Siege (band)

Siege
Siege at their high school's 'Battle of the Bands' in 1984. Left to right: Rob Williams, Kevin Mahoney, and Kurt Habelt.
Background information
Origin	Weymouth, Massachusetts, U.S.
Genres	Hardcore punk, thrashcore,[1] powerviolence
Years active	1981–1985, 1991–1992, 2016–present
Labels	Deranged, Deep Six, Relapse, PATAC
Associated acts	Nightstick, Anal Cunt, The Spoils
Members	Kurt Habelt Rob Williams Chris Leamy Mark Fields Ben Barnett Mario Travers
Past members	Hank McNamee Kevin Mahoney Seth Putnam Paulie Kraynak

Siege is an American hardcore punk band from Weymouth, Massachusetts. Formed in 1981, they were active in the Boston hardcore scene from 1984 to 1985, and reunited briefly in 1991. Guitarist Kurt Habelt and drummer Rob Williams reformed the band in 2016.

In its original incarnation, Siege paired extremely fast tempos with vocalist Kevin Mahoney's screeches and growls in their intense style of hardcore. Though little known at the time, the band has posthumously become revered by punk and heavy metal fans worldwide and is now regarded as one of the pioneers of the grindcore and powerviolence subgenres. Subsequent musicians have cited the group as a major influence, including the British grindcore band Napalm Death^[2] and the American powerviolence band Dropdead, whose band name was the title of Siege's six-song demo tape.

History[]

Formation, early years (1981–1984)[]

Then teenagers, the members of what would become Siege began playing together in 1981 in Weymouth.^[3] Guitarist Kurt Habelt, bassist Hank McNamee, and drummer Rob Williams rehearsed together informally during this time. They completed Siege's classic lineup in 1983, recruiting vocalist and occasional saxophonist Kevin Mahoney from nearby Braintree.^[4][5]

Self-described as a "second wave" punk band, they cited hardcore punk and new wave of British heavy metal bands,^[4] as well as the desire to play faster than their predecessors, as formative influences on their sound.^[2][6] Siege's first official show was at a Battle of the Bands in early 1984 at Weymouth North High School. They were disqualified for obscenities and McNamee's smashing of his bass onstage.^[6]

Radiobeat sessions, breakup (1984–1985)[]

Siege recorded a six-song demo tape at Radiobeat Records in Kenmore Square on February 6, 1984. The demo was produced by Lou Giordano, the producer of records by Hüsker Dü, Negative FX, SS Decontrol, Goo Goo Dolls, and many others. It would later be extensively bootlegged. In October 1984 the band recorded three more songs at Radiobeat with Giordano for Pushead's classic 1985 hardcore compilation Cleanse the Bacteria. Those 3 songs were Siege's only official original release.

Giordano later recalled those sessions:

The way our studio operated was that anything that comes in – there's no value judgments made about the music. We just record it. Still, one of the things that I guess was cool about being a staff engineer is that I wouldn't have sought out a band like that. I wasn't philosophically into anything that they were doing, but they were all good musicians – you would have to be to stay together at the speeds they were playing at. So there was that aspect of it, and just the whole pushing the envelope thing. It sounds like it's just gonna completely break apart going 700 miles through the sky and then all of a sudden everything just comes right together again.

And they were some of the most unassuming, laid-back people to ever work with. I mean, they had no attitude at all. They just came in and they were just really polite and very thankful, and then when they turned on the amps and made that noise, it was just unbelievable that it was coming from them.^[7]

Despite their proximity to Boston, Massachusetts, Siege did not fit into Boston's crew-dominated straight edge hardcore scene, and performed most of their gigs farther away in Western Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island.^[4][8] They played in Greenfield with local hardcore bands DYS, Cancerous Growth, The Freeze, B.I.U, Outpatients, and Deep Wound, out of state at the Living Room in Providence, and at Anthrax in Stamford.

In 1985, Siege was scheduled to play their first show in New York City at CBGB with The Necros. Mahoney did not show up for the gig, and Siege disbanded shortly thereafter.^[9]

Reunion (1991–1992)[]

Anal Cunt vocalist Seth Putnam fronted the band during their brief 1991 reunion.

Siege reformed briefly in 1991 with Anal Cunt vocalist Seth Putnam replacing Mahoney.^[9] They recorded a four-song demo that was believed to be lost due to the master reel being damaged, and played shows with the bands Sloppy Seconds and Toetag before disbanding early the following year. Williams later called the 1990s lineup a "false-start" reunion. Before the reunion started, Putnam met Kurt Habelt at a Rollins Band show in 1990 and told him that he should get Siege back together and offered to try out. Habelt refused at first and said he'd get Kevin Mahoney back if he did. Putnam never wrote any lyrics for them but he did decide whether the word "streets" in the song "Cameras" should be plural or not; him and Robert got into a month-long argument over it. Putnam also said that Habelt changed one of his lines in the song "Read, Learn, Know" to "fight the power with your mind" and that there was tension between Williams and Habelt. Mahoney came over to watch the band practice and told the band they would not go anywhere because of the two. While he was leaving, he said "if anything happens to your new singer, like a safe falls on his head, then give me a call". Hank McNamee ended up leaving the band after the first show they did and was replaced with Jim Hobbs. The Drop Dead album got re-released on Relapse Records, the three members got a $600 advance and Putnam was paid $200 because he bought the damaged reel of what eventually became the Lost Session '91 EP that was found on a cassette tape years later.^[10]

Post-breakup and legacy[]

Despite writing a mere 20 minutes of music and never playing outside of New England, Siege became highly influential. Their tracks on Cleanse the Bacteria exposed them to wide audiences, including Lars Ulrich of Metallica, who described them as the fastest band he had ever heard.^[9] Numerous pioneering bands establishing the death metal and grindcore subgenres in the 1980s cited Siege as a formative influence,^[11] including British groups Carcass and Napalm Death. Their demo became a highly sought-after bootleg in collector circuits.

