer Ken Jay embracing Wayne’s father, while Tony Campos, Wayne’s mother, Wayne’s siblings and friends share some personal time together.
Words cannot express the love and respect that I’ve experienced out here. “I have personally seen their tears of joy and their expressions of gratitude and approval for the way that Tony, Ken, Koichi, & Xer0 are celebrating the music and memorializing the life and legacy of their son and sibling, Wayne Wells Static. “I personally get to see the joy, the tears, and the incredible sense of healing that is occurring on the faces and in the hearts of Static-X fans, each and every night, around the world.
The band’s neon face paint, in addition to frontman Joseph Poole’s cast of costumes and props, produced an aesthetic as captivating and dark as its sound. After the final song, XerO dedicated the night as a time to celebrate “the life, the love, the memory, the legacy of our dear friend and your hero, Mr. Wayne Static,” which is exactly what Static-X did. The group’s tight live sound called back to its only live album, “Cannibal Killers Live,” which was recorded in Spokane in 2007 at the Big Easy, which would be renamed the Knitting Factory a year later. My name is Tom Hanno, and I’ve been writing reviews since 2016. Initially, I wrote for Chimera Magazine, but I started a Facebook page called Tom’s Reviews, and dug into the stoner, doom, psych, and underground scene; this was along with my normal heavy metal reviewing. Eventually, my writing caught some notice, and I was asked to join the team at Doomed and Stoned.
In a way it is good that it took six years for these recordings to make their debut; there has been enough time for fans to mourn Static so now they can celebrate and thoroughly enjoy his last works. When iconic Static-X frontman Wayne Static passed away in 2014, fans had every reason to believe that the band was dead, too. But then the group’s surviving original members — guitarist Koichi Fukuda, bassist Tony Campos and drummer Ken Jay – re-formed the group and hit the road with a masked singer going only by the stage name XerO. The new Static-X singer goes by the name of XerO and wears a mask to make him look like original singer Wayne Static. Earlier this year the band announced that they’d put together a summer North American tour in honor of the 20th anniversary of their breakthrough albumWisconsin Death Trip.The tour also features Devildriver and Dope. That’s important because the rumor is that Edsel Dope is actually XerO. Whether it is or if it’s someone else playing this character as a tribute to Wayne, he was recently interviewed by Kerrang!
In Other Projects
Right now, I am just focused on doing my part to complete all of this new Static-X music for my old friend Wayne, his family, and for the fans, while we gear up to play these remaining handful of shows that were booked into 2020. I also felt that wearing a mask would allow me to keep the focus on the 4 guys that created the music of Wisconsin Death Trip. I believe that the fans really appreciated the fact that our intention was to represent Wayne on this 20th Anniversary tour, rather than attempting to replace him. It is difficult for me to put into words, because technically, I am front and center, but somehow we were able to make it so that the focus wasn’t really on me. The focus remains on Static-X and on Wayne, Tony, Ken, and Koichi.
I’m honored for myself and for my band DOPE to be part of this 20th anniversary celebration, along with this unbelievable, traveling memorial to our old friend Wayne Static. For the 20th Anniversary tour, the last thing that I wanted to do was put my own face out there to represent something that I had absolutely nothing to do with creating.
Again, I love the band, the songs and the energy, so performing with Static-X has been a lot of fun for me. At the same time, it also has been very challenging because I had to learn how to do certain things with my voice that I had never done before. Wayne has a very unique vocal style, and in order for me to represent Static-X properly, I had to really deep dive into those nuances and get out of my own comfort zone. There’s a sense from Xer0 that the group will remain active beyond these releases. Speculation ran rampant last October when fans thought they had uncovered Xer0’s identity as Dope singer Edsel Dope, but the latter vocalist stuck a fork in that rumor. “Today is a very exciting day, as we are finely releasing the first STATIC-X single and video in more than 10 years.” Says Tony Campos. “The band, our producers, and most importantly Wayne’s family are incredibly happy with the way that the album is turning out and we know that Wayne is looking down on us all with a big smile.”
I’m including a candid photo that I snapped of Static-X drummer Ken Jay embracing Wayne’s father, while Tony Campos, Wayne’s mother, Wayne’s siblings and friends share some personal time together. I have personally seen their tears of joy and their expressions of gratitude and approval for the way that Tony, Ken, Koichi, & Xer0 are celebrating the music and memorializing the life and legacy of their son and sibling, Wayne Wells Static. I personally get to see the joy, the tears, and the incredible sense of healing that is occurring on the faces and in the hearts of Static-X fans, each and every night, around the world. Wayne is currently on the minds and in the hearts of the metal community in a very unique and special way.
