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The Crüxshadows /ˈkruːʃædoʊz/^[2] is an American dark wave and dark synthpop band currently based in Jacksonville, Florida, United States. The band has an international following of fans and has toured North America, Europe, and Asia.^[3]

History

The band was originally formed in 1992 by Rogue, Sean Flanagan^[4] and Tim Curry, in Tallahassee, Florida.^[2]

1990s

Rogue formed The Crüxshadows in 1992.

1992 - The Crüxshadows formed in Tallahassee Florida by Rogue (vocals, words, concepts, drum-machines, songsmithing, & electric violins), Sean Flanagan (computers, drum-machines, programming, and synthesis), and Tim Curry (computers, programming, equipment, & guitar work) during the summer.

1993 - The Crüxshadows self-released their debut album, ...night crawls in initially only as a cassette.

1994 - The Crüxshadows recorded and released ″Ballrooms on Mars″ on OLD SCHOOL RECORDS and re-recorded "Bloodline" from their '93 release.

1995 - The band recorded their second album Telemetry of a Fallen Angel. Initially it was simply a self released CD, but it was acquired and released by Nesak International/Kato Records, and later released & distributed by Dancing Ferret Discs; Years later it would be acquired by Rogue's own label Wishfire Records

1996- Telemetry of a Fallen Angel was released nationally in the United States.

1997 - Both Sean Flanagan and Tim Curry left the band shortly after signing a record deal with Nesak International/KATO Records^[5]. Rogue absorbed their interest in the band as well as their commitments under the new contract, and became the only member of Crüxshadows for a time. Determined to not be dragged down by the comings and goings of other members, Rogue learned to use synthesizers & computers himself in order to maintain Cruxshadows musical direction.

1998 - Rogue started working on new material for the bands follow up album. He recruited several new players including Chris Brantley, Kevin Page, Rachel McDonell, and Trevor Brown. The band resumed touring nationally and finished work on their third studio album. During this period The Cruxshadows signed an ill fated deal with New England based Mere Mortal Records to release The Mystery of the Whisper. A few months prior to putting out the disc, Mere Mortal was forced out of business due in part to its acquisition of a debt heavy distributor. With a new album, but no label, The Cruxshadows eventually partnered with Patrick Rodgers' startup label Dancing Ferret Discs. The Cruxshadows would spend a little more than a decade signed to Dancing Ferret.

1999 - With their new label and a new lineup, the band released The Mystery of the Whisper, Until the Voices Fade..., and Paradox Addendum.^[6] By this time "Marilyn My Bitterness" and "Monsters" had become staples on the dance floors of a re-invigorated American Gothic-Industrial club scene. Capitalizing on the success of these songs, the band toured the United States relentlessly over the years that followed. "Eurydice" became the bands first charting song, occupying the number one position in the category of New Wave for several months on the published charts of digital music pioneer MP3.com.

2000s

2000 - The band contributed a song titled "Deception" to Music from the Succubus Club, a disc sponsored by and based upon the popular whitewolf Vampire The Masquerade franchise. This song was also released in a German language version titled "Täuschung". Although "Deception" never charted, it became one of the bands most popular and enduring tracks.

2001 - They played their first tour of Europe^[7] and released a tour CD for their European live shows called Intercontinental Drift, later released as Echoes and Artifacts.^[8]

2002 - The EP Tears debuted at No 5 in the Deutsche Alternative Charts. The full length album Wishfire also placed at No. 2 on the DAC. The Cruxshadows toured both North America and Europe in support of their new album.

2003 - Ethernaut was released featuring another fan favorite song "Winterborn" which also landed at No. 2 on the Deutsch Alternative Charts in Germany. The Cruxshadows Continued touring both in the USA and throughout Europe.

2004 - The Crüxshadows released a remix disc based on the material on the Ethernaut CD called Fortress In Flames and followed it up with yet another tour of the United States and Europe.

