BOOZE
DRUGS
WHORES

In more artistic terms, those three words also formed the de facto chorus for the group's de facto anthem, "Kill for Metal" from 2005's Cryptobeast:

Booze, drugs, whores
Taught by the masters
Kill, kill, kill
Kill, kill, kill for metal!
Attack!

Metal juvenility aside, Usurper's mentality wasn't literally invested in whatever actual whoring or murdering they ever indulged in, but in those things' position relative to what so much heavy music endears itself to: Usurper wanted to kick your ass, but they wanted to party afterward.

Formed in 1992, Usurper was born as the no-rules-but-thrash-rules outfit of guitarist Rick Scythe (Sprague) and singer General Diabolical Slaughter (Dave Piekarz). Originally the side project for Scythe following the dissolution of The Dead Youth, Sprague quickly found the trio of Slaughter, drummer Joe Apocalyptic Warlord (Schaeffer) conducive to the brand of old-school thrash and black metal he had his heart set on. The group released its Visions From the Gods cassette demo in 1994 at arguably black metal's least popular moment in American music, and as such went mostly unnoticed stateside (although "Soulstalker" would become a long-running live staple and fan favorite).

The Europeans, however, saw something in Usurper - a reflection of themselves or, more likely, of the black metal bands they had embraced in the decade before - and the group, along with new bass player Jon Necromancer (O'Drisceoil, ex-Kommandant) found a home with Norwegian label Head Not Found. Head Not Found dealt almost exclusively in Usurper's type of bare-knuckled thrash and death, having built its name on the backs of records by the likes of Viking-thrashers Ragnarok, the Scandinavian folk-metal of Ulver and Norse high schoolers Troll.

Diabolosis, released in 1995, tread most of the same sonic waters as Visions and, in the cases of "Deep in the Forest" and "Dusk" actually bore the exact same songs. The backing of a proper label, however, made that all irrelevant as the group's demo had only existed in some 1,300 copies; the songs might have been old, but to most people hearing Usurper they were as good as new (and one could argue the considerable leap in quality of recording between the demo and the album made the tracks new to old fans as well). The band remained well under the radar, but metal fans clinging to the hallowed ways of thrash and black metal took comfort in the group on a large enough scale to draw the attention of Necropolis Records who, at the time, were one of the few labels distributing extreme metal in America.

Necropolis signed Usurper in 1996 alongside such self-explanatory groups as Satanic Slaughter (formerly known as Evil Cunt), Archgoat, and Vondur, and the Threshold of the Usurper EP/picture disc arrived in 1997. Threshold saw the group delving into something more closely resembling progressive black metal, as the lengthier title track and eight-minute "The Dead of Winter" flexed more ambitious songwriting chops from Slaughter.

Following a North American tour that year in support of Sweden's Black Funeral, Warlord left the band with Dave "Hellstorm" Chiarella taking his place behind the kit for a European tour with English power-metal outfit Hecate Enthroned and similarly-named Belgian black metallers Enthroned.

Released in 1999, Skeletal Season presented a more vivid picture of the kind of occult themes Usurper had sung about for so long, with particular emphasis put on Chiarella's penchant for speed-informed blast beats, most notably on ominous "Dismal Wings of Terror" and the sprawling "Cemetarian." The band had developed a sizable following by now, at least by early-internet standards, and Necropolis capitalized on the momentum with an expanded reissue of the original Visions of the Gods demo. More notably, the group released their third album, Necronemesis in 2000 and filled the supporting slot for a 24-date tour with heavyweights Cradle of Filth.

Necronemesis saw the group retreating from some of the more epic adventures of Skeletal Seasons, although the heaviness and ultra-violent arrangements remained firmly intact; rather than trim down their ambitions, they'd simply squeezed into half the time, as evidenced by the searing "Slaughterstorm" and aptly-titled "Full Metal Maelstrom." Necronemesis also boasted a significant improvement in production values over its predecessors, and the group brought this to their live element with the addition of former Eternal Hatred axeman and fellow Chicagoan Carcass Chris.

Following a split with Necropolis, Usurper signed with metal haven Earache Records, who welcomed the group with open arms and yet another reissue of Visions of the Gods, along with a deluxe edition of Necronemesis. In 2003, the group released Twilight Dominion, a vaguely conceptual album claiming to be divided into two six-track "chapters," although sonically and thematically the songs were almost impossible to extract any meaning from aside from the Sprague's usual black metal playbook of death, Satan, darkness, werewolves and the like. The financial muscle of Earache and the excellent production by Neil Kernon helped the album reach a wider audience than any of their previous releases, but just as the band reached the precipice of the big-time, they began to self-destruct.

The very month of Twilight's release, Chiarella left the band. Usurper took a session drummer along to open for Satanic metal heroes Deicide. A proper video - the group's first - was shot for "Metal Lust," and in July of 2003 the original lineup was reunited first on a lark at a tour-ending Chicago show as Apocalyptic Warlord joined the group onstage for a cover of "Black Funeral" by Mercyful Fate. Warlord returned full-time that fall, although after just one show (broadcast online with Radio Free Satan), vocalist General Diabolical Slaughter left the group. The group recruited another Chicagoan to replace Slaughter, ex-Dead of Winter and Cumchrist frontman Dan "Tyrantor" Lawson.

In 2004, Usurper headed into the studio once more with Kernon to craft Cryptobeast, which (unbeknown at the time) would be their swan song. The ten songs of Cryptobeast were even leaner than those of Twilight, although Lawson's relatively more melodic singing style really only translated into more easily discernible lyrics about monsters, mythological wars, murder and yet more werewolves, plus the aforementioned battle anthem "Kill for Metal" and its trading of beasts for booze, demons for drugs, hell for whores.

It wasn't a masterpiece by any definition, but Cryptobeast suggested the band had perhaps found new life for an admittedly dated sound and style of music, one timeless to some but seen by most as just soooo 1986. The group played a handful of festivals in 2005 and 2006, but Lawson left the group in August 2006, unable to make rehearsals due to demands in his personal life; when the group informed Lawson of their plan to use a temporary replacement, Lawson quit the band outright. At the same time, lackluster sales saw the dropping of the group from Earache, even while they planned a two-week tour of Europe. The tour, however, fell apart after the departure of drummer Apocalyptic Warlord in August of 2007, and the following month the remaining member – Scythe and Carcass – decided to break up the band rather than try to re-staff and regroup.

Considering the fairly limited repertoire of the style of music they dealt in, it surprised no one that they broke up but shocked plenty that they had lasted so long in the first place. By the time of its split, Usurper had gone from old-fashioned to old-school, keeping alive a brand of thrash most others had either left for dead or left to the masters and effectively adding their name to the canon of the same black metal they cut their teeth on. They may not have brought about the metal-fueled apocalypse they so often sang about, but they gave it as good a shot as anyone.