The Crucified

The Crucified is an American Christian hardcore punk and crossover thrash band from Fresno, California that formed in 1984. Its lineup is vocalist Mark Salomon, guitarist Greg Minier, bassist Jeff Bellew, and drummer Jim Chaffin. The Crucified released two studio albums and three demos. They toured California for the majority of their career and appeared at the Cornerstone Festival outside of Chicago several times. The band broke up in 1993 due to personal differences, but reunited in 2009.
In late 1984, drummer Jim Chaffin, guitarist Greg Minier, bassist Kirk Palmer, and vocalist Wayne Stonecipher started a band named K.G.B. in Fresno, California. The four teens knew each other as high school classmates. The name K.G.B. had no meaning to it, the members just thought initials "sounded cool". In early 1985, K.G.B. was looking for a new vocalist due to the departure of Stonecipher. Minier asked his friend Mark Salomon to try out as vocalist.
Salomon was accepted into the band after singing a few songs the band wrote with Stonecipher. Sensing pressure to have a meaning behind the name K.G.B., the band said the initials stood for Kids in God's Blessings. Not long after, the band thought the name sounded juvenile and changed it to The Crucified. The name came from Chaffin thinking of random names that would fit a Christian band. The Crucified added the Bible verse to the name whenever they wrote it. "For I have been crucified with Christ, therefore I no longer live, but Christ lives in me."
In 1986, The Crucified gathered together a small amount of money and recorded 15 songs on a tape named Take up Your Cross under their new name, The Crucified, and distributed the demo throughout their local area and via mail order. "Nailed", the band's second demo, was recorded the following year and the band's exposure continued to grow. Shortly after "Nailed" was recorded, the band members graduated from high school and Palmer left the group and was replaced by Mark Johnson. The band recorded "Live at the New Order" in March 1989.
Greg Sostrom saw The Crucified at a few shows and offered them a recording contract with his new start-up label, Narrowpath Records. The band accepted the offer and started to record songs at Casbah Studios in Southern California. The 15 track album was titled The Crucified. It was released in compact disc format, which was a new format in the late 1980's. After the album's release, the band started to tour around California, including appearances at the Cornerstone Festival as well as opening for D.R.I., G.B.H., and Pantera. Johnson was fired from the band due to personal differences and the guys started looking for a new bassist. Chaffin responded to an ad in a newspaper posted by Jeff Bellew, citing The Crucified as an influence. Bellew joined the band and drove for four hours from his home in So Cal to Fresno every weekend to practice. Eventually the drive became too costly and he moved to Fresno to practice with the band.
After recruiting Bellew, the band started to write and record for their second studio album, The Pillars of Humanity. When the album was released in 1991 on Narrowpath Records, the band did not tour very much for the album. In 1992 the band was broken up, but 1993 is when the band announced their breakup. In 1995 the band reunited and played their final show at Cornerstone Festival. The members all went on to join new projects including, Stavesacre, Neon Horse, The Blamed, CHATTERbOX, and Applehead.