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Psyclon Nine - Biography


This band's profile is 'invisible', meaning that it's much less prominent on the site - either because it's incomplete, or maybe doesn't entirely fit MS format.


Biography

Psyclon Nine began in 2000 when Marshall Goppert (then using the name Marshall Carnage) and Josef Heresy began working on a guitar-oriented electronic project called Defkon Sodomy, influenced by bands like KMFDM and Ministry. Renamed Psyclon Nine they played a small festival headlined by See Colin Slash, whose frontman, Eric Gottesman, was promptly recruited as the band's third member.

Goppert met NoiTekk head Marco Gruhn at a San Francisco Grendel show, and persuaded him to sign the band. The band's first album, Divine Infekt was recorded shortly thereafter, produced and engineered by Da5id Din of Informatik and din fiv, a electro-industrial/futurepop band on the local scene. The title track was remixed by Tactical Sekt, and the album was released in 2003.

Goppert later said in a interview for Vampirefreaks: "Tactical Sekt remix left a bad taste in my mouth", and attributed that to Anthony Mathers of Tactical Sekt political differences to his own overview on American politics. He also said the incident made him not to collaborate with anyone out of the band (a belief he held strongly until We the Fallen).

The band toured lightly in the U.S. and Europe in support of the album, playing with bands including Dismantled, Nocturne, Feindflug, Aslan Faction, Grendel, and American industrial rock figurehead Martin Atkins on his spoken word tour.

Several tracks for the follow-up album had already been in the band's live rotation for some time when writing began in earnest. Those tracks were "Lamb of God", "Nothing Left", "Rape This World", "Faith:Disease", and an early, very different version of "The Feeble Mind". By the time the album began to take shape, the band had signed in the United States with Metropolis Records.

After several months writing at home, the band had produced a complete album's worth of demo material. Most of the songs focused on Christianity, some actively hostile towards it, others discussing its history and influence, and the title track became "INRI". The demo version of "Lamb of God" appears on the Noitekk compilation United I. Psyclon Nine returned to Da5id Din's studio for mixing, and the completed album was released in April 2005 on Metropolis in the U.S. and Noitekk in Europe.

Psyclon Nine made several major live appearances following the album release, including several dates opening for alternative act Mindless Self Indulgence and a headlining slot at the German Wave-Gotik-Treffen festival. The MSI shows especially helped solidify the band's younger fanbase, which had been expanding from the traditional rivethead music crowd and out in to the larger alternative music population.

In 2006, Psyclon Nine released their third full-length album, entitled Crwn Thy Frnicatr. Taking another step away from their terror EBM roots, the album features black metal-styled guitars prominently, and frequently compliments them with blast beat kick drums and high-pitched, shrieking vocals typical of black metal.

The music on Crwn Thy Frnicatr was written almost exclusively by Goppert, with only occasional contributions by Eric Gottesman. Some lyrics were written in conjunction with founding member Josef Heresy, but mainly handled by Goppert.

Marshall Goppert appeared on internet channel NoisescapeTV in 2008 and said that he was in the studio working on an album entitled We the Fallen, scheduled for release on September 9, 2009. On that album and its preceding tours, Jon Siren of Kidneythieves, Mankind Is Obsolete, and Hate Dept. became Psyclon Nine's new drummer.

We the Fallen was well received. The album featured guests Brandan Schieppati from Bleeding Through, Gary Zon of Dismantled, Jamison Boaz of Epsilon Zero, Johan van Roy of Suicide Commando. We the Fallen fused more of a metal-styled influence, but was still clearly in the realm of electro-industrial/aggrotech.

The last few years for Psyclon Nine have been almost non-stop touring which has also seen some live line-up changes. Nero Bellum posted on his personal Facebook page in February 2012 that a new Psyclon Nine album is in the works.