Singer/guitarist Danny Dinmont hit the rock jackpot at an early age: his band, Smasher of Things, was signed to Clubbo straight out of high school in 1986. The Minneapolis-based quartet’s first two albums, Feastus Arcanus and Thunderbeast Park, combined blistering guitars and manic drumming with the kind of dark lyric imagery that thrilled fans of so-called “Satanic” rock.

Danny and his bandmates were deeply committed to their death-metal muse. But Danny was still growing as an artist — and he was never one to ignore a good influence. By 1991, he’d moved to Seattle, changed his band’s name to Thingsmasher, and replaced most of the prior personnel with more grunge-friendly players to record Shrug, an even bigger hit.

“This is the real me,” Danny insisted in a January 1992 interview in RockFile! magazine, shortly before leaving Clubbo for major label Magnapop. But by the late ’90s, his band had morphed again, this time into rap-rock supergroup Smash XL.

Danny admits he’s been through a lot of stylistic changes, but he’ll still tell you he’s only being true to his muse. His current band, the Smashes, is a perfect distillation of new rock trends — and, in Danny’s own words, “the most honest thing I’ve ever done.” [more…]

listen: The Rage of Baphomet, from Feastus Arcanus
more: A behind-the-scenes peek at the roots of a rock legend...