Metal, Hardcore, Punk, Death Metal, Thrash Metal... whatever

Metal, Hardcore, Punk, Death Metal, Thrash Metal... Qwerty and miserable, always wanting more.

Wednesday, March 29, 2017

Halfmast, or rather, the toils of youth.

The author on tour August 1995
Halfmast played their first show in April of 1993, but was a very different band before I joined in the fall of 1993. When I first heard their “Nation Under God” demo, I balked at how much it sounded like a more metal Slugfest rip off, but by the time I talked to Bill and Nick about joining the band, it had grown on me enough to want in. I remember the first practice, learning their set with the remaining “metal guy” who was immediately put off by my suggestion and Nick’s support of writing “fast parts.” Next time we got together, metal guy had quit. I suggested (insisted really) that my 15 year old brother come aboard on second guitar and we began writing new songs/ reworking existing songs/ riffs and playing shows. Those early shows with the band in Lockport, NY were really good and I think we all were feeling the energy of being in a straight edge hardcore band from an area and scene where most bands, though having straight edge members, were not.
Halfmast Circa 1994

At the Turning Point reunion 1994
At the Turning Point reunion 1994











Nick was putting out cassette releases on Third Party and had planned to do a release for a band from PA called Disregard, but they pulled out of a booked recording session last minute, leaving the time available. I suggested we record two new songs I had written the music to (Undaunted and Influence) a song that had been reworked from an old metal guy riff (Sunrise)and two songs we had reworked from the first demo (To Rise and Fall and Deprive). Somehow an Insted cover was decided on as well and that session became the “Sunrise” demo (though only 4 songs were used). The line up on that recording was Turtle- drums, Bill Page- Bass, Nick Baran- Vocals, Chris Smith- Guitar and me (Jeremy Smith) also on guitar. I still think this demo turned out great, especially as it was transitional, mainly thanks to Turtle’s punchy drum performance and that we added some speed without sacrificing the era’s heaviness.
Broken down in PA
After we recorded Sunrise, we continued to write faster songs with a more “80’s” vibe, maybe it was his unwillingness to play as fast as I wanted or maybe it was just how I dealt with it, but either way, Turtle quit, which led to Jay Jancetic joining on drums. Jay was pretty vocal about how much he hated playing drums, as he was really a guitar player, but thankfully, he toughed it out. It was 1994 and playing fast straight edge hardcore inspired by Insted, No For An Answer, Chain of Strength and Youth of Today was certainly not the flavor of the times. On top of that, we added some PC 90’s politics and overall sloppiness that turned off what few “Rev 1-10” torchbearers that were still left hanging around. Also, I don’t think we were that good. We were learning as we went along and I thought writing as many songs as I could, as fast as I could, was the best way to go about things. It was Nick’s band, but there was a constant struggle for power between us- still, fun times were had. We recorded and Nick released the “Influence” 7” and started doing weekends in the Midwest and East coast. This prompted Mike Warden from Conquer the World records to offer to release an LP for us, which was exciting. He began advertising for it; we booked studio time and went on our first tour, in Nick’s Mazda hatchback, borrowing most equipment along the way.
"coming releases"
The tour was pretty dismal. When we expressed to Mike that we were having problems filling in some dates, he offered us shows with Empathy that summer. This helped us bridge many gaps in our itinerary, but had one fatal flaw- he never spoke to Empathy about it. When we and Envy, who was out with us, showed up at these shows, we were treated as extra unwanted mouths to feed and the increasing tension with some of the members of Empathy was palpable. It came to head with a member of Empathy writing on Envy’s homemade truck cab “It’s 1994, why don’t you wake up and play real music.” Mike didn’t really speak up during the ensuing arguing and yelling that followed and that seriously bummed us out. Still, after the string of shows with Empathy, the tour trucked on, with only people in Chicago seeming to care. This ended up as being kind of a godsend, because it was in Chicago that we ran out of money and had to stay an extra week hanging out, waiting for another show, so we could play and scrounge up some cash to drive back to Buffalo. Through the benevolence of Jim Grimes, he put us on a bigger show the following week and we have enough money to make the drive back home.  Jim always got us on the best shows and we played Chicago often from that point on.

