Man, I can't thank you enough for making this video, they're instantly became my favourite band. And two years after, nothing changed. Recently my parents had divorced and I've been really fucking depressed but these guys always helped me with all of that shit, and You!, Man if you didn't made this video I don't what would've happen to me. So anyway, thank you so much for making my live better🙂. You're awesome, keep on the good work my friend❤🍻🎶🤘
Shannon Larkin is the drummer for WrathChild America. He’s now with Godsmack. Brad Divens (bass, lead vocals) is a world renowned Front Of House Soundman currently working for Enrico Iglesias. He’s also worked for Garbage, Cyndi Lauper and others. WrathChild America has teased the fans in their native MD/VA/WV area by posting a couple video clips of them rehearsing in FL and they still sound amazing. The fans are going nuts waiting for a WrathChild reunion. I ran into Brad a while back and he said all the guys are all in for a reunion, just have to find the right time. I’ve talked to people that said they don’t care when and where it will be, they will absolutely drop everything to get there. I’m included in that group. WrathChild were an amazing live band comprised of old pros in the Mid-Atlantic music scene. Can’t wait to see them do it again.
Where are these said videos you speak of???!!! I'm a huge fan, seeing them on the WA, Testament, Pantera run, and when the came back as SAZ here in Boston. Even helped them load their gear out then bought them a few beers after. GREAT guys.
I LOVE Wrathchild America... I didn't know anyone else actually rememberd them..lol They are the best band nobody ever heard of. Favorite song has to be Silent Darkness. A first person perspective of being buried alive.
I grew up in the same area of WV as these guys. I knew them all and they are one of my favorite all time bands. I've seen them live at least 50 times. if you knew them it was always a great party afterward. the shows at Shiley Acres in Inwood, WV and Slammers in Martinsburg, WV were always epic. On New Years Eve 1992 them and Kix packed almost 10,000 people into Slammers and Slammers was a bar. the fire marshal would have had a stroke.
I totally agree!!!! I saw them twice in California and have some of my best concert memories from those shows! Great entertainment, got to stage dive, crowd surf and the mosh pits were freaking amazing!!! And I saw them with Pantera one of those nights and was more impressed with them than Pantera!
Brad was my neighbor. My sister baby sitted got his uncle Roy years ago. He played basket ball for the Spartans High School. And could swim the entire length of a pool without catching an air. Dated my best friend’s sister. Leslie . I was the young impressionable watcher. Later named my oldest daughter Shannon obvious reasons. Something I never shared, Shannon Larkin sold a set of Octabans to Tracy Heckman roadie for Kix, I have the original stand. Unfortunately the drums were stolen in St. Petersburg, Fl. They forgot to steal the hardware. Awesome this came across my feed. I’m sure the algorithms know lol. I seen many changes from even further back than WrathChild America, i was wearing their tee shirt in my high school graduate yearbook 1985 Forbes Road for most Rock and Roller. So glad a time period was recorded. . Even grabbed a flyer from the Danger Zone MyrtleBeach,sc On their marquee walking by it one night and still have it. 🎉
Wrathchild is one of the best bands ever! They were way ahead of there time! Great musicians and songwriters. They definitely should have been bigger than they were.
Cool Video man....I worked for this band back in the early 90's In fact i did the first small Souls tour. Great band and really cool dudes to tour around the country with...Had a blast. Shout out the Lathot Corp. LOL
I subscribed instantly once I saw your title. Back in the day I felt like I was the only human alive who listened to them.. I never understood why their talent wasn’t recognized more broadly... incredible to listen to. I never really loved them lyrically, but the vocal sound was on point.
dude ive loved this band since I was 16/17. im 52 now. I got to see them at The Peppermint Beach Club in Va. Beach. Va. and again but was an acoustic set. i actually just rocked both these albums yesterday. there were a handful of bands from that time I still listen to that were massively underrated. Prong - Flotsam and Jetsam - Death Angel - Voivod - Metal Church - Wrathchild America and a band called Varga! and Monster Voodoo Machine! great video and content.
