Kevin Abraxas Kinkelaar
John Joe Atrox Roets
Rene L. Blake
Tom Spencer
Charlie Hood
Scrambling from the wastelands of hell, or rather, southwest Kansas, Atrox migrated northeast to Lawrence. The year was 1992, and although Lawrence, Kansas promised a music scene mired towards the progress of upward mobility, it wasn't all true. Our heroes witnessed discrimination against anything remotely heavy, for in the great city of Lawrence, college rock and "power" pop dominated the so-called "scene". For the typical metal band, such a discouraging situation would end all hope, yet Atrox wouldn't fall for it.
Barricading themselves in the basement of the House of Atrox, the songwriting process kicked in. The idea was to create a form of metal that is aggressive and has the ability to force people to groove. Soon it was time to give the children of Lawrence, overdosed with flavor o' the week music, a taste of metal a'la Atrox. Their first show, an open mic performance at a popular local dive [the bottleneck], proved that aggressive music in Lawrence hadn't died. By the enormous crowd response, not only did Atrox write heavy music well, but their live show crushed.
After a few local appearances, Atrox unleashed their first demo The Leveling Fist and sold the cassette at local stores and at their shows. Fist went on to sell 800+ copies in very short time, with local and national air play. Atrox has built a large fan base in a city where "metal" is considered nothing more than a cuss word.
A small business loan was taken out by the band, and Atrox's own MDM Enterprises [MowDownMusic DigitalSoundLabs] came to life with a fully digital recording studio. The studio would not only cover the recordings of the Atrox machine, but also other local talent. In 1994, the second Atrox release titled Taking Face hit hard locally. Only a limited addition of 300 copies were made, and they were soon sold out completely. The track "Daily Blues" made the top ten most requested list on local college station KJHK. By this time Atrox was not only recording their music with a professional quality, they invested in a printing press and were printing their own t-shirts and other Atrox propaganda. Now armed with computers, a recording studio, and with means to print anything they damn well wanted, Atrox became a totally self-sufficient music machine.
Because of the bad name metal had in Lawrence, it was nearly impossible to enjoy the sounds of Atrox on any of the "major" radio stations. Although these stations claimed to support local music, it all seemed to be a lie. Not ones to be ignored, our heroes found a way in by striking a deal with a local pizza restaurant [Pizza Shuttle] who advertises on KLZR, a regional biggie, and supposed "supporter" of local music. Atrox recorded a downright heavy and crushing "jingle" for the pizza place for free. Many, many times a day, KLZR was forced to play Atrox over and over again, and with that, the band's popularity soared.
Soon after, Atrox recorded some new material at Lawrence's Red House Recording with Mr. E.J. Rose (Hostility, Stick, My Own Victim, etc.) at the controls.
Atrox crosses all boundaries of aggression by playing shows with the likes of Clutch, Malevolent Creation, My Own Victim, Incantation, Stick, Kataklysm, Hostility and others. At each of these shows, even with great variety of style, Atrox still manages to excite a positive response from the crowd.
With their own recording studio and the professional art/design/print/marketing company Garfunkel Factory backing Atrox, the band is ready to take everything to the next level....whatever the hell that is.
"Atrox bleeds hostility, from its bitter, revenge-scented bio ("Our heros witnessed discrimination against anything remotely heavy...") to its music, a brutal brand of extreme groove metal played with ruthless precision and sung by a man who twists his voice into a carnivorous bark. It is bad, as they say, to the bone. Whatever motivated these misanthropes to rock this hard, it was worth the result. Atrox! Send me a lyric sheet...please."
-Jim Santo -Alternative Press -Jim Santo's Demo Universe - Reviews of March 1st, 1996
"...the world's best band, Atrox." -The Bottleneck -February 1996 Concert Calendar
"...Lawrence's ATROX mine an aggressive groove, giving new meaning to the term 'negative energy'. The drums are jackhammer fast without a hint of slop, while Rene Blake's soar-throated vocals are slivers of pure, corn-fed hate...if your neck snaps listening to it, you get the felling they'd only be happier." -The Note
"...a more mature and focused unit taking several clomps in the right direction...An excellent addition to your cassette cabinet..." -FeH
"Their songs, however, alleviate typical senseless metal warfare by being surprisingly allegorical...Lawrence has high hopes this pack of slam pit initiators." -Who'sinations
"Very mean music...Loud pit-thrash power groove...The bassplayer, Tom Spencer, fuckin' comes up with some riffs that make me lose all control-I have to kill someone in the pit." -Life From Beyond