2008 Woodie Awards
Terminus Victor returns to town with progressive Illinois lineup
Ben Turner/ Verge Editor
Issue date: 4/18/03 Section: The Verge
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While The Blackouts haven't been gone long, having made the trip in early February, Terminus Victor has been absent since March of 2001.
Bassist and vocalist Scott Kimble and guitarist Don King have been friends since the early '90s but Terminus Victor didn't evolve until the duo's previous group, Hush Tower, called it quits. While Kimble described Hush Tower as heavy math rock or a combination of Don Caballero and Slint, the group split when its drummer wasn't working out.
Inspired by a Big Black video Kimble rented, he and King started experimenting with a drum machine. Kimble, a drummer himself, decided he didn't want a drummer in the new project, which he had named Terminus Victor.
"I heard a drum machine in my head when I writing new songs," Kimble said. "So I wondered 'How can we pull this off?' since the drummer adds so much visually."
The answer was the addition of a lighting system projecting the frequencies in colored lights the drum machine is producing and adds the visual element the duo felt they couldn't provide themselves.
"A lot of people have called us industrial when they hear about the drum machine but I don't even like industrial," Kimble said. "I like to think of it as rock 'n' roll with a machine. Neo-Big Black meets Kyuss-really heavy rock."
The name Terminus Victor was originally a song that Kimble had written circa '98. After performing under the moniker a few times, a concert-goer informed the duo that the Latin translation was actually ultimate victory.
The duo recorded their full-length debut "Mastering the Revels" with Matt Talbott at his Great Western Recording Studio in Tolono. Kimble said Talbott had been an acquaintance of his since the early '90s and it just made sense since Talbott knew the band's sound very well.
"Our first record was done in pieces," Kimble said. "He knew what we were going for, we did the first three tracks and decided to come back and finish the rest of the six."
Although the band originally self-released "Mastering the Revels" on its own Postgenius Records, after the group's record release show at The Highdive with The Blackouts and The Last Vegas, they were approached by Troy Michael of Innocent Words Records, who offered to rerelease the album on his label.
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