The Razor Skyline

In a world full of bands that find their sound and then go on to put out the same song and album over and over again, The RaZor Skyline reject that formula and strive to bring together disparate musical influences to create new and original albums over and over again. They've been labelled goth, industrial, aggro-goth, electro goth, all of the above and none of the above. Although the band itself may defy a label, their songs have been described by many adjectives - powerful, lush, emotional, dark. Formed in Seattle in 1994, the band began life as Journal of Trauma and consisted of members Karen Kardell and the_gun. The chemistry was instant and the songs and shows quickly followed. It took less than a year and a half for the band (now a 3 piece with the addition of ioejekta on electronic percussion) to be signed to the C.O.P. International label and have their first CD recorded. However, the internet brought the band to the attention of the American Association for the Surgery of Trauma who threatened to sue for copyright infringement as they published a medical periodical of the same name. The band changed their name to the more appropriate monicker of The RaZor Skyline but were allowed to use Journal of Trauma for their debut album. With the release of Journal of Trauma in 1996, the band set off on a west coast tour to support the album playing shows with Switchblade Symphony, Sunshine Blind and even A Flock of Seagulls, among others finishing the tour at Convergence 3 in San Francisco. As the band started work on their second album in 1997, artistic differences saw Karen Kardell leaving the band. The_gun and ioejekta audtioned several singers to find a replacment, including Debra Fogarty (who later formed Diva Destruction) SeVerina X Sol (who went on to be in Fockewolfe, Diva Destruction and finally Cylab) before deciding on Charlotte Shai and moving the band to San Francisco. The band began recording their 2nd CD with Mark27 who had played with Assemblage23, Dead Language and later Sunshine Blind. 4 singles were recorded - Exit Zero, Torture Chamber, Vespertine and One Night in Bangkok which featured the_gun singing in Russian. However, the magic of the original duo was missing and Karen Kardell and the_gun reconciled and decided to work together again, replacing ioejekta on electronic percussion with newcomer Onyx. Fade and Sustain was released in 1999 and the band set off on a midwest/east coast tour with Bella Morte. During this time, the band also had songs appear in 2 movies - the documentary "Sex, Death and Eyeliner" and the German horror movie "Demonium". In 2002 the band recorded its 3rd Album The Bitter Well in Seattle with M.o. Jackson (who later went on to be in Numberiklab, the project that wrote the theme to the TV show NCIS). The album was released in 2003. Shortly after the release of The Bitter Well, the band went on hiatus and the_gun formed Flatline Transmissions who recorded a 6 song self released EP and played shows on the west coast including shows with Faith and the Muse, Snog and a reformed Specimen. Karen Kardell eventually decided to give up singing to pursue other interests and in 2009 Miska Kazda was brought in as the new voice of TRS. At the beginning of 2010 2 more members were added to the band - Zo on synths and Suzie Goldenstein on middle eastern percussion. By July of 2010 the band had completed recording the first 3 songs "Vittoria", "Sahara" and a cover of the Eurythmics "This City Never Sleeps" for their forthcoming album "Dark Water Oasis". These songs were produced by Jon Klein of Specimen/Siouxsie and the Banshees. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.