You gotta love these guys I've known them since the early 80's and can say they were one of the hottest and hard-working bands on the Baltimore Tri- State club circuit. If anyone ever deserved to get signed at the time it was them. Very professional and down to earth attitudes on and of stage as well.
My dad used to be a drum tech for a local band in Woodbridge, VA. called Calibra. They opened up for Pantera at a local spot right after Cowboys From Hell released, and another band on the bill was Wrathchild America. Right after the show, my dad partied with everyone and watched Shannon Larkin shave the side of Phil Anselmo's head. Vinnie Paul wrapped a piece of Phil's hair around his drum stick he used that night and gave it to my dad. Signed and dated by Shannon and Vinnie. He still has it to this day in a big ziplock bag haha
I remember when they were a 5 piece band and Brad was simply the frontman. Brad was never simply the front man. He did it better than many around. Every now and then he would play guitar. Seeing them Live was always a good time. I opened for them at several places during the mid/late 80's. Shannon was, and Still is a Beast on the drums. They have been talking about a possible reunion. Scheduling seems to be the sticking point.
@@johnnieangel99 playing cover songs was all the rage back then for sure! My Wrathchild experiences happened in Raleigh NC at a club called the Switch. A fairly small venue, maybe 300 plus capacity I would guess, but was a well established place for the most unknown bands to the biggest bands known at the time! I always wondered how much that bass player I only saw with them once or twice regretted the way events unfolded! It was said that he had messed his back up and had to quit, then they blew up right after! It might have been 50 people the first time I saw them and in a year they were lined up around the block to get in! I always got to walk past the lind and the bartender was from where I'm from and would always let us in anyway! Imagine the looks I always got or the names I got called! Lol. Anyway, those guys (especially Shannon) became good friends and would stay at my best friend's house every time they came through! And Shannon would always have me drive him all over Raleigh! One of the best bands I've ever seen live and Shannon was THE BEST drummer! Johnnie do you remember Slave to my dick? The only song Shannon sang and he would do it standing up while playing! That's one bad ass drummer and a great guy all around who I had tons of fun with! I miss those days!
@@craigreed7555 Oh for sure, Like how Pete Best felt. It's gotta suck for sure. Especially when it's something like illness or injury. Had a bas player have to quit because all the smoke in the clubs was causing him issues with his breathing. Meds caused him to blow up as well. I never got to Raleigh. Closest I got was Jacksonville. Playing two clubs across from the Marine Corps training base. One club rocked. The other, not so much. Having an in to get past the crowd is always a good thing. Shannon was seriously wicked. Still is Yeah, His skills were so far about his age. The old Subhumans tune. fuck yeah. Killer song. He rocks. It's great. Yeah, I miss 'em as well.
I grew up on Wrathchild America in Maryland. Most of my first metal concerts and mosh pits were at Hammerjacks where I saw Wrathchild many times. Highly recommended.
As someone who lives in the DMV, saw Wrathchild many a time. They even played a Community College(Nova Annandale) for a charity event in 1990. I still have the flyer and cheaply made wall poster. I made the mistake of standing in front of the PA Towers. I couldn't even hear after the show. They definitely tried to fit in the 90s vibe with SAZ. Jay was wearing a bucket hat and they were dressing in baggie clothes. The music was decent, but I dig WA better.
Nice video. I like both albums, but “Climbing the Walls” is one of my all time favorite albums. You didn’t even mention their excellent cover of Pink Floyd’s “Time.”
I discovered these guys in 1991 when 3D released, and went back to Climbing the Walls as well. I was a guitarist in my late teens making the transition from 80s hard rock to metal (Metallica, Pantera) and these guys just hit me perfect musically. I stayed a fan of theirs through later 90s SAZ releases, which are all really good, even if a bit more straightforward hard music. It still has their touch to it. I think they never caught on, despite touring with Pantera during CFH tour and other metal bands of the time, because the scene was ALL about the new groove metal and hard edge Pantera was bringing as a follow up to the 80s thrash, and they were too "musical" for the avg metal listener. Also the hard rock scene was all but dead and those folk were on to other stuff. Also, several of their albums suffered from crap engineering (the sound and mix is not good and sounds dated). They certainly deserved better, and it's great to see them still talked about so young metalheads can get to enjoy them.
