| Radio Werewolf | |
|---|---|
| Background information | |
| Origin | California, United States |
| Genres | Post-punk, Deathrock, Gothic rock, Experimental music, Horror punk, Shock rock |
| Years active | 1984–1993 |
| Associated acts | NON Boyd Rice Death In June Specimen |
| Past members | |
| Nikolas Schreck Evil Wilhelm Paul Antonelli James Collord Zeena Lavey |
|
Radio Werewolf was a deathrock band formed in 1984 in Los Angeles. The band split in the early 1990s.[1]
Contents |
Radio Werewolf was first formed in 1984, by Nikolas Schreck (vocals), Evil Wilhelm (percussion), James "Filth" Collard (bass) and Nathan Pino (hammond organ.)
The band featured a traditional deathrock sound, although lacking a guitarist. The band claimed that their sound was part of a musical purist movement, designed to evoke feelings of power and harmony through the use of the "alpha frequency." The band held a cult following throughout the 1980s, attracting a following which they came to identify as the "Werewolf Youth party." The band was featured in a cameo role as themselves in the 1980s cult horror spoof "Mortuary Academy." [2][3][4][5]
The band later broke up, but Nikolas Schreck continued the band with his wife, Zeena Lavey, albeit with a more experimental sound. At one time, Paul Antonelli of Animotion played with the band on the organ, replacing Nathan Pino.
The original demo tape released in 1984 by the band sparked a heated controversy due to the nature of the song material. While Schreck and the rest of the band would later refer to their work as mainly a theatrical performance designed to emulate specific aspects of history or culture, songs like "Pogo the Clown" (about John Wayne Gacy), "The Night" (About a lovesick vampire), and "Triumph of the Will" (About a former Nazi commander reminiscing about Nazi Germany), were pointed to by critics as condoning Nazism and literal vampirism. On their album "The Fiery Summons," Their song "Incubus" was supposed to support necrophilia.[6]
In the late 1980s, Radio Werewolf was heavily featured on talk shows and in media material, billed as heading a worldwide Satanic movement. Interviewed variously by Tom Metzger, Wally George, Bob Larson, and others, the media infamy associated with the group culminated, on August 8, 1988, with a Satanically themed rally in San Francisco at the Strand Theater, featuring Boyd Rice, Adam Parfrey, and various members of the Church of Satan. At this time the band had broken up and consisted of Nikolas Schreck and Zeena Lavey only, although Evil Wilhelm made an appearance on percussion.[7]
The band was additionally controversial due to the general perception of the band as supporting Neonazi ideologies. This was denied by the band, who eventually split up in part because Evil Wilhelm felt their music was being misunderstood by Nazi groups which occasionally rioted at their venues.[8][9][10]
In 1988, Nikolas Schreck released a documentary about Charles Manson entitled Charles Manson Superstar under the private video label "Video Werewolf." Billed as the only fair interview ever conducted with Manson, the video featured photographs and footage of Spahn Ranch along with interviews of people connected in some way with Manson or movements he has been associated with. Schreck indicated in the documentary that Manson was mostly a misunderstood and misused figure, advocated as evil and archetypal of everything negative through a large scale fabrication by the media.[11]