About Me
The mid 80's were a very exciting time for metal. Akin to the proverbial 'melting pot', bands were mixing styles, swapping influences and branching off in all kinds of directions. Among the most exciting was that of death metal, a direct progression from heavy metal, thrash metal and punk/hardcore.In 1987, local Milwaukee scenesters Matt Grassberger and Rich Noonan met, introduced to eachother through mutual interests of gigs, jamming and of course the love of this new form of metal taking the scene by storm. Both had heard the precursor bands: Possessed, Kreator, Sodom, Venom (etc) but felt that a more heavy and brutal approach could still be achieved. Dr Shrinker was born.
As per usual, the early days saw some line up shuffling (as is always the case it would seem) but soon enough, Matt and Rich were joined by Dave Priem and Jim Potter. Eager to announce their (after)birth into the scene, the band got on with jamming which climaxed in the mighty "Recognition" demo of 1988. This tape alone sent shock waves into the early death metal scene (although death metal is often credited as having started in 1983/84 it only really became 'visible' in around 1986/87).
Influenced by the aforementioned bands, as well as the likes of Death, Autopsy, Master, Regurgitation, and then Voivod, Accused, Attitude Adjustment (etc) on the more hardcore side of the fence, Dr Shrinker helped carve out what is now generally known as "Goregrind" (along with Autopsy and Carcass of course). Although, by way of self admission, the band labelled themselves as "Gore core". These were the days when "grunge" and "splatter metal" were still in use for describing death metal. The term "black metal" still only being a song title.
Completing a string of local live shows ( Dr Shrinker unfortunately never got the chance to tour, having never released anthing but demo's ) the band released a live tape to further solidify their initiation into the underground scene, hinting at what was to come next. Although the live tape is not listed by the band as a demo, if was often listed as such by tape traders.
At the end of 1988, (possibly) the most important development for Shrinker came in the form of one Chad Hensel, having met the band after they had played their first few shows. Chad joined on 2nd guitar and became a 'significant contributor' to the band. Evidence of this, as well as Chad's mastery of the death metal riff came in 1989 with the now classic hallmark/yardstick of death metal proficiency "Wedding the Grotesque" demo*2. Coupling death metal ferocity with groove laiden riffage heralded a new age in death metal.
Only a few months after the success of 'W.T.G' came the beginning of the end for the band. Just before 1990 Dave Priem left the band for reasons better described by the band themselves (see the interviews page). For a time, Matt filled in on Drums while new material was being written. However, Shrinker went kind of on the back burner for some months. Matt and Jim split off and started a new band called FECK. Not to let these events disparage them, the remaining members plowed on mainly spurred along by their success in the scene and with what momentum they had gained because of it.
Matt also spent a short time in the bass position of another local death metal band, PHANTASM. Obviously, with these 2 commitments, Matt decided to leave Dr Shrinker permanently while seemingly little was going on there. However, in a strange turn of events, it was the rhythm section of PHANTASM (messrs. Tony Brandt on Drums and Scott Mckillop on bass) who sat in on Shrinkers next demo "The Eponym" (demo*3).
Heralded by many (including myself) as the best material of the lot, 'The Eponym' saw a much darker, brooding side of the band emerge. Definately ahead of its time, this 2 song affair (with decent production courtesy of a local band manager/promoter) was the final product ever to be released by the band in an official capacity. There was actually another song recorded but was left off the demo - "Our Necropsy". It did, however, find its way onto a split 7" with NUNSLAUGHTER courtesy of 'Revenge Productions' (see links). Unfortunately only 1000 copies were printed and it is now well out of stock. The good news is that I have the song, and am willing to send it to anyone who emails me for it. I will put it on the site, but due to a 2mb upload limit it will be in low quality.
The more attentive reader might notice that on the cover of Demo*1 there is a message "pre-demo Demo". Often, "Wedding the Grotesque" is named as demo*1 and "The Eponym" as demo*2. Stranger things have been known to happen.
Not happy with how the band was progressing at this point (Chad felt that the PHANTASM guys weren't taking the band seriously enough, having felt forced into using them in the first place), Chad and Rich moved to dismiss the other two members of the band. Coincidently, Matt had lost his place in PHANTASM and had found a new drummer in James Meyer, with whom he had been jamming with in FECK. Doesn't take an Einstein to work out what happened next. The band was reunited into what would be the best working lineup.
While still the focus of many an underground fanzine's attention, the new incarnation of DR SHRINKER stayed underground and behind closed doors. Although a few mentions of record label interest popped up from time to time, nothing solid ever seemed to materialise. However, Rich began talks with EARACHE records to have Dr Shrinker appear on an upcoming compilation for the short lived NECROSIS label spin-off (ran by Bill Steer and Jeff Walker of CARCASS). This would result in 1 song being recorded (with a forwarding of cash from EARACHE boss Digby Pearson). With the collapse of NECROSIS records, the compilation record never came into being and correspondence with Rich and Digby broke down completely. For over 13 years, the original DAT tape of the recording was "lost" in Digby's extensive demo archives. In a recent email to Digby (to clear some rumours up here) it transpires that Digby has actually FOUND the original DAT tape and I passed the information on to Matt and Rich accordingly. Not a bad thing, helping to solve a riddle for your favourite band ;)
Understandably though, the collapse of the label interest served as the "final straw" for the band, and the good Doctor was finally(?) laid to rest. A rehersal tape of the material written (almost an lp's worth) circulated around but no other label interest was gained. Many people such as myself will always continue to wonder why such a brilliant band never found their way on to a label when so many other dross, unoriginal and boring bands did. No great wonder why the death metal underground scene faded out at this point (92/93) with many of its stalwarts abandoning it, driving most into other areas. This same attitude was, most noticeably prevalent in DARKTHRONE from Norway who abandoned their death metal leanings and switched to the newly emerging black metal scene. Black metal, then, picked up where death metal had sank into the quagmire.
From this point, Rich took a break from music to complete his study commitments, Chad branched off into his new found love of free-jazz and began to play the clarinet. Jim Potter however didnt want to put the guitar down and so with James and Matt continued with FECK. In 1996, Chad moved to Portland, Oregon followed by Matt 2 years later. Both managed to hook up again and start jamming on a new project they entitled "Schrumpfen Einlaufen" (loosely translated 'to shrink what has already been shrunken") - a darker "horror" project consisting of bass, guitar, keyboards, clarinet, drums and vocals. Hopefully, with Matt's co-operation I might be able to get some of this onto the site in the future.
Some rumours of a reunion gig have been passed around, although with the band spread out around the country this could take some time to happen, if it ever does. Cheers for reading!