2005 - The release of Shadowbox, a live DVD / CD-EP, followed the Cruxshadows on their tour of Europe and featured their headlining performance at the Wave Gothic Treffen in Leipzig Germany.

2006 - The single release of "Sophia" saw its debut land at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot Dance Singles Sales chart and at No. 7 on the Hot 100 Singles Sales chart. This was a major breakthrough according to Rogue. Its release coincided with the band's performance at 2006's Dragon*Con, where the Rogue gave credit to the support of their SciFi fans in attendance for helping them reach the #1 position, unseating the mainstream artist Beyonce from the top position.^[9] Jen Jawidzik joined Cruxshadows taking over keyboards. Cruxshadows recorded the song "Wake the White Queen" for the Neil Gaiman curated CD Wheres Neil When You Need Him celebrating the authors written works.^[10]

2007 - The full length concept albumDreamcypher was released. The single "Birthday" debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Dance Singles Sales Chart.^[11]. The band spent almost the entirety of 2007 touring. Their travels took them to China where they played the MIDI Modern Music Festival, one of China's largest Rock music events^[12][13] taking place in Beijing, China in May. Following a year long DreamCypher tour, Rachel McDonnell, George Bikos, and Sarah Poulos all left the group as 2007 drew to a close, and Rogue soon replaced them with guitarist Valerie Gentile, violinist JoHanna Moresco, & violinist David Russel Wood; as well as dancer Sarah Stewart (aka Sarah Kilgore).

2008 - The EP "Immortal" was released in July on Rogue's Birthday, and became the band's third consecutive single to chart on Billboard, coming in at #2 in the United States and landing in the top 5 in Germany.

2009 - Valerie Gentile was briefly replaced with Cassandra Luger^[14] before guitarist Mike Perez took over guitar duties in early 2010^[15] The Cruxshadows would continue to play to bigger audiences in Europe, but 2009 marked the last tour in the united states until several US mini-tours in 2018 and 2019. The EP "Quicksilver" debuted at No. 32 on the Billboard U.S. Hot 100 Singles Sales chart^[16] before eventually peaking at the #2 position on the Billboard singles chart, and the #1 position on the Billboard Dance Chart.

2010- 2011- The Cruxshadows performed a tour of Europe, but took a year off in 2011 as frontman Rogue and his wife Jessica gave birth to their daughter, Anmi. 2011 Dragoncon was the one and only performance of the band that year. During this time the band had relocated to Jacksonville from Tallahassee Florida, and Rogue and his crew focused on producing another new album.

2012 - The Cruxshadows returned to the road and As the Dark Against My Halo became the first Cruxshadows disc to earn a number one position on the German Alternative Charts.^[17]

2013 - Rogue acquired control of Cruxshadows artistic works and transferred them to his own label, Wishfire Records. Dancing Ferret and Cruxshadows released a joint statement notifying the public that the long time allies were going separate ways^[18]. The band toured Europe in Support of their As the Dark Against My Halo album.

Performing in Germany on July 25, 2015

2014 - 2016 - Rogue teamed up with Fansation in Germany, a label that released its acts through its partnership with Universal Music, and began working with notable German producer Henning Verlage. During this time, Rogue traveled back and forth to Germany writing, recording, and producing The Crüxshadows' new album. The band performed a very limited number of shows but played several high profile concerts and festivals including several performances supporting notable label bandmates Unheilig as part of their farewell concerts, including two sold out outdoor concerts in Leipzig in front of the massive Völkerschlachtdenkmal War Memorial. Helios peaked on the Billboard singles chart at the #11 position in the USA and later in 2017 the single dominated the German Alternative Charts camping out at the #1 position for months.^[19][20][21]

2017 - Following its the lead single Helios, Cruxshadows released a new concept album called "Astromythology", which tells the story of an astronaut escaping the destruction of the solar system. Every song represents a planetary body, and the album as a whole becomes an allegory of life changing realities. The album became Cruxshadows most popular German release and its first two singles reached number one on the DAC as well as top 10 showings in the mainstream charts.
Despite the success of Astromythology, In the wake of declining record sales throughout the industry, the administrators of Fansation and its related companies returned Cruxshadows rights to Rogue and parted ways.