I saw these guys numerous times from 1984 until 1989. These guys were great and so underrated. They played many shows in L’amour in Brooklyn. My favorite song is an early one that was never recorded on an record it was called Danger-us. How many of you old fans remember that?
I loved these guys. 3-D particularly. A sadly underappreciated Englush band from around this time is Hydravein, especially their album 'Rather Death than False of Faith.' With better production, it could've been absolutely huge.
I have always loved this band ever since I saw them as wrathchild on 60 minutes doing a segment on garage bands. They showed them doing maiden's Trooper and it kicked maximum ass.
This is one of the bands that you could rank with the best. For me one of the Top 10 bands ever with Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer, Sepultura, Testament, Pantera, Anthrax, Sabbat (also an old not so famous band) and Iron Maiden.
From my home state of west Virginia. Only successful metal band from West Virginia in the 1980s. My thrash band Sinistry was formed in 1978 same year as Wrathchild but we never made it out the sticks of southern WV, nobody in our region really wanted to listen to thrash/speed music back in the early 80s, it was all about the classic rock,country music, and glam metap at its heaviest. If i ever find our demos ill record them and post em on RU-vid. We Sounded alot like anthrax mixed with suicidal tendencies with the same vocal style as Wrathchild, so they reminded me of my old group that i cant help but reminisce
Fabulously underrated band! I saw them with Testament and Nuclear Assault in '89 and with Pantera in '91, and I even saw them when they were called Souls at Zero!
Wow! What a show! Testament, Nuclear Assault, and Wraithchild sounds like an amazing show! Testament is my all time favorite Thrash Band and Nuclear Assault was always a really solid band that never got the exposure they should’ve as well as Wraithchild of America!
Remember Prego? It used to be a commercial about Prego spaghetti sauce and they prided their brand in having every spice you could think of, so the song had any changes you could think of, so that was pretty cool
So glad you're talking about them, and helping to keep their material alive. I always felt that they never got the respect they more than earned. Such a cool, and original band.
Great great video. I know lots of people thru my parents for this band. I’ve met brad and Shannon. Lots of good times. Incredible band. Also that souls at zeros two albums are dope!
cool video Steven! I was never overly into this band but that had some cool songs here and there. Im pretty sure these guys toured with Pantera on the CFH tour
Great video. Wrathchild America deserves more attention. I enjoy both these albums and got to see Wrathchild live touring with Annihilator and Testament back in 1989 / 1990 time period.
I've always knew this band but never really listened to them untill I saw this video, and I instantly felt in love with "Climbin' the walls" and "3-D". So anyway thank you Old Head so much for introducing me to my favourite band of 2020❤🤘
Very underrated band ..opened up for them in Houston at Numbers when they were at their height ..one of the most musically pro metal bands ever ..and their sound was new and different at the time ..they transcended many genres ..younger peeps don’t know that We played one of their tunes (just learned it) ..we were in a way more all over the place (it’s why the club picked us to open for them ..and the band was very impressed. (My bands name was Nighbreed ..more of a 3D man Mr Bungles theme ..we never went anywhere bc we weren’t about that)
Nice video buddy! Not big time into Wrathchild America but still they are pretty cool and I liked your perspective. A lot of underrated gems maybe you should make a video of, sometime: Anacrusis (Technical Thrash/Prog Metal, should have made it big) Deathrow (their 'Deception Ignored' album is one of the best in the genre) HeXeN (one of the new wave Thrash bands, more melodic aspects in sound, could release only 2 albums but still creative) Vain (Glam metal band, came out in late 80s, they should have it much bigger)
I love wrathchild america! Have been a fan since climbing the walls. Thanks for making this video and I agree with you, they touch on a lot of different styles should have been huge!
