Spike 1000

In the early 1990s Spike 1000 assembled in Stockton, California, the same city that spawned Korn. While those “new metal” peers from their hometown accumulated platinum records and the full array of rock-star trappings, the band waited. Shannon Harris leads their modern hard-rock assault with a commanding voice whose muscular contralto can easily convince casual listeners they are hearing a male singer. Bill Thompson supplies the guitars, Mfat anchors the bass, and Jeff Jones handles drums. After four years based in Stockton, the quartet moved north to the Bay Area and settled into an Oakland rehearsal studio, intent on bringing their hard-edged metallic sound to the largest possible audience. Five years of working the San Francisco scene—cutting demos and hawking their own five-song CD at steadily growing shows—finally drew major-label interest, and Columbia Records issued the debut album Waste of Skin in 2001, a full decade after the band’s formation. That extended history understandably conferred a musical maturity absent from most first releases, and Waste of Skin confirms the advantage: a fully realized metal stomp saturated with the smell of cigarette smoke, sweat, and stale beer that clings to instruments and soaks into skin. Harris delivers one uncompromising performance after another; her lyrics are blunt and unflinching rather than cheaply sensational or deliberately inflammatory. Just as her bandmates navigate staccato riffs and grinding rhythmic turns without hesitation, she refuses to retreat or dilute her stance, steering clear of self-parody or empty posturing. Although the artistic gap between Stockton’s two leading metal outfits is narrow, Spike 1000 traveled a far longer and more difficult route to major-label acceptance. Whether the group can reach an audience approaching Korn’s remains an open question.