Shihad
Band members
- Current line-up
- Karl Kippenberger (bass, percussion)
- Phil Knight (guitar, synth)
- Tom Larkin (drums, samples)
- Jon Toogood (vocals, guitar)
- Former members
- Hamish Lang (bass) 1989 - 1991
- Geoff Duncan (bass) 1989
- Geoff Daniels (bass) 1988 - 1989
Website
Formed
Wellington, NZ, 1988
Band information
Since moving to Australia in the mid-1990s, Shihad has become one of the country's most popular and successful acts with a string of Top 40 albums to their credit and a long list of sold-out tours. In 2010 they were inducted into the New Zealand Music Hall of Fame as one of that country's most successful exports. All the band's albums have charted Top 20 in New Zealand, and four of them have gone to #1. Over the years, the band's has shown themselves to by a remarkably dextrous unit whose broadly hard rock style has shifted from Bay Area-inspired thrash to an abrasive hard rock, through to an alterna/industrial-metal phase to mainstream hard rock and even into electronic areas.
Shihad was formed in Wellington, NZ, in 1988 by singer/guitarist Jon Toogood and drummer Tom Larkin, with the name being inspired by the word "jihad" in the film Dune. After a brief formative period that saw some early bass players come and go, Shihad opened for bands like Faith No More and Anthrax before releasing the EP "Devolve" that peaked at #20 on the NZ chart. This recording is now very rare and is the only release in the band's catalogue not to feature the current line-up. Bass player Hamish Lang left Shihad in 1991 and was replaced by Karl Kippenberger and the band has existed in this configuration ever since.
Shihad's Jaz Coleman-produced debut album Churn appeared in mid-1993, with the first single "I Only Said" peaking at #3 on the NZ chart, the first of sixteen NZ Top 40 singles (and three EPs) to date. The Killjoy album from two years later would be the band's breakthrough, its groundbreaking blend of industrial rock and grunge making it one of the best heavy rock albums of the early 90s. Having first appeared at the Auckland Big Day Out in 1994, they backed up again in 1995 and in 1996 played all the Australian legs as well (except the Gold Coast), before going on to support Pantera. Shihad has since appeared at the Big Day Out more often than any other band: 1994 - 1997, 1999, 2000, 2002 - 2003, 2006, 2008 and 2011.
The band moved into the alternative rock area for their self-titled album from 1996, which included "Home Again" and "La La Land", two of their best known songs. They toured Australia with Tool and eventually moved base to Melbourne. 1999's General Electric, produced by Garth Richardson, went on to become Shihad's biggest selling, shifting double platinum on both sides of the Tasman and giving the band their first Australian top 40 album. The band continued to tour relentlessly throughout both countries and began to make an impact in the US. Like so many others however, Shihad's attempt to break the American market was unsuccessful. Following the terrorist attacks on New York on September 11, 2001, Shihad announced that they were changing their name to Pacifier to avoid any connotations with the word "jihad" (ironically, as that's where the name actually came from). Their first (and, subsequently, only) album under that name was produced in LA with Josh Abrahams, who had previously worked with bands like Korn and Staind, and the resultant album was a reflection of his radio-friendly nu-metal direction. Pacifier included Scott Wieland (Stone Temple Pilots/Velvet Revolver) and Limp Bizkit's DJ Lethal on the track "Coming Down". The album proved generally unpopular with both fans and the band and despite the song "Bullitproof" making a slight dent on the US charts, was not a hit (although it reached #1 in New Zealand).
Reacting to the album's failure, Shihad reverted to their original name for the Love is the New Hate, their darkest album since Killjoy and arguably also the heaviest.
Discography
Albums:
| 1993 | Churn | Wildside | |
| 1995 | Killjoy | Wildside | |
| 1996 | Shihad | Wildside | |
| 1999 | The General Electric | Warner | |
| 2002 | Pacifier | Warner | |
| 2003 | Pacifier: Live | Warner | |
| 2005 | Love is the New Hate | Warner | |
| 2008 | Beautiful Machine | Warner | |
| 2010 | Ignite | Roadrunner |
EPs:
| 1990 | Devolve | self release | |
| 1998 | The Blue Light Disco | Warner | |
| 2002 | Suck on This (as Pacifier) | Warner | |
| 2005 | Alive | Warner |