Shihad

The New Zealand speed metal outfit Shihad traces its beginnings to 1985, when Wellington-area high school students Jon Toogood on guitar and Tom Larkin on drums assembled their initial band, Exit. Lineup shifts continued until mid-1988, at which point guitarist Phil Knight and bassist Geoff Duncan joined and the ensemble adopted the name Shihad, enabling them to launch live performances. Their first show reportedly featured a cover of the Sex Pistols’ “Anarchy in the U.K.” that overloaded the venue’s P.A. system. Duncan departed soon afterward, and following interim attempts bassist Hamish Laing took the role permanently; the group then issued its first recording, “Down Dance,” as the B-side of a split single shared with the Angels. Mid-1991 brought the debut EP Devolve, which unexpectedly climbed into the New Zealand Top 20; Laing left shortly thereafter and was succeeded by Karl Kippenberger. A 1992 hiatus saw Toogood and Larkin launch the side project SML alongside Head Like a Hole’s Nigel Regan. Shihad resurfaced in 1993 with Churn, whose sound had shifted toward industrial textures under the sway of Skinny Puppy and Einsturzende Neubauten and incorporated sampler experiments. The album entered the Top Ten, while the single “I Only Said” reached number three. The 1995 follow-up Killjoy also achieved major success, leading to the 1996 EP Deb’s Night Out and the band’s self-titled third album. Their 1999 release The General Electric earned double-platinum status in New Zealand and marked the final appearance under the Shihad name for several years, after the September 11, 2001 attacks altered public perception of the term derived from the Islamic “jihad.” The group therefore adopted the name Pacifier and issued its self-titled debut under that moniker in 2002, featuring guest contributions from Scott Weiland and DJ Lethal. The politically oriented Love Is the New Hate arrived in 2005 and signaled a permanent return to the Shihad identity. Subsequent releases included the electronica-inflected Beautiful Machine in 2008, the forceful Ignite in 2010, and the widely praised FVEY in 2014, the band’s fifth number-one album in New Zealand. In 2016 the self-titled third album was reissued as a deluxe two-LP set that added a 10-inch pressing of the 1998 Blue Light Disco EP.