Anacrusis, Cruel April, Kenn Nardi, Tribes With Knives

Allmusic.com:
Anacrusis was one of the more talented bands which somehow got lost in the shuffle of the late-'80s thrash phenomenon. Plagued with poor distribution and isolated from the thriving speed metal communities on either coast, they were often said to be ahead of their time by enthusiastic critics, but it seems that their eclectic style simply shot over most listeners' heads.
The members of Anacrusis grew up in and around St. Louis, MO, and like most kids of their generation found a common bond in the ever influential Kiss before discovering metal originators Black Sabbath and the more extreme exponents of the early '80s. After the breakup of his High School band, Heaven's Flame, singer and guitarist Kenn Nardi joined forces with guitarist Kevin Heidbreder, bassist John Emery, and drummer Mike Owen to form Anacrusis in late 1986. Unsure about his own singing abilities, Nardi convinced the band to tune all the way down from natural "E" to a low-"B," thereby striking upon a distinctive, incredibly bottom-heavy sound which would eventually become their trademark. Anacrusis' first demo, which they named Annihilation Complete was voted Best Demo of 1987 by the readers of Metal Forces Magazine and was later included in the publication's Scream Your Brains Out compilation album. This, in turn, led to a deal with England-based indie Active Records, for whom the group waxed their first album, Suffering Hour, the following year. Recorded on a measly 1,200-dollar budget in just under a week, the disc was a jumble of ill-matched material culled from the bandmembers' many earlier projects, and only its rabid speed and aggression helped make it at all cohesive. Still, it was a start, and the following year's Reason LP, though similarly rushed and amateurishly produced, already showed signs of the band's increasingly focused vision: incredibly complex arrangements injected with unconventional dynamics borrowed from prog rock and even new wave. Anacrusis hit the road in support of crossover heroes D.R.I., but supporting an album that had yet to be released in their own country proved too disheartening for drummer Owen, who quit to join the Navy shortly after they returned home. Thankfully, old friend Chad Smith, who had played with Nardi in his Heaven's Flame days, was ready to assume the position, and in another stroke of good fortune the band soon landed a new deal with Metal Blade, which released both albums in the States.
1991's Manic Impressions was the first Anacrusis album recorded in a proper studio, Royal Recorders in Lake Geneva, WI, and, though the band's homegrown production techniques resulted in a somewhat dry, overly mechanized sound, it is still widely considered their finest hour. Revealing a far more mature and confident group, the record's challenging and innovative material was made all the more memorable by Nardi's much improved, now quite impressive vocal range, and included among its highlights a cover of New Model Army's "I Love the World." A lengthy tour supporting Overkill and the Galactic Cowboys followed, and the band finished the year on a high note, opening a set of Midwestern dates for Megadeth. Once back home in St. Louis, they devoted the next few months to writing new material, and after replacing Smith with drummer Paul Miles, work finally began on 1993's Screams & Whispers. Picking up where its predecessor had left off, the album continued to push the band's sound in new directions (including their first tentative use of keyboards), but despite continued support from the heavy metal press and finally benefiting from the involvement of a professional producer (metal expert Bill Metoyer), this too failed to reach a wider audience. Perhaps realizing that they'd come as far as they could, Anacrusis quietly disbanded a short time later, leaving a criminally underappreciated, often misunderstood, but undoubtedly unique musical legacy behind them.

As the guitarist/vocalist/producer and chief writer, arranger and lyricist of Anacrusis from 1986-1993, KENN NARDI's vision was a lofty one. He wanted to marry elements of classic metal, doom, speed/thrash, and early power metal together to create a unique brand of songwriting. Anacrusis delivered their material via brave and and forward-thinking arrangements while always maintaining a strong sense of melody throughout.

After releasing four albums between 1988 and 1993; the cult-favorite Suffering Hour, the quirky and experimental Reason, and two highly respected prog-metal classics; Manic Impressions and Screams and Whispers, Anacrusis disbanded in late 1993.

After lying dormant for over a decade, KENN NARDI resurfaced in 2006 to write and record a collection of acoustically-driven material under the Cruel April moniker. The project gave the multi-instrumentalist the chance to hone and tighten his lyrical and musical songwriting style without the constraints or expectations of any specific genre.

On his new album, Dancing With The Past, KENN NARDI has brought together all of the signature elements of Anacrusis' sound, the crushing, low-tuned guitar riffs, prominent bass lines, sing/growl/scream vocals, introspective lyrics, and evocative melodies while adopting the more streamlined songwriting approach of Cruel April. The result is a mammoth collection of 28 brand new recordings filling two compact discs.

Dancing With The Past is comprised of music written as far back as 1994, shortly after the Anacrusis split-up, and post-Cruel April. The collection also features material borne from collaborations with his former Anacrusis band mates during their 2009-2012 reunion run along with a re-recorded Cruel April song in addition to the more recent compositions.

With styles ranging from classic metal, thrash/speed metal, orchestral metal, progressive metal, moody acoustic, goth, alternative, and new wave, Dancing With The Past in truly unlike any heavy metal album before it. Clocking in at over 2 1/2 hours, the double-disc set is sure to offer something for both fans of Anacrusis and of heavy music in general. Over two decades in the making, Dancing With The Past bears the fruit of everything musical that KENN NARDI has done up until now.

Originally envisioned as a new reunion-era Anacrusis release, Dancing With The Past features bassist John Emery on four songs (two co-written), creative contributions, and arrangements from original drummer Mike Owen, one song co-written with fill-in reunion-era guitarist Mike Henricks. With all of the other vocals, guitars, bass, lyrics, drum and orchestral sequencing, production, and mixing on Dancing With The Past done by KENN NARDI himself, it remains a "solo" album in the truest sense of the word.

The recording sessions were all done with one eye on Anacrusis and the other focused on creating something completely different. In other words, Dancing With The Past keeps true to the avant-garde spirit that made KENN NARDI's former band so thrilling, while pushing the songwriting and compositional boundaries even further. Quite simply, Dancing With The Past promises to be the album Anacrusis fans have been waiting for only full of surprises they never expected.

----------------------------------------------------------

"I was never so emotionally invested on an album before, but how often do you get to work on what shaped up to be one of your favorite records? Only a handful released in the last decade made that list - maybe.

This is the 'second first album' musicians never make, as the saying goes 'you puts 20 years worth of inspiration into the 1st record, but then only 1-3 years into each subsequent one.' And even if a debut record is a bit inexperienced, it always has an unmatched fire 20+ years in the making, which is how long it's been since Anacrusis' swansong - 1993's 'Screams & Whispers'. I couldn't find a single uninspired moment on Kenn's 28 song double-album. I love it and urge every metal fan to check it out."

- Eliran Kantor, cover artist