Halfmast in Chicago
Halfmast in Chicago
With recording for our LP looming and still seething from MikeWarden not saying ANYTHING during the confrontation with Empathy, we decided to put out our LP ourselves and I left a message telling Mike we weren’t going to work with him. In hindsight, I think we probably should have just done it, as it would have helped the band, but then again, I’d rather we screw ourselves than have someone else do it, so I guess it is what it is. We had recorded 4 songs (Regret, A Power Inside, Gaze and Ploy) and intended to expand upon that recording with new ones and a couple redone songs from the Influence 7” and demos, but then my brother quit and the band loomed on breaking up. Technically we did, technically we didn’t, maybe we were broken up for like 12 hours, but basically we broke up then got back together with Bill “Farside” Wickham on bass, but, everything aside, it was a way to throw Bill Page out without having to be the dickheads who threw him out. Looking back, it probably makes us bigger dickheads.  We recorded the rest of the LP as a four piece and played some shows all over, with Farside’s first show with us being in Chicago, now truly our “home away from home.” I seem to remember that the “Together” LP had some financial issues for Nick, so we opted to make it a 9 song 7” choosing what we felt were the best songs. I think it’s a pretty flawed 7”, but in the original 16 song LP order works much, much better. The song “Narrow” is one of our best songs from the era, even if the lyrics are about me and my brother, who were in the fucking band. The lyrical topics weren’t just about keeping hardcore real or friendship, there was more range than most “youth crew” orientated records; we covered and encouraged women’s involvement in hardcore, the validity of homosexual love, animal rights, the faults of religion and the record’s opening track “Advantage” took an anti-rape stance. All great stuff to “get out there” but a poor layout, recording and thin vinyl ultimately led the record to be dismissed. Recently, the complete LP version of Together had an overhaul and remaster and I feel that if this version had come out, more people would have paid attention.


Jamey Jasta from Hatebreed offered to do a split 7” for us on his Stillborn records label with an ever rotating band for the other side. The bands that would commit to doing it kept breaking up and I think towards the end it was supposed to be with a NJ band called One 4 One, but there was a long delay with them providing a master. After a year, we asked for the DAT back which Jamey sent band to us without any protest. That recording was the last we did as a four piece and has not been released, as by the time we got the master back, we had moved into writing better songs with the addition of Gerald Thomas from Hourglass on second guitar.

First show of our 1995 tour
 My grandparents were kind enough to buy me a van in the spring of 1995 and Halfmast used this to head out on a summer tour that took us up and down the east coast and through the Midwest, occasionally linking up with other bigger tours and shows. The first show of the tour was in Hamden, CT with Hatebreed, whose drummer passed out in the middle of a song and they struggled to wake him. On Long island at a club called Smashlight on the second night, we had a great show, until the club owner asked the kid to count the money then drove off in his sports car with it. After the show we met a guy from Germany named Dennis, who had written to Nick a few times. We decided, well demanded, that if he truly wanted to see the United States, he should come with us- and he did. We got to a show in Rhode Island that was happening, but wasn’t confirmed that we were actually on, and they didn’t let us play. We played in North Hampton with a band called Grimlock, whose t-shirts had the same logo as the classic DC band Ignition had. When I asked the singer about it, he said “Who’s Ignition?” We played a Skate park in CT and members of 25 Ta Life tried to strong arm us into using our guitar equipment after it was already packed away in our van and we were getting ready to leave for a long drive before the show was over. Rick came up to me and apologized saying “Oh man, you know, those guys are fill ins, they don’t know how it is!” Our friend Pat, who was acting as our tour manager, got arrested in Milwaukee after Nick said something flippantly to a cop. Jim Grimes decided to put his life on hold and traveled with us after our show in Chicago, which he instantly regretted once we got down south.

