The Whorrorz

2005-2009It was the fall of 2005 with Halloween approaching. Still attempting to keep RSM magazine alive, Eliot decided to write an article about one of his greatest teenage musical influences-American Backdrop. After a random run-in with the only member of Backdrop living in Idaho Falls/ID Nathan Turner aka Gutter, the article was mentioned and an interview asked for. This led to what in Eliot’s eyes had been nothing more than a pipedream of a discussion about a theme band. Eliot envisioned a dark, haunting band with the beyond-the-grave voice of Gutter. Gutter’s vision on the other hand, was born of alcohol, adrenaline, greasepaint, fake blood, and the thrill of making people watch him rape the mic & guitar-horror style. Eliot’s pipe dream had sparked a fire under Gutter’s ass to pick up a guitar and wail in front of a mic again. A couple weeks went by and they got together to jam then decided it would be fun to cover Misfits songs for the upcoming 2005 Halloween party. Evil Octopus guitarist Joey Homicide was called upon to play bass and complete the line up. Plan 9 Fiend began practicing regularly to prepare for the costume party where they would be the opening act for Aces & Eights (Boise)(ID) and Idaho Falls’ own Evil Octopus. After the show, they decided to keep practicing together with a name change influenced by Cancerslug’s first album “Whore”, and Eliot came up with a better way to spell horror along with learning some underground material to cover, plus writing originals The Whorrorz was unearthed. Though the new name was rejected at first, the next show again at the house of filth playing with Tattoos & Skars (Montana) . The flier for this show has the band listed as The Horrorz, after realization of there already being an established band Eliot’s original idea was accepted. The Whorrorz continued on playing whatever shows they could get always striving to create on an energy filled atmosphere. Before members grew tired of hauling televisions they set up towers of three televisions on each side of the bass drum along with another three in front of the bass drum, one in the center with an electrical tape coverd screen with the words cut out to display the bands name in white noise, while the other eight televisions had images of scenes from several different horror flicks being played by two vcr’s. But eventually they narrowed it down to just the white logo noise.The band did four recording sessions with Joey Homicide not only doing his part playing bass, back up vocals and song arrangement but also overseeing engineer/producer duties, during all of The Whorrorz recording sessions. The first sessions began at Beth Gardner’s beautiful loft home in the forests of Ririe Idaho and finished at Eliots home aka the house of filth. The band only recorded three songs, their first original “Fingertip” , their modified version of Elvis’ “Devil in Disguise” and Gutter and Eliot’s personal favorite song to cover, Cancerslug’s “Waist deep in blood”! The other sessions were at Eliot’s new practice space in the vacant business space below his apartment. It was here that the rest of the original material was recorded along with a few covers. There was never an actual release other than random demos given away for free at shows.In January of 2009, The Whorrorz and Evil Octopus’ practice studio was robbed of over $4,000 in equipment. For some, this would mark the demise of a band, but Eliot took out a loan to replace the stolen gear in order to keep The Whorrorz going. In June of 2009, Scotty Parker aka Sluddy Scotty joined the band as second guitarist in time for Chesbro’s annual Battle of the Bands on the 4th of July. Later that summer they opened for Demoni (Boise) (ID)and Stellar Corpses from Santa Cruz, these were The Whorrorz last shows. Eliot relocated to California in August of 2009 thus severing the head of the band...Gutter, Joey, and newcomer James now perform as Gutter n' the Onslaught. Eliot is now working on a music degree in California...