Messed!Up
Over three decades and numerous albums, industrial metal scene leaders Static-X are consummate survivors. Even after the untimely death of lead singer Wayne Static in 2014, the group has regenerated and continued to record new music while honoring the late frontman’s legacy. Unlike their more straightforward ’90s nu-metal counterparts, Static-X were heavily influenced by house music, blending influences like Pantera with the electronic stylings of Prodigy and the Crystal Method to define their sound.
Static-X were originally formed in 1994 after Wayne Static’s former band, Deep Blue Dream (featuring a pre-Smashing Pumpkins Billy Corgan), broke up. Along with drummer Ken Jay and guitarist Emerson Swinford, Static relocated from Chicago to Los Angeles and the trio formed a band called DRILL. Swinford left the band and was replaced by Koichi Fukuda, and Static-X was born.
The band’s first album came out in 1999 at the height of the nu-metal era. Wisconsin Death Trip contained the singles “Push It,” “I’m With Stupid” and “Bled For Days.” They played Ozzfest to support the album and released an EP, The Death Trip Continues, the following year.
Fukuda departed Static-X soon after, and in 2001 the band released their sophomore effort: Machine. The following year, Wayne Static’s vocals were featured on the Queen Of The Damned: Music From the Motion Picture soundtrack (“Not Meant For Me,” written by Korn’s Jonathan Davis). Jay left the band shortly after, and in 2003 Static-X’s third album, Shadow Zone, was released, featuring “The Only” and “So” as singles. Replacing Jay was former Seether drummer Nick Oshiro.
In 2004, Static-X released Beneath… Between… Beyond…, a collection of rarities and demos. The band released their fourth album, Start A War, in 2005 with “I’m the One” and “Dirthouse” released as singles. In 2007, Static-X shared a fifth album, Cannibal, which had music (“No Submission”) featured on the Saw III soundtrack. Also in 2007, the band shared their exclusive Destroyer EP and toured on Ozzfest once more.
In 2009, the band released their fifth album, Cult Of Static. The album single “Lunatic” appeared on the soundtrack to Marvel’s Punisher: War Zone. Oshiro left Static-X around this time and was replaced by touring drummer Will Hunt.
The group went on hiatus not long after finishing a lengthy tour, with Wayne Static announcing a renewed focus on his Pighammer side project, with contributions from his wife, Tera Wray. In 2011, Pighammer appeared as a solo album under his own name. A year later, he re-formed Static-X – minus any of the original members. The lineup, which consisted of his solo backing band, mounted a tour but broke up by 2013, and a year later, Wayne Static died of a drug overdose at the age of 48. Just over a year after that, his widow Tera Wray took her own life.
This tragedy seemed to spell the end of Static-X, but a few years later, the remaining band members patched up their differences and decided to see if they could salvage anything from past recordings. Starting from a slew of unreleased demos, the group went into the studio, once again with Ulrich Wild, where they stripped Wayne’s vocals from the demos and composed entirely new tunes around them. The resultant album, Project Regeneration, was released in two volumes, with Vol. 1 arriving in the summer of 2020. To support the release, the band embarked on tour with a new, masked frontman named Xer0 (the identity of whom most fans have already figured out). Lead single “Hollow” crashed the U.S. Dance/Electronic chart, peaking in the Top 15. With a well-received tour under their belts and an extended stint with Sevendust carrying them into 2024, they returned to work on the sequel Vol. 2 in January. The set included the single “Z0mbie” and a cover of Nine Inch Nails’ “Terrible Lie.”
GERMAN DATES:
- 30.07.2025 at Alter Schlachthof, Dresden
- 13.08.2025 at Zeche, Bochum
Get your tickets to the shows HERE.