Aug 5 Static
Static-X’s influences include the Crystal Method, the Prodigy, Prong, Pantera, Ministry, Korn, the Sisters of Mercy, the Chemical Brothers, Joy Division, Kiss, Mortician, and Crowbar. On March 20, the album was preceded with an exclusive Destroyer EP, with a video being produced for the title track. The album itself debuted at No. 36 in the U.S. with sales of over 30,000.
He’s another great human being and the energy that he brings to this band both on and offstage is very special. He is also incredibly grateful for this opportunity and for his ability to heal through this process. That was the moment that I realized how incredibly personal this all really was. I mean, from the start, I took this all very seriously and I was incredibly committed to respecting Wayne and making sure that people understood that my role was not to replace him, but to represent him on the 20th Anniversary tour. But it was his sister Aimee’s love that really brought it all home for me.
Musical Style And Influences
Static-X was founded in 1994 after the disbandment of Wayne Static’s prior band, Deep Blue Dream. Static played in the band in the late 1980s with future Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan. However, when the Smashing Pumpkins began to gain popularity, Corgan made the choice to commit all of his attention to The Smashing Pumpkins, and the band eventually disbanded. Static and Ken Jay later moved to Los Angeles to start a new band with guitarist Emerson Swinford, whom they had met through their mutual friend, Chicago singer-songwriter, PJ Olsson.
- While Xer0’s identity has never been officially revealed, speculation has generally pointed at Dope singer Edsel Dope, though Edsel himself has denied this.
- Truthfully, I knew that we were going to give the fans exactly what they wanted, even if they didn’t quite know what they wanted yet.
- This process is being brought together by Sirius XM pioneer Jose Mangin, who is also credited as an executive producer of the project.
- The first time I heard this one, I wasn’t really into it, because it’s considerably less heavy than its predecessors.
- The masked, anonymous Xer0 surfaced in 2019 when he fronted the industrial metal troupe for a 20th-anniversary tour celebrating the classic 1999 album Wisconsin Death Trip, which is continuing this year.
I had some basic dialog with Tony, and I just started listening to what he had and it just began to quickly grow into something really exciting to me. I became very inspired by the challenge and the more I got involved, and the more I begin to dig into what was there, the more responsibility I began to feel toward doing this for Wayne and I just got sucked into the project further and further. I’m a producer and a vocalist / guitarist, and I live in L.A., so it was kind of unavoidable that I would be involved with this project to one degree or another. In retrospect, this feels like it kind of falls under that mystical category of “meant to be.” Just yesterday (Oct. 7) Static-X revealed a U.S. tour with DevilDriver, Dope, Wednesday 13 and Raven Black.
I think wayne is being remembered and honored the best and awesomest way he is. I don’t care a bit about the politics or who fucked over who, doesn’t matter. What matters is that they’re doing a solid tribute to Wayne, and if they continue on with the band, fine. I’d just prefer that Edsel never outright admits that it’s him in the mask. Static-X has been described as industrial metal, nu metal, and alternative metal. Self-described as “evil disco”, Static-X’s style, according to The Washington Post, “combines electronic elements influenced by industrial artists such as Ministry and Skinny Puppy with the harshness of bands like Pantera”. Static-X’s style also has used elements of genres such as techno, speed metal, and thrash metal.
Dope Release Lyric Video For 1999 From Upcoming Album blood Money, Part 1
I’ve literally seen Static-X perform hundreds of times. I knew that if people showed up to see us, they would be blown away by the vision we had for this. I knew that people wanted Wisconsin Death Trip, and I knew that they had no real idea of how the hell we could give them that without Wayne. In time, the design of the mask will likely morph and mutate, but I really have no desire to ever perform with Static-X without it.
It was first reported that former Static-X guitarist, Tripp Eisen, was going to have some involvement, but that was quickly downplayed. When Wayne Static died, I thought we’d never get to hear his distinct vocal stylings again, and that thought was not among my favorite ones. Thankfully there were some tapes Wayne had recorded before his death, and through the efforts of the band members from the Wisconsin Death Trip-era of Static-X, we are now able to relive what Wayne dubbed “Evil Disco”. Originally released in 2009, now available on streaming services for the first time. Last year, STATIC-X wrapped up a world tour comprised of nearly 100 mostly sold-out dates in celebration of the 20th anniversary of its platinum-selling debut album “Wisconsin Death Trip”.
While Xer0’s identity has never been officially revealed, speculation has generally pointed at Dope singer Edsel Dope, though Edsel himself has denied this. The mask was made by Laney Chantal, wife of Twiggy Ramirez. In 2012, Wayne Static decided to reform Static-X, but none of the original members would join him. Instead his solo band would tour under the name Static-X.