Relapse Records officially released Siege's demo and compilation tracks in 1994 as the Drop Dead CD. The same material was released on 12" vinyl in 2004 by Deep Six Records. Two separate additional reissues of the original Siege material issued on LP in 2006 and 2009 by the Deep Six label contained an additional three tracks, "Two-Faced", "Trained To Kill", and "Questions Behind The Wall", recorded during Radiobeat sessions.

The 1991 recording was unreleased for many years. The track "Cameras" was eventually issued on the 13 Bands Who Think You're Gay compilation LP released by Putnam in 2004. The additional three tracks—"Death & Taxes", "New World Order" and "Disregard"—were thought to be lost before being rediscovered on cassette in 2014.^[12] The four songs were released on PATAC Records as the "Lost Session '91" 7" later that year.

Williams remained musically active and formed the band Nightstick,^[13] which additionally featured Putnam and Habelt at times. Williams and Mahoney also played together in The Spoils, who released the ...To the Victor LP in 2007. Putnam died of a suspected heart attack on July 11, 2011,^[14][15] while Mahoney died on October 14 that year after an extended battle with diabetes.^[16]

Williams occasionally performed Siege material live with the Providence band Dropdead. A performance in Cambridge, Massachusetts in February 2015 was billed as their final live collaboration.^[17]

Second reunion (2016–present)[]

In 2016, Williams and Habelt reformed the group. The band was completed by vocalist Mark Fields, second guitarist Chris Leamy (a member of Japanese Torture Comedy Hour with Pig Destroyer guitarist Scott Hull), and bassist Paulie Kraynak.^[18] They played their first show in Providence with headliners Infest. Further performances included guest saxophone players, including John Zorn. Kraynak departed in August 2017. For 2019 dates, Leamy moved to bass guitar, with alternating second guitarists Ben Barnett (of Dropdead) and Mario Travers completing the lineup.

Covers[]

• Napalm Death covered "Walls" on their second John Peel session and "Conform" on Leaders Not Followers: Part 2.
• Witch Hunt covered "Conform" on their Crucial Chaos Sessions.
• Lycanthrophy covered "Conform" on their split with Say Why.
• Anal Cunt included a section of "New World Order" in the Siege medley on their album Morbid Florist in 1993.
• Exhumed covered "Drop Dead" on their covers album Garbage Daze Re-Regurgitated.
• Williams's sludge metal band Nightstick covered "New World Order" as "The Pentagon" in 1998.
• Mudoven covered "New World Order" as "The Pentagon" in 1998, based on the Nightstick version.
• Mr. Bungle covered "Cold War" on their 1995 tour.
• Ripcord covered "Starvation" on their Harvest Hardcore EP as well as a live cover of "Walls" featuring vocals by Lee Dorian on their Live At Parkhof Alkmaar Holland - 18/09/1988 album.
• Intense Degree covered "Conform" on the Manic Ears North Atlantic Noise Attack compilation.
• Heresy recorded "Conform" during the sessions yielding the Face Up To It! LP, and the outtake later appeared on the Voice Your Opinion discography CD.
• Rat Lord (no) covered "Starvation" on the B-side for their "Destroy" single in 2021
• Water Torture covered "Walls" on their split with Corrupt Bastards.
• Pillage covered "Starvation" on their 2013 demo 7".
• Voltifobia covered "Drop Dead" on their split tape with Agathocles.
• Extreme Smoke 57 covered Conform on their first split 7" with The Sexorcist in 1991.

Band members[]

Current members

• Kurt Habelt – guitar (1981–1985, 1991–1992, 2016–present)
• Rob Williams – drums (1981–1985, 1991–1992, 2016–present)
• Chris Leamy – guitar (2016–2018), bass (2018–present)
• Mark Fields – vocals (2016–present)
• Ben Barnett – guitar (2018–present)
• Mario Travers – guitar (2018–present)

Former members

• Hank McNamee – bass (1981–1985, 1991–1992)
• Kevin Mahoney – vocals, saxophone (1983–1985; died 2011)
• Seth Putnam – vocals (1991–1992; died 2011)
• Paulie Kraynak – bass (2016–2017)

Timeline

Discography[]

Demos

• Drop Dead (1984) (cassette, self-released)

Albums

• Drop Dead (1994) (CD, Relapse Records) (Demo '84 + Cleanse the Bacteria compilation tracks)

EPs

• "Lost Session '91" (2014) (7", PATAC Records)

Compilation appearances

• Cleanse the Bacteria (1985) (12", Pusmort Records) (3 tracks - "Sad But True", "Cold War", and "Walls")
• 13 Bands Who Think You're Gay (2004) (12", Menace to Sobriety Records) (1 track - "Cameras")

References[]

External links[]

• Live on public-access television cable TV in 1984
• Siege Lyrics
• Interview in Suburban Punk No. 6