Behead The Prophet, No Lord Shall Live
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Behead the Prophet, No Lord Shall Live, sometimes shortened to Behead The Prophet N.L.S.L., were an influential hardcore punk band from the mid 1990s.
Joshua Plague and Jon "Quitty" Quittner were both members of Olympia, Washington's Mukilteo Fairies; when that band broke up around 1994, they quickly gathered together a group of musicians from Olympia, Bellingham and Seattle to form Behead The Prophet, No Lord Shall Live. BTPNLSL's name is taken from a Deicide song, and was given to them by a death metal enthusiast in a supermarket, claiming to be the younger brother of Deicide's lead singer, Glen Benton. Members were Joshua, vocals and lyrics, Jon on bass, Dave Harvey playing guitar, saxophone and feedback, Jordan Rain on drums and Michael Griffin on violin. Their sound was alternately described as thrashcore, noise, queercore and by one critic, "spazzcore". The term "Screamo", although not in common usage at the time the band was around, has been used posthumously to describe them. They released their first 8 song 7" single on Outpunk Records in 1995. In 1996, they played the Dirty Bird Queercore Festival in San Francisco where they made an impression and garnered many new fans. They subsequently released their only full length CD/album I Am That Great And Fiery Force, a split release on Outpunk and Olympia based K Records. In the wake of this release the band did a six-week tour of the U.S.A. and were well received in the all-ages underground scene.Two more 7" records followed. The first was a split single with Joe Preston's one man band Thrones, on the label Voice of the Sky where each band did their own rendition of Blue Öyster Cult songs. Their last 7" release, on the Sound Pollution label, entitled "Making Craters Where Buildings Stood", includes "253-425", a song about the gentrification, technology boom and population increase that was rapidly taking place in Seattle in the late 90's when this single was released.
For a band who has so little recorded, their impact has been remarkable. One critic mentioned the influence of BTPNLSL he felt he could hear in The Locust's music; however the two bands actually played together so this is arguable. There is no doubt about the influence Joshua Plague has had on the band Limp Wrist; their song "Ode", from the Complete Discography LP, is a tribute to Plague, along with Gary Floyd of The Dicks and Randy Turner of Big Boys, the hardcore punk queer heroes of the band. One of the most remarkable attributes of BTPNLSL is that, for a band that produced loud, noisy and thunderous music with angsty political and spiritual lyrics, they ultimately had an extremely cathartic and positive effect on their audience.
After Behead the Prophet, No Lord Shall Live broke up, Joshua Plague formed the band Lords of Lightspeed and, after that, The Special Friend. Dave Harvey and Jon Quittner joined Empire Of Man and, later, Tight Bros From Way Back When. Jordan Rain moved to Bellingham where he joined the Reeks and the Wrecks, he then became a selector/deejay of Jamaican music and now leads and sings with his own 8 piece band Yogoman Burning Band. Michael Griffin continued to play in Noggin, the legendary Northwest improv-noise duo with Eric Ostrowski. Once Plague stopped performing with his previous bands, he began performing on his own, sometimes accompanied by Michael Griffin on violin, and has released several CDs, including Sanctuary Sounds.
[edit] Discography
- Soul System Blackout, 7" EP, Outpunk, 1995
- I Am That Great And Fiery Force, LP, Outpunk, 1996
- 7" Split-single with Thrones, Voice of the Sky, 1998
- Making Craters Where Buildings Stood, 7" EP Sound Pollution, 1998
- Join The Queercorps 12" remix, Queercorps, 1998
[edit] External links
- Review of I Am That Great And Fiery Force
- Review of Making Craters Where Buildings Stood
- Poster for a show with Behead The Prophet, No Lord Shall Live, The Thrones, The Locust and others
- Two reviews and LP available at K records