This is a spot on review of the band! I agree with everything you said here, and yes, they were way ahead of their time. I met Shannon Larkin on the 3D Man tour in Spring Valley, NY at World Stage, great guy.
Hi Steven!!! great video an thanks for introducing me to another band i remember ftom back in the day but completely overlooked, i don't know maybe there were some many other stuff coming out, 80's hard rock/glam was huge (GNR....) and also the end of that decade and the "birth" of more alternative style of bands make them disappear.... cheers and take care
Back in the very late 80s and early 90s I practically only listened to Thrash and Metal. I didn’t start to branch off into Punk and all of the other fun and heavy genres of music until a few years later. With that being said I don’t know how Wraithchild of America slipped past my radar. I totally dig this band! Thank you so much for sharing yet another great and completely underrated Metal Band! I’m definitely going to be looking for their albums to add to my collection! Old Head, you sir are Fucking awesome! 🤘🏻
This band is criminally underrated! By the way, have you ever heard of Atrophy? Do a Bands You Should Know episode on them! They were around for just two albums but have been back together in recent years and I heard they've been working on new music.
I too started seeing them as a 5 piece... 3 sets a night at the NYC Cafe, Albany, The People's Republic of New Yorkastan.... 3 sets for $5 of AMAZING kick ass music!
The name change was forced by the UK Wrathchild. It killed any momentum they had going into the alternative rise, which sucks because they were well positioned for the 90s at the end of 3D. I actually exchanged emails with Brad Divens around 2002 when he was stage manager for Linkin Park. Also, the first Souls at Zero album has some content suggesting someone, Brad Divens himself maybe, had a battle with cancer. I wonder if that happened between that and 3d.
Hometown band. Great growing up with them ,seeing them get signed etc. Awesome party's! Shiley Acres🤘 WCA has a blues element to it. That leans it into the hard rock area. 3D has the same flavor but they took it to another level in the progressive area. Souls At Zero the first album is my fav! It lost almost all the blues element and went into an industrial thrash groove metal area. The energy in their live shows were second to none.
Old Head has shown me two older bands with my all time favorite drummer in them both! Admittedly, I love some earlier Godsmack... Shannon Larkin joined Godsmack on their Faceless album... One of my favorite albums by any modern hard rock band... Now thanks to this channel, I've found Ugly Kid Joe AND Wrathchild America! Shannon FOUNDED this band as a teenage drummer! Holy shit, Batman!
If ya already know, please forgive the comment but Sully had a band called Stripmind before forming Godsmack. He played drums in that band. He also played drums for Meliah Rage's Unfinished Business album. Both are cool bands to check out. Cheers!
Shannon was born in 1967. They started as Atlantis in 1978. They were Tyrant in 1978-79. Wrathchild was formed in 1978. You do the math. I'm thinking he wasn't even a teen.
Great band, I was at NC State in the late eighties, early nineties and saw them at The Switch in Raleigh a couple of times. One highlight was the band taking requests from the audience at the end of the show and roaring through Sweet Home Alabama as a result:-)
MK500 I was right there with you each time because I saw them at the Switch every time they were playing for several years. They would stay with my best friend every time they came through and Shannon would convince me to drive him all over Raleigh to the after hrs bars! What a great time to be alive!!
My take on Wrathchild America. I found out about them on a Music t.v.'s Bevis & Butthead show. They were head banging to the video "Surrounded by idiots". Then another time I was in a local pawn shop , looking at c.d.'s I picked up Climbing the Walls" & 3-D. The vocals sounds like a heavy Dee Snider voice, with screaming range of Sebastian Bach. W/A reminds me of Suicidal Tendencies ( and a little bit like Infectious Groove) and early days Anthrax ( kinda like Speak English or Die influence ).. I went over to check out Souls at Zero.. Their debut record was pretty decent. I just couldn't get into Neurosis. It sounded like Ministry meets Nine Inch Nails meets Nirvana. I was like wtf.. lul If i ever run across Wrathchild on vinyl , i would pick them up. The older classic metal still is better the mainstream crap. That's why older bands that are still around go tour overseas, then return here. Because the fans still want to see them live & miss hearing them. I hope that W.A.S.P. still goes out on tour. I haven't seen them in ages.