with Dennis from Germany, summer 1995
with Dennis from Germany, summer 1995



As this was the days before cell phones and email, and out of ignorance, once a show was booked, we just assumed it was going to be there. Our Southern tour leg had a few shows with Ignite and Earth Crisis, which was great, until we showed up at a couple to the promoters saying variations of “I hadn’t heard from you guys in 3 weeks, so I assumed you weren’t coming.” We had been on tour for 3 weeks, what a farce.  Still we pressed on, doing what we loved and ultimately I’m not sure if I would change anything about that tour looking back, except maybe not falling asleep at the wheel on the interstate and rear ending another vehicle at 85 mph.
somewhere in Ohio

After that tour, our song writing improved. Gerald was a much better musician than any of us at the time and I learned a lot just watching him play and going over riffs. We recorded the “Status” cassette, which I self-released and Gerald left the band, which was a smart move on his part, Hourglass were making waves, whereas Halfmast was barely afloat.  My roommate Paul joined on second guitar and we became a weekend warrior band, and when Jay started contributing to the song writing, I felt like we were finally getting to where we needed to be; and then the coolest thing even happened. Ryan Hoffman from Chain of Strength called me about the Status cassette- he wanted to release it as a record! I was really proud of the new songs we were writing and we talked him and Steve, his label cohort into paying for studio time so we could record a new, proper EP.  “Deny Their Vision” was recorded at Border City Studios in Niagara Falls in April of 1996, I still love the songs, but the recording leaves a little something to be desired. Jay’s performance wasn’t the best and he struggled the entire session. People tell me that they love that record and I can at least listen to it without cringing like the earlier seven inch EPs, but I am still trying to figure out why our logo looks like it does on the cover.
the logo is like Metallica's, only blockier.
Jay quit the band shortly after the recording and Eric Ellman took over on the drums and played on our best song, State, but couldn’t commit to a summer tour, so a friend of ours from Chicago, Brian, who was in XeverlastX, came out to Buffalo, crashed at my place, and handled the drum duties. Originally this kid name Sean was going to drive us on the tour in his minivan, but he backed out, so after playing the first couple of shows in the North East hoofing it in our cars, I asked my roommate Mark to rent us a mini-van, which he did, only to return it while we slept a few hours back home before heading back on the road. Eventually, we secured another Minivan, loaded up and headed out. I think it was about 9-10 shows into the tour before we played back at home again, with varying results, some shows were cool, some were typically weird for us. But the real weirdness happened the day after we played our tour home show, before we were supposed to head to play Ithaca with I Farm, then CBGBs with Prema. The band had all gone to their respective apartments/ homes after the gig and agreed to be picked up around 11am, but when we went to get Nick, he wasn’t ready, so after some arguing and pissing and moaning, we picked up everyone else, and then returned to his place, about an hour and a half later, but he still wasn’t ready, as he and his girlfriend were arguing or something along those lines. I stormed out of his house saying something flippant; he jumped through the screen door threatening to “kick my fat ass.” Looking back, the scene was high comedy; I was nervously laughing, pointing a pen at his forehead, other people in the van were yelling and poor Paul tried to use reason “Now Nick, everyone in the band agreed to being picked up around 11 and now it’s almost 3” which, of course, just escalated the situation. We ended up driving off without Nick, with me vowing to play the shows as a 4 piece with me singing; that didn’t happen and a few miles away, in a parking lot, Halfmast broke up.
The author in his old apartment, around the time of the last tour
Milwaukee on the last tour, lots of Chicago kids traveled 
In DC on our last tour

at what end up being our last show, with me arguing with security, I still hate that club
Things were weird for a while, but eventually everyone went from publically cordial to being friends again, which I, for one, am happy about. We even played an impromptu reunion in the summer of ’97 after a short No Reason set and it was one of our best shows! Halfmast overall was a learning experience and instrumental in shaping my life, for better or for worse. Last year, we remastered some of the stuff and put it all up, for fee, on bandcamp. Enjoy.


Impromptu reunion 1997, Nick actually having fun!

Impromptu reunion 1997

Impromptu reunion 1997

Impromptu reunion 1997
*Photo by Mark Miller, Patrick Daly, Phil Barrios, and Chris Smith

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