Written by: Alex Green
The beloved industrial outfit Stabbing Westward have just released a new EP.
The Illinois band’s Industrial rockers’ new effort is called Hallowed Hymns and the four song collection features readings of tracks by Ministry (“Every Day Is Halloween”), Echo and the Bunnymen (“The Killing Moon”) and The Cure (“Burn”).
Stabbing Westward’s lineup features founding members Christopher Hall (vocals/guitar) and Walter Flakus (keyboards/programming), as well as Carlton Bost (bass) and Bobby Amaro (drums).
On their Bandcamp page, Hall says this of the EP:
“2020 has been a shit year. We were supposed to release our new album and tour the U.S. to support it. But clearly that’s not happening. We know Halloween is different this year with no parties and no trick or treating so we wanted to give fans something special… something that will help tie you over until we can release some new music.
“We picked these three tracks because, for us, they represent the feeling of Halloween and they were very important songs during our early musical stages. If there were ever two bands that I would say most influenced Walter and I to form Stabbing Westward it would be Ministry and The Cure. From the earliest days of Ministry’s With Sympathy through the evolution of Twitch, they were the band that opened our minds and hearts to industrial music. To be able to reimagine these songs as Stabbing Westward while still trying to pay homage to the brilliance of the original versions was a terrifyingly fun adventure.
“We have been working on the album so hard for so long that it was really a joy to take a break and explore all these tracks had to offer. As often as you listen to your favorite songs it’s a totally different experience to take one apart and see how it was built. It gave me such an immense appreciation for what these amazing artists created — especially the Ministry track knowing how primitive the gear was that Al Jourgensen had to work with back then with none of the modern tools we take for granted today. He literally created new techniques in the studio that we still use today. He was light years ahead of his time. We hope you enjoy listening to these tracks as much as we have enjoyed recording them.”