If you ever need a good example of why the music business is a business with no actual taste in music, check out Wrathchild America: all that talent and potential wasted because the company wanted something more marketable.
Shannon Larkin also had a band called Amen after WA & SaZ before joining Godsmack. Sully from Godsmack used be the drummer for a band from my hometown in NC called Lexx Luthor & they used to tour with WA a lot back in the day. So, that's were that connection originated.
Underrated band.. I remember seeing the video for Surrounded by idiots on the box which was a channel you could pay for music videos in the early 90s. Climbing the walls and 3D are awesome records...
Wrathchild America definitely was different from the other thrash bands and wasn’t alway straight up thrash. It’s hard to really defy their sound because they go in so many different places.
Saw Souls at Zero, not realizing who it was. There was some Nelson looking dude with beautiful blonde hair past his ass. I asked my friend whats the buttrocker doing here? Then about 30sec into the first song, I was like whoa, the buttrocker is kicking *ASS* 😶 Then they played a Wrathchild song and it clicked.
I remember picking up Wrathchild America's second album not long after it was released and feeling entirely "meh" about the whole thing. I really, _really_ dug the first record, though! Several very solid tracks, like the two you highlighted as well as "Day of the Thunder", "No Deposit, No Return", and their cover of "Time". I think their biggest issue was that in an era where the genre was overflowing with bands & starting to get stale, they didn't really do anything that put them head & shoulders above the rest in any given aspect. Really good songs, really good sound, really good musicianship, but nothing that made you want to rock a Wrathchild America t-shirt over one from Metallica or Cinderella or any number of other, more established acts. And of course hailing from the Baltimore area didn't really do any favors for other great bands in that time frame (KIx, Child's Play, Mystic Force, etc. etc.). Again, loved that first album, but objectively speaking I can start to see why they weren't bigger than they were.
These guys got sabotaged by the fact that a s**tty hair band from UK sued them. "Wrathchild America" just too much of a mouthful and it felt so forced. I saw them open for Testament at the S. Hills Theater in Pittsburgh PA and have never before been so blown away by an opener! Brad Divens has such a signature voice and the fact that they had the balls to throw a Pink Floyd cover at a Thrash crowd....instant respect. Great chops and Shannon Larkin doing the windmill while standing up while playing the drums!!!!
As it was prophecized. Very unique and criminally underrated band. How about the band "Powermad" next. Their album 'Absolute Power' might be one of the best Power/Thrash albums.
One of my favorite bands they have a couple more records out under a different name what would have been there third record as Wrathchild America there new band name was souls at zero there first record is bad ass
Cool video. I stole Climbing the walls from k mart in 80s. Album was unique had bad production but it didn’t matter. Cover of Time was awesome. Hells Gates is killer. Only album I liked from them tho
@@OldHead Grew up in the Baltimore music scene with these guys...Shannon has also worked with Glenn Tipton and Vanilla Ice and Amen....ect. ect. He also filled in for Bill Ward and Black Sabbath once on the Ozz fest....The story goes Sully told Sharon Osbourn about Shannons skills when they needed a spot fill in for Bill Ward....she called shannon and asked if he could learn a bunch of Black Sabbath songs in about a couple days...Shannon being the incredible modest and polite dude he is said: no disrespect Miss Osbourn,but I've been playing all those Black Sabbath songs since I was around 15.....
You are correct. The scene was already changing though, with Headbanger's Ball playing a bunch of crap that wasn't even remotely 'metal'. Oh, and there's more to grunge than just shitty ass Nirvana.
