Viktim

Viktim is an industrial metal band formed in 1996 in the Philadelphia area of South Jersey. They released their debut album As Love Turns Grey in 2003 which featured cover artwork from Chad Michael Ward (Marilyn Manson, Cruxshadows).^[1] A remix EP version of the As Love Turns Grey CD was released in 2010 on Dark Asylum Records, and has since then sold out of its 100 copy press run.^[2]

History

Viktim was founded in 1996 by Eddie Threat while attending Art School in Philadelphia, one of many coldwave bands formed during the industrial rock/industrial metal boom of the 1990s spearheaded by the success of Nine Inch Nails, Marilyn Manson, and White Zombie. Since forming in 1996, Viktim has become one of the oldest industrial metal bands in the Philadelphia area. Featuring heavy dance beats, crunching metal guitars, and distorted vocals, Viktim released its first songs in 1996.^[3]

Notable live performances

Viktim has performed on the same bill with many important bands such as goth rock icons Christian Death, Philadelphia Industrial band, MyParasites, industrial noise band Cenotype, industrial metal band Skabdriver, gothic rockers The Azoic, and Philadelphia goth band Carfax Abbey.

Notoriety

Viktim is known for a high-energy in your face stage show that includes strobe lights, firebreathing, fog machines, crunching guitars, and most notably they perform with Angle Grinders on stage. Some of the other highlights have included climbing twenty-foot-high speaker columns and diving into the crowd after angle grinding on them, suspension of members from the lighting rigging in the ceiling rafters, and audience participation as gang vocals. Reviews in magazines such as Culture Asylum describe these shows in detail, from the crunching guitars to the blinding strobes, and hot steel of the angle grinders.^[4]

Members

Selected discography

• Stillbourne (1996)
• Dream (2002)
• As Love Turns Grey (2003)
• Cyberlust (2005)
• A Forest (2007)
• As Love Turns Grey (2010)
• Dead and Buried (2011)

Side Projects and other names used

Viktim members came from a large background of underground musicians spanning across various genres, and often ran into issues of audiences being confused expecting to hear an EBM band performing songs from the Viktim demo and instead find the members deciding to do a 60 minute noise rock opus. Thus like their immediate influences Ministry and Skinny Puppy Viktim began performing under alternate names, releasing music under different names, although it remained the same core musicians.

• Mickle Boulevard / Mickle Blvd - in 2013 as Viktims sound as a full band was shifting more industrial metal on the new CD the EBM songs began to be released under the name Mickle Boulevard in order to not confuse anyone. Mickle Blvd began performing events beginning with the Philadelphia CD Release party for the Metropolis Records/ Distortion multi disc Benefit Compilation " Electronic Saviors " with the song " Franks Theme "^[7] and the Coma Music 80s New Wave release Tainted Candy featuring Mickle Blvd covering the Ministry song " Revenge "^[8]

EXISTATE XE-30 Viktim opened for German Industrial pioneers Das Ich under the name EXISTATE XE-30 in 2010^[9]

Recent events

Jason R. “J Rivet” Wehmer, 26, keyboardist of the industrial gothic band My Parasites, industrial band Viktim, and founding member of industrial black metal band The Harvest died on January 27. He had studied musical engineering at the DC Art Institute, and was working on his first solo album. ^[10] Jason served in the U.S. Army from 2003-2007. He earned nine commendation medals, including the Purple Heart, and served on more than 250 combat missions during his deployment to Iraq with the 1/506 Infantry.^[11]

January 2014 Viktim appeared on a compilation released on Dipsomaniac Records entitled 24 Hours of the Underground, and appeared with a noiserock song entitled " Loaded Cannon Second Refrain "^[12]

October 10, 2014 industrial band Angelspit released the cd " The Recall " featuring remixes of their songs by underground electronic musicians, Eddie Threat ( Viktim/ Mickle Blvd ) contributed the song " Cut Sick Klick " which was released as CutSick Mickle Blvd Mix on the CD^[13]

In November of 2014 Mickle Boulevard ( viktim ) keyboard player Mark Liberty Strobel formerly of punk band The Virus The Virus^[14] and longtime Philadelphia punk icon died. There had been a punk movie being filmed about Mark and his life^[15][16]

References