Taking cues from the likes of Fugazi, Drive Like Jehu, Swing Kids and Bad Brains, One Armed Scissor was an adrenaline spike thrust rudely into the body of mainstream rock, Cedric screaming, ‘Pucker up and kiss the asphalt now!’ as the roaring, raging guitars of Omar and Jim Ward threatened to collapse in on themselves. As a preview of Relationship Of Command, it could not have offered a more compelling invitation to dig deeper.
Those who chose to do so found a body of work positively bristling with energy, excitement and electricity. Ross Robinson had sought to jolt the young musicians out of their comfort zones during the sessions at Malibu Ranch – “He would throw shit at us,” said Cedric. “Just to get your adrenaline going. It puts you on the edge. We were jumping off the walls, sweating, laughing, crying… It was one emotional rollercoaster” – and his unorthodox methods resulted in a recording that sounded raw, brutal and thrillingly alive.
Across its 11 tracks there were no let-ups, with the likes of Arcarsenal, Rolodex Propaganda and Invalid Litter Dept. (written about the rape and murder of hundreds of young woman across the U.S.-Mexican border in Juarez) as intense as any punk rock ever committed to tape. Here, finally, was a band to believe in, critics frothed. Never shy about dishing out hyperbole, NME hailed the band as “The New Nirvana”, and when At The Drive-In stormed through One Armed Scissor on the BBC’s flagship music show Later… (reducing fellow guest Robbie Williams to awestruck silence) they seemed like the single most exciting band on the planet. On November 25, 2000 the Texans appeared on the cover of Kerrang! magazine for the first time. Above a live photo of Cedric, the band were hailed as the leaders of “the new noise revolution”. And then it all started to fall apart… with the ass-kissing, the constant demands upon their times, and mounting irritation at a new macho element appearing at gigs taking its toll.
“The repetition of it all caused a certain amount of insanity,” Omar told writer Stevie Chick. Always a fiercely independent group, ATD-I bristled at being expected to play standard industry games – after refusing a request to fake a band mosh-pit during one magazine photo session they were told, “We asked Korn to wear monkey suits and they did it” – and when Omar and Cedric began to use cocaine and heroin heavily, inter-group tensions were hardly eased.