Zug Izland is an American

hard rock Hard rock or heavy rock is a heavier subgenre of rock music typified by aggressive vocals and Distortion (music), distorted electric guitars. Hard rock began in the mid-1960s with the Garage rock, garage, Psychedelic rock, psychedelic and blues ...

band from

Detroit Detroit ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Michigan, most populous city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is situated on the bank of the Detroit River across from Windsor, Ontario. It had a population of 639,111 at the 2020 United State ...

Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...

, United States. The group sometimes refers to its fans as " zuggalos".

Background

Zug Izland formed in 2001, named after an industrial site near

. The band was formed by

Insane Clown Posse Insane Clown Posse, often abbreviated as ICP, is an American hip hop duo. Formed in Detroit in 1989, ICP's best-known lineup consists of rappers Violent J (Joseph Bruce) and Shaggy 2 Dope (originally 2 Dope; Joseph Utsler). Insan ...

member

Violent J Joseph Frank Bruce (born April 28, 1972), known by his stage name Violent J, is an American rapper, record producer, professional wrestler, actor, and part of the hip hop duo Insane Clown Posse (ICP). He is a co-founder of the record label Ps ...

(Joseph Bruce) and Mike Puwal, out of Bruce's love of

rock music Rock is a Music genre, genre of popular music that originated in the United States as "rock and roll" in the late 1940s and early 1950s, developing into a range of styles from the mid-1960s, primarily in the United States and the United Kingdo ...

. Bruce wanted to know what a "

Juggalo A juggalo (feminine juggalette, or juggala in Spanish) is a fan of the hip hop group Insane Clown Posse or any other hip hop group signed to Psychopathic Records. Juggalos have developed their own idioms, slang, and characteristics. Th ...

Rock" band would sound like. Zug Izland's songs were written and developed during the recording of Insane Clown Posse's album '' The Wraith: Shangri-La''. Bruce and Puwal completed the basic tracks for two songs, but still required a lead singer. Bruce wanted a singer similar to

Kurt Cobain Kurt Donald Cobain (February 20, 1967 – ) was an American musician. He was the lead vocalist, guitarist, primary songwriter, and a founding member of the grunge band Nirvana (band), Nirvana. Through his angsty songwriting and anti-establis ...

Eddie Vedder Eddie Jerome Vedder (born Edward Louis Severson III; December 23, 1964) is an American singer, musician, and songwriter. He is the lead vocalist, primary lyricist, and one of three guitarists for the rock band Pearl Jam. He was previously a gues ...

Jim Morrison