Anacrusis (band)

History

Anacrusis got their start when their demo Annihilation Complete was named Best Demo of 1987 by Metal Forces readers and landed on the label’s Demolition... Scream Your Brains Out! compilation. That caught the attention of Active Records, a small English indie, which signed the band. Their first album, Suffering Hour, came out in 1988, recorded in under a week for just $1,200. The next album, Reason, started to hint at the sound they’d become known for. After a tour with D.R.I., drummer Mike Owen left to join the Navy because the band still didn’t have a deal with an American label. Chad Smith, who had played in Heaven’s Flame, took over on drums, and soon after, Anacrusis signed with Metal Blade Records in the U.S.

Manic Impressions, released in 1991, was their first proper studio album, cut at Royal Recorders in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. That year, they played a handful of Midwestern shows opening for Megadeth, then hit the road for a 38-city U.S. tour with Overkill and Galactic Cowboys. Back home in St. Louis, they spent months writing new songs. Smith was replaced by drummer Paul Miles, and the band started work on Screams and Whispers, which came out in 1993. That album turned out to be their last; the group split up soon after.

In 2009, the original lineup—Kenn Nardi, Kevin Heidbreder, John Emery, and Mike Owen—announced they would reunite for the Keep It True XIII Festival in Germany in 2010. That same year, Stormspell Records put out a CD/DVD anthology of early material, including the 1987 demo, other demos, rehearsal tapes, and live footage. Before heading to Germany, they played a reunion show at T. Billy Buffet’s in St. Louis on April 18, 2010, which was recorded and filmed for a future DVD. Also in 2010, they released a two-disc set called Hindsight: Suffering Hour & Reason Revisited, with re-recorded versions of their first two albums. On April 23, 2010, they performed at the Keep It True XIII festival in Lauda-Königshofen, and later that year said they would play more shows. The band worked on new material in 2010, but only one song, “This Killer in my House,” made it out, appearing on the Silver Ag47 – Best of Anacrusis CD.