2018 - Cruxshadows once again picked up the pieces and released Astromythology in Europe through the album's previous distributor, Timezone Records, and in the rest of the world through their own Wishfire Records imprint. "Home", a touching ballad about love lost, reached the #2 position on the German charts and features Cruxshadows' highest budget video to date.

Labels

The Crüxshadows initially self-released two albums under the imprint name Black Widow Music between 1992 and 1996.^[22] Those titles were Night Crawls In... and Telemetry of a Fallen Angel. In 1997, they signed a deal with Nesak International/Kado Records to give Telemetry of a Fallen Angel a full commercial release, as well as an option for a future album. Nesak eventually sold their rights to Dancing Ferret Discs and Mere Mortal Records.^[1] Mere Mortal Records went out of business prior to releasing any albums by The Crüxshadows.^[23] Dancing Ferret Discs released a number of The Crüxshadows titles over the following ten years.^[24] In July 2008, Dancing Ferret Discs announced that it was becoming a catalog label and while existing titles would remain in print, the label would not be releasing new albums.^[25] Rather than sign a deal with another label, The Crüxshadows started their own label in mid-2009, in cooperation with several established labels and distributors in different markets worldwide.^[26] Their new label was named Wishfire Records and their first release was "Quicksilver", which hit the shelves in the USA on September 8, 2009.^[27] The song became their fourth consecutive single to reach the top 10 on the Billboard Hot Dance Singles Charts, and their third to occupy the No. 1 position.^[28]

Touring

From 1993 to 1997 The Cruxshadows toured the Eastern portion of the United States. From 1998 until 2008 The band played shows throughout the entirety of the United States and made several trips into Mexico and Canada. In 2001 The Cruxshadows began touring Europe on a regular basis.

In 2007, they were invited to play at the Midi Music Festival in Beijing, China.^[29][30]

In 2009, 2010, & 2015 the band performed on the Gothic Cruise.^[31]

Through much of their history, the band has toured the festival circuit in Europe. After The Immortal Tour, from 2008 to 2018, the band played only a very limited number of shows North America, however they have performed annually without fail in Atlanta at DragonCon since 1997, and played only the occasional appearance or festival in the United States otherwise, until 2018, when they began performing shows in support of their Astromythology Album..

Lyrics and concepts

Much of The Crüxshadows' music is based on Greek and Egyptian mythology, including symbolic references to a number of mythical figures,^[32] and many of their lyrics deal with the concept of God.^[32]

References in popular culture

References to the band or the band's music appear in the writings by authors Caitlín R. Kiernan,^[33][34]Sherrilyn Kenyon,^[35] and John Ringo.^[36] R

The Crüxshadows name and likeness have occurred as cameos or background in comic books like Vertigo/DC Comics' The Dreaming, video games, television shows like CSI,^[37] and cartoon strips.^[38][39][40]

Members

• "Rogue" (Virgil R du Pont III) – lead vocals, violin, programming, keyboards, songwriter, lyrics, concepts, creative director, leader, producer.


• Jen "Pyromantic" Jawidzik – live synths, backing vocals


• JoHanna Moresco – violin, backing vocals


• David Russell Wood – violin, backing vocals


• Jessica Lackey - Live E-drums, backing vocals, former dancer


• Victoria (Rachel) Whitford – guitars

Former or non-active members

• Jenne Vermes - dancer, backing vocals


• Cassandra Luger – guitars


• Valerie Gentile – guitars, backing vocals


• Rachel McDonnell – keyboards, violin


• Stacey Campbell – guitars, vocals


• George Bikos – guitars


• Tim Curry – guitars


• Kevin Page – guitars


• Chris Brantley – keyboards, vocals


• Trevor Brown – keyboards


• Sean Flanagan – keyboard


• Nick Bottom – keyboards


• Beth Allen – dancer


• Holly McCall – dancer, backing vocals


• Rachel Ulrich – dancer


• Sarah Poulos – dancer, backing vocals


• Sarah Stewart – dancer, backing vocals


• Holly Hasty – dancer, backing vocals


• Nichole Tadlock – dancer, backing vocals


• Stephanie Griffith - violin, backing vocals.


