Stabbing Westward released their latest album, Chasing Ghosts, in 2022, marking the influential industrial rock band’s first new LP in more than 20 years.
The industrial pioneers have been on the road, and they perform at Baltimore Soundstage on Friday, Sept. 8.
Chasing Ghosts features brand-new songs as well as re-workings of the band’s acclaimed 2020 reunion EP Dead And Gone that finds original founding members Christopher Hall (vocals/guitar) and Walter Flakus (keyboards/programming) honing in on the incredible partnership that once produced a string of hits that dominated alternative radio and film soundtracks, including “Shame,” “Save Yourself,” and “What Do I Have to Do?” – and resulted in two Certified Gold records.
To recreate that original chemistry, the band recruited the legendary producer John Fryer to again helm Chasing Ghosts. Fryer, whose production credits include Depeche Mode, Nine Inch Nails, 4AD, Cocteau Twins, and Love and Rockets, originally worked with Stabbing Westward on their best-selling early releases Ungod (1994) and Wither Blister Burn + Peel (1996). Chasing Ghosts was also mastered by Tom Baker who, like Fryer, worked with Stabbing Westward on their early releases and is part of the reassembled production team on the latest album. The band also includes Carlton Bost (guitars and programming) and Bobby Amaro (drums).
Watch the official music video for “Shame” by Stabbing Westward on YouTube:
Blending the scathing electronics of underground industrial/rock with the emotive melodies of goth and a decidedly radio-friendly sensibility, Stabbing Westward rose to great heights in the mid-‘90s alternative boom. Formed in 1986 by Walter Flakus and Christopher Hall, the band went from underground cult sensation to the heights of critical and commercial success thanks to such songs as “Shame,” “Save Yourself,” “So Far Away,” and “What Do I Have to Do?” To this day, these songs remain anthems of heartache, dejection, rage, betrayal, and depression.
With two Gold albums and numerous hit singles, Stabbing Westward fell from grace with the 2001 self-titled album amid personal and professional turmoil, disbanding the following year and leaving a void in modern music that was somewhat filled by Hall’s later work in The Dreaming. However, it was the release of that band’s Rise Again in 2015 that the seeds were sown for a reunion. That album saw Flakus once again making music with Hall, with Stabbing Westward guitarist Mark Eliopulos joining The Dreaming onstage in Chicago for a set of past hits. In 2019, Hall and Flakus came together again to release the Dead And Gone EP, the first new Stabbing Westward material in 18 years.
Stabbing Westward
W/ I Ya Toyah, 51 Peg
Baltimore Soundstage
Friday, Sept. 8
Doors @ 6pm
$23
All ages