Music Features

Massed metal

The legacy of the great Only Living Witness

By JAMES PARKER | July 4, 2006

RIDING THE LINE: OLW’s tech-thrash crossover led to bands like Shadows Fall and Killswitch Engage.

Here’s your dose of heavy-metal splendor: a young man stands on a mattress on the floor of a room in his mother’s house in Tewksbury holding in his hands a $100 bass that he borrowed from his cousin, hearing the restless buzz and blat of the small overdriven amp next to him, emptying his mind, priming his core. The year is 1992, the young man is Eric Stevenson of Only Living Witness, and the riff that is about to emerge from him — to pass through him, as it were — will be the basis of the astonishing “December.” C . . . A-sharp . . . A-sharp . . . C . . . C-sharp . . . C. Small movements, massive effects: the best riffs create themselves, in layers of inevitability. “I was standing on the mattress because my bedroom was so small,” says Stevenson by phone from his home, “with this piece-of-crap bass, trying to write the heaviest thing I could think of, and . . . that’s what happened.”

This month, we get a crash course in Only Living Witness. As part of its 15-years-in-the-business celebration, Century Media is reissuing the two Only Living Witness albums — 1993’s Prone Mortal Form and 1996’s Innocents — as a single two-CD set, remastered and repackaged. And New England metal kings Shadows Fall, Century Media’s showcase act, are covering “December” on their new Fallout from the War. “Oh!” exclaims SF singer Brian Fair when asked why the band chose that song. “Just — dude! It’s such a sick, heavy riff! What a way to end an album . . . it’s got that very evil vibe, but the vocals are so powerful and melodic. Plus Killswitch Engage always soundchecks with ‘Prone Mortal Form’ — Joel [Stroetzel, KSE guitarist] does his line check with that every single time. So we had to choose another one, heh heh.”

Speaking by phone from the bathroom of Springfield’s Mardi Gras strip bar (“Can you hear the bad techno?”), which happens to be located beneath the Shadows Fall practice space, the effusive Fair is happy to acknowledge his debt to OLW. “The first time I saw Only Living Witness, shit, it must have been ’89 or ’90, at the Channel. I remember at the time being like, ‘Wow, these fucking longhairs are crazy’ — cuz the audience was all skinheads and hardcore kids and these dudes were playing technical thrash. This was before they’d really found their sound. But Boston in those days there was always a lot of fights in the crowd, a lot of division between the metal kids and the hardcore kids or whatever, and Only Living Witness really rode that line. And that early type of crossover was what led to the more modern New England metal bands, like us and Killswitch, not being afraid to take those chances. At the time it was frowned upon by some of the purists. But that’s what purists do. They frown. So it doesn’t matter.”

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Massed metal

The article was good .... I remember first hearing OLW acouple hours before going to see them live in the early 90's. My singer Chris tossed in the tape of them and I immediatly took to them. They were different than anything going on in Massachusetts or even the world for that matter. Just after a tune or two I asked who is this!?! Only Living Witness he said .. you know the band we're going to see tonight. Made the show even more worth while seeing. I must have seen them 10 times throughout and they never disapointed. Being new to the scene at the time they were one of the first bands we idolized and were influenced by... even to this day. Bands like Only Living Witness, 6L6, Sam Black Church .... they just don't make em like they useta! Jeff Mad Pedestrian

By Jeff-madpedestrian on 07/04/2006 at 1:32:05

Massed metal

'93, I'm driving to work, listening to the radio. I hear the opening chords of OLW's Prone Mortal Form. I pull over to listen, ultra heavy, great voice. Needless to say, right after work I picked up their cd. They still are my favorite band.

By olwfan on 08/06/2006 at 1:11:52

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After Only Living Witness, Jonah J. Jenkins went on to found Miltown, who briefly signed to Walter Yetnikoff's Giant Records; Milligram, a Boston indie-metal supergroup; and Raw Radar War, who will release their debut album, Double Equals, this summer. Thanks to bands like Shadows Fall and Killswitch Engage, a new generation of metal fans are discovering Witness's music. Jenkins recently contributed vocals to "We Cannot Deny" by 36 Crazyfists, and he's just recorded vocals for "Grim Heart/Black Rose," a song that will appear on Converge's next album. Here's a few of our favorite songs from Jenkins' discography, beginning with OLW's "December" and ending with, as a bonus, a cover of the same song by Shadows Fall.
Only Living Witness, "December" (mp3)
Miltown, "Tales of Never Letting Go" (mp3)
Milligram, "Nipple Mountain Clampdown" (mp3)
Raw Radar War, "Lack of Fire Discipline" (mp3)
Shadows Fall, "December" (mp3)

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