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Static-X founder and frontman Wayne Static had a single, overriding ambition in mind when he and the rest of the band got down to work on Start A War, their fourth album of original material: “The idea I had was, ‘Let’s get the old team back together and have some fun,’” recalls Static. “I took a look back and said, ‘Well, what was it about Wisconsin Death Trip (the band’s 1999 debut) that everyone liked so much?’ I thought about my mindset when I was writing those songs and we were making that record, and basically, at that point, we didn’t give a fuck about anything.”The sense of no-hold-barred aggression that marked Wisconsin Death Trip was several years in the making before Static-X was catapulted to the forefront of modern heavy rock acts. Formed in 1994 in Los Angeles by Michigan native Wayne Static and Illinois drummer Ken Jay after the pair had previously jammed together in Chicago, Static-X was signed in ’98 and took the world by storm with its dizzying blend of thrash metal tempos, growling vocals, Goth atmospherics and shadings of electronic and industrial dance music. Death Trip’s platinum sales status was cemented by more than a year’s worth of live shows, including two runs on Ozzfest. Machine followed in 2001 and Shadow Zone in 2003, adding another gold record and expanding the group’s musical horizons even as guitarist and programmer Koichi Fukuda departed before the former and Ken Jay parted ways with the group after the completion of the latter. Yet Static-X never missed a beat, keeping up its furious live schedule and solidifying its position as one of the best live metal acts on the circuit. Start A War, which arrives on June 14, easily recaptures the classic “evil disco” sound that characterized Wisconsin Death Trip, while also incorporating the musical progression made by the quartet on its two succeeding efforts. Koichi Fukuda and producer Ulrich Wild have both returned to the fold, the latter after a one-album hiatus, adding to the original sense of fun and freedom that Wayne Static was looking for. “It definitely had to do with the group of people. It was great getting Ulrich and Koichi back. We were just like, ‘You know what? Let’s just write songs and have a good time doing it, and have a good time making the record.’” The result is an album that encompasses all the elements that keep Static-X unique -- and still thriving -- among the many metal bands that emerged in the mid-to-late Nineties. The brutally heavy riffs and relentlessly propulsive rhythms are intact, as are Wayne’s trademark monster screams, on tunes like “The Enemy,” “I’m The One” and “Otsego Amigo,” the latter of which continues the band’s “Otsego” mythology. The group’s selective and flavorful use of programming and keyboards remains a constant force as well on tracks like “Brainfog” and “Skinnyman.” But the band continues to expand its melodic reach, both within the arrangements of a number like “My Damnation” and the overall range of Wayne’s voice, with this album surely offering his most diverse collection of vocals yet. “I think on Shadow Zone, I pushed a lot of boundaries for myself as far as introducing melody and a cleaner vocal style,” says the singer. “I wanted to combine all that I achieved on that album with the screaming that was so much fun in the early days -- just combine everything that I’ve learned over the last six years making these records.” The band also strove to make Start A War its most live-sounding album yet, thanks in part to drummer Nick Oshiro, who joined the band in time for the Shadow Zone tour but makes his Static-X recording debut here. “This is the first time we recorded with Nick and he’s an awesome drummer, so we tried to scale back a lot of the loops and just let the drums really carry the groove more on this record,” says Wayne. “This is the first record where the drums are what they are. We went in, we recorded the drums, they’re not chopped up on the computer, there’s no samples, this is the actual drum performance unchanged by any computer technology.” Most of the electronic trickery on the album came through the keyboard and programming wizardry of Koichi, who stepped away after the lengthy and strenuous touring behind Wisconsin Death Trip to spend time with his family. “It just made sense,” remarks Wayne about Koichi’s reemergence. “I hadn’t talked to him since he left the band back in 2000, and I thought, ‘Man, it’s been a long time.’ So I called him last summer out of the blue and said, ‘Dude, what’s up? You wanna come work on the record?’ He was in there just working on programming, and when this other thing came down and we needed a guitar player, it just seemed natural. He was ready to go again.” “This other thing” was the unexpected personal and legal problems of guitarist Tripp Eisen, which forced the band no choice but to move forward without him. Wayne Static admits that having Koichi available to replace his own replacement softened the blow of Eisen’s surprising exit. “If Koichi hadn’t already been there, it definitely would have been a bigger issue. After we got over the shock of what the hell allegedly happened with Tripp -- we were just as shocked as the rest of the world -- since Koichi was already there, it made it quite simple and it really made sense, and it turned into something that we’re actually really excited about.”Now that Start A War is completed, Wayne is especially excited about getting back in front of the band’s fans and playing the album for them live. “That’s what made the band popular in the first place, all the touring,” he says. “Over the years I’ve really learned to enjoy it and make the best out of it and just have a great time on the road. A lot of the bands that got signed around the same time we did are gone now, so it’s amazing to me, and I feel like we’ve accomplished so much, in that we’re still making records and we can still go and headline a successful tour -- I’m proud of that for sure.”
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