CRISIS Add Ex-TODAY IS THE DAY Drummer, Prepare To Record

CRISIS, the reformed group which up until recently performed and recorded in Los Angeles under the name SKULLSICK NATION, have recruited former TODAY IS THE DAY drummer Marshall Kilpatric. The band are currently writing and demoing material for their next studio album, due to be recorded later in the year with producer Billy Anderson (CLUTCH, BRUTAL TRUTH, ORANGE GOBLIN, NEUROSIS, SLEEP) for a late 2003/early 2004 release through an as-yet-undetermined label.

In a recent interview with Epi Mag, CRISIS frontwoman Karyn Crisis discussed Kilpatric's addition to the group and the band's upcoming recording plans.

"Ever since the departure of Fred Waring due to family issues, CRISIS has never had the right fit in terms of a drummer. Fred was our favorite because he was another instrument in the band, he didn't just keep time as a drummer, and he didn't change our music one way or another based on his musical tastes, etc. He just added to it, made the guitar and bass rhythms even more intricate, had a flair with off-times, lent his jazz experience to our music in terms of swing. He also tuned his cymbals, he could play snare and hi-hat beats lefty or righty… so that when other drummers had to learn the songs, they couldn't figure out what Fred had done! He was a force as equally strong and present as the rest of the members in the band. All of our drummers since then have all had their own talents to bring to the table, but none have been able to play the old CRISIS songs the right way, if at all. Or, as I mentioned earlier, whatever style of music they were listening to would color and change our music.

"Marshall is a CRISIS fan and knows all our old songs, much like Jwyanza did before he joined the band. When Marshall came to audition, he played several oldies perfectly — with the spirit of Fred in terms of musicality but with an added brutality. Marshall has also had a lot of drumming experience, having played in his father's blues/funk band for years, other metal bands and most recently TODAY IS THE DAY. He is an artist like all of us, and he believes in the primal force of his drumming. He found his place quite easily in our odd timings without us having to point him in the right direction. He's in tune with our sense of musical dramatics — heaviness, jazziness, space, mystery, dynamics, industrial sense of rhythm, etc., and he adds to the music and makes it whole, makes it more fervent, completes the circle. And as vocalist, I respond to drumming more than do I guitars or bass, so it's very important to me to have a hearty, creative drummer. We all think so. Because of our touring schedule before we moved out west and the pressures we felt to keep going as a band, we had to carry on with whomever we could find as a drummer who was capable and eager. Time would tell how imperfect the fit was, and time did tell. Thus came the time when we said that we were going to wait to find the right drummer, because music is not worth being played with a dispassionate member. Not long after we made this decision, we met Marshall through Mark Creegan, our east-coast sound technician.

With regards to what the fans expect from the upcoming CRISIS album, Karyn said, "[It's] definitely old school, [but] definitely new . .. complexity of rhythm, drumming, guitar/bass intricacies, and vocal range and patterns of 'Deathshead Extermination', the doom — and — blues of 'The Hollowing', Middle-Eastern dirges, hard-core bashing, explosiveness of dark energies, and the creativeness of '8 Convulsions'."

For more information on CRISIS, visit the band's newly launched official web site at www.crisissite.com.