• Stacia Marian – dancer, backing vocals


• Ally Knight – dancer, backing vocals


• Mike Perez – guitars

Related Projects

• Spider Lilies^[41] is fronted by Stacey Campbell


• The Labyrinth^[42] fronted by Sarah Stewart


• Sapphire Rebellion^[43] fronted by Crüxshadows' former guitarist Tim Curry.


• 
  Angelspit has included both Valerie Gentile and George Bikos


• 
  Black Tape For A Blue Girl featured Valerie Gentile for a time

Discography

Leverkusen 12/06/2002

Albums

EPs and singles

DVDs

Chart peak positions

• No. 5 "Tears" – (Germany (DAC)Deutsche Alternative Charts) – 2002 Singles Charts
  


• No. 2 "Wishfire" – (Germany (DAC)Deutsche Alternative Charts) – 2002, Album Charts
  


• No. 2 "Ethernaut" – (Germany (DAC)Deutsche Alternative Charts) – 2003, Album Charts
  


• No. 1 "Sophia" – (U.S. Hot Dance Singles Sales) – Issue Date: 2006-09-23
  


• No. 7 "Sophia" – (U.S. Hot 100 Singles Sales) – Issue Date: 2006-09-23
  


• No. 1 "Birthday" – (U.S. Hot Dance Singles Sales) – Issue Date: 2007-09-22
  


• No. 2 "Birthday" – (U.S. Hot 100 Singles Sales) – Issue Date: 2007-09-22
  


• No. 23 "Sophia" – (U.S. Hot 100 Singles Sales) – Issue Date: 2007-09-22
  


• No. 2 "Immortal" – (U.S. Hot Dance Singles Sales) – Issue Date: 2008-09-11
  


• No. 6 "Immortal" – (U.S. Hot 100 Singles Sales) – Issue Date: 2008-09-11
  


• No. 7 "Quicksilver" – (U.S. Hot Dance Singles Sales) – Issue Date: 2009-09-26
  


• No. 32 "Quicksilver" – (U.S. Hot 100 Singles Sales) – Issue Date: 2009-09-26
  


• No. 1 "Quicksilver" – (U.S. Hot Dance Singles Sales) – Issue Date: 2009-11-21
  


• No. 2 "Quicksilver" – (U.S. Hot 100 Singles Sales) – Issue Date: 2009-11-21
  


• No. 1 "As the Dark Against My Halo" – (Germany (DAC)Deutsche Alternative Charts) – Week 48, 2012, Album Charts
  


• No. 11 "Helios" – (U.S. Hot 100 Singles Sales) – Issue Date: 2016
  


• No. 1 "Astromythology" – (Germany (DAC)Deutsche Alternative Charts) – Sept 2017, Album Charts
  


• No. 1 "Helios" – (Germany (DAC)Deutsche Alternative Charts) – Jan 2017, Singles Charts
  


• No. 1 "Helios" – (Germany Native25) – Feb 2017, Singles Charts
  


• No. 1 "Singularities" – (Germany (DAC)Deutsche Alternative Charts) – Sept 2017, Singles Charts
  


• No. 2 "Home" – (Germany (DAC)Deutsche Alternative Charts) – Jan 2018, Singles Charts
  

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to The Crüxshadows.

• Official website


• Official German website


• Interview with Rogue


• Cruxshadows Reverbnation