Америкалық христиан хардкор тобы "The Crucified" туралы

American hardcore/crossover thrash band

The Crucified is an American Christian hardcore and crossover thrash band from Fresno, California that formed in 1984. Its lineup is vocalist Mark Salomon, guitarist Greg Minier, bassist Jeff Bellew, and drummer Jim Chaffin. The band are considered "pioneers of Christian hardcore." During their initial 1984–1993 tenure, the band played at the Cornerstone Festival several times, and also opened for non religious punk and metal bands like D. R. I. and Pantera. The four teens knew each other as high school classmates. The name K. G. B. had no meaning to it, the members just thought initials "sounded cool". In early 1985, K. G. B. was looking for a new vocalist due to the departure of Stonecipher. Minier asked his friend Mark Salomon to try out as vocalist. Salomon was accepted into the band after singing a few songs the band wrote with Stonecipher.

After almost a year of writing and practicing in the Palmer's living room, the guys recorded 10 songs on a demo tape under the name K. G. B., but it was never circulated. Soon after, Kirk Palmer left the band and was replaced by his brother Trevor. In 1986, The Crucified gathered together a small amount of money and recorded 15 songs on a tape named Take up Your Cross under their new name, The Crucified, and distributed the demo throughout their local area and via mail order. "Nailed", the band's second demo, was recorded the following year and the band's exposure continued to grow. Shortly after "Nailed" was recorded, the band members graduated from high school and Palmer left the group and was replaced by Mark Johnson. The band recorded "Live at the New Order" in March 1989. Greg Sostrom saw The Crucified at a few shows and offered them a recording contract with his new start up label, Narrowpath Records. The band accepted the offer and started to record songs at Casbah Studios in Southern California. The 15 track album was titled The Crucified. It was released in compact disc format, which was a new format in the late 1980s. Johnson was fired from the band due to personal differences and the guys started looking for a new bassist. Chaffin responded to an ad in a newspaper posted by Jeff Bellew, citing The Crucified as an influence. Bellew joined the band and drove for four hours from his home in So Cal to Fresno every weekend to practice. Eventually the drive became too costly, and he moved to Fresno to practice with the band.

After recruiting Bellew, the band started to write and record for their second studio album, The Pillars of Humanity. When the album was released 1991 on Ocean Records the band did not tour very much for the album. In 1993, the band announced their breakup. However, they did not play their final show until 1995, at Cornerstone Festival. The circumstances of the band's breakup are unclear. According to Bellew, Minier had been kicked out of the band at the time due to a controversy that the band did not want to address. Drummer Jason Dunn of No Innocent Victim and Sonny Sandoval of P. O. D. commented on the album's legacy as part of HMs list, with Dunn calling it the reason he "started playing drums," and Sandoval calling it "the first 'Christian' album I'd ever heard."

After their breakup, the band tried "for years" to acquire rights to re release their music from their previous label, Ocean Records. This effort would ultimately lead to their reunion, with bassist Bellew approaching Chaffin and Solomon in 2009 and proposing that the band play enough shows to buy their music rights. The band played their first show in 14 years on June 14, 2009, at the Calvary Chapel Golden Springs in Diamond Bar, California. The band also returned to play at the Cornerstone Festival in July 2009, a reunion show that HM magazine reviewers called "a fantastic display of raw power and energy [for] a band reuniting after over a decade". The band performed their first show overseas on October 31, 2009, at the Nordic Festival in Oslo, Norway. Around 2016, the band began to taper off their shows and activity on social media, marking the hiatus of the band.

The band has cited Minor Threat and Metallica as musical influences. Additionally, their Fresno location has served as inspiration, with a tongue in cheek note from the band's biography stating: "funny what one can accomplish when surrounded by miles of nothing."