Vertical After

Vertical After
Background information
Origin Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Seattle, WA, USA
Genres Thrash Metal
Punk
Years active 1989 (1989)–2003
Labels Cargo Records
Associated acts Stress Factor 9, Annihilator
Website verticalafter.com
Members Kick
Keith
Sol
Past members Munesh Sami
Hart Schiesse
Stewart Langille
Markus McCallum
Odd Noxious

Vertical After was an independent band based in Vancouver, BC and Seattle, WA whose music genre varied from "Thrash Metal to Pop to Punk". They were widely known for their creative music and wide range of styles. The band is noted most importantly for their elaborate rock videos, which was aired repeatedly on Canada's Much Music nationwide music station. The band had a total output of 4 CD albums and apart from that, they spent much of the period from 1989 to 2003 playing hundreds of concert club shows the USA, Canada, and Europe. Vertical After toured all over North America promoting their videos and albums including 1999's Pop Goes Death, mixed by Doug Pinnick of King's X,[1] and 2002's Bloody Murdo co-produced by Stuart Carruthers of Grip Inc. Some of their famous support-openings included Twisted Sister in New York, Iron Maiden's lead vocalist Bruce Dickinson in Los Angeles, Ice T's Body Count and other acts including King's X around the country.

Vertical After was known among music critics for mixing up the genres way before System of a Down had success with Chop Suey. The band received positive[2] [3]to mixed [4] reviews for their music. They were recognized due to their diehard fanbase and for promoting their own band at a scope beyond what most independent bands in their genre would do. During their initial years, they were one of the few bands who were sold out at Commodore Ballroom.[5]

After the band semi-retired in 2003, Kick and Markus McCallum went on to form Stress Factor 9 with members of the million album selling Annihilator's "Alice in Hell" including Randy Rampage.

History

The band developed and operated in the Vancouver and Seattle music scene during the late 80's and early 90's as the peak of thrash metal intersected with the grunge movement that would later eclipse it. Kick (guitar, vocals) formed Vertical After with pal Stewart Langille (guitar, vocals) and immediately played many concert club shows in Seattle and Vancouver and Los Angeles. Their second L.A. tour ended in an auto wreck that put all four bandmates and their driver in the Emergency room, but within half a year, the band was recording their first CD album, and getting rotation airplay of their first of many rock videos on Canada's MuchMusic channel plus regional and cable shows in the USA. Soon the band did their first coast to coast 18 city concert tour. The band issued an all-video, 10 song VHS album, with songs filmed by rising cinematographers including Dan Nowak[6] (Outer Limits, Dead Like Me), Marcus Rogers[7] (Strapping Young Lad), and Gary Davis (Sublime:Three Ring Circus). The band were featured in an article about their comeback after the accident in L.A. in The Province.

By the mid 1990s, Vertical After had taken the act to Europe and was also doing 36-city USA/Canada concert tours one or two times each year plus shorter trips in winter to warmer regions. Some shows were well attended festivals such as the Milwaukee Metal Fest and Foundations metal convention in L.A., and support shows for bigger acts including Dee Snider, Bruce Dickinson, Green Day, Ice-T's Body Count, King's X, and Motörhead. The band released their second CD "Powered By Crime" (1995) which included a half dozen songs that had appeared on well distributed compilation samplers, including Toronto's M.E.A.T magazine Raw#3 and Raw#4, the Foundations Forum convention sampler each year from 1992-1996, and Perris Records samplers. Their humorous "OJ Song"[8] became a college radio favorite with its counterpart video that featured the band loaded into a white Bronco being slow chased by cop cars. The band received TV news coverage in Las Vegas in 1996 when guitarist Stewart was hit by a taxi and critically injured.

In 1998, the band was disrupted as founding bandmate Stewart Langille died, and bassist Markus McCallum went on to another band that eventually was renamed Mechanism, featuring Gene Hoglan on drums. Vertical After's remaining members Kick (guitar, vocals) and Keith (drums) re-organized the band with Hart (guitar) and Sol (bass, vocals) and recorded the Pop Goes Death CD (1999), finished in Houston Texas with Doug Pinnick of King's X mixing. The band also put out the Bloody Murdo CD (2002) before doing a tour with many dates as support act for King's X. That final tour lineup featured Munesh Sami, ( Hank Williams III and Strapping Young Lad ).

In 2003, V.A. semi-retired, following the death of guitarist Hart.

In 2015, the band released a DVD called "The Whole Kick and Kaboodle" [9] featuring 20 song videos and many extras.

Discography

1994: Foundations Forum '94
1996: Powered by Crime
1999: Pop goes Death
2002: Bloody Murdo
2015: The Whole Kick and Kaboodle (DVD)

References

  1. ↑ http://earofnewt.com/2015/01/18/kings-x-guitarist-ty-tabor-is-not-into-chops-for-chops-sake/
  2. ↑ http://www.roughedge.com/cdreviews/v/verticalafter.htm
  3. ↑ http://issuu.com/thenervemagazine/docs/nerve-magazine-march-april-2002
  4. ↑ http://www.underground-empire.com/reloc.php?reloc=http%3A//www.underground-empire.com/review.php%3Fidx%3D3379
  5. ↑ http://www.commodoreballroom.com/show-archive/?show=vertical-after
  6. ↑ http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0002259/
  7. ↑ http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0737058/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1
  8. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HjQpXl70a0
  9. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on August 19, 2015. Retrieved August 18, 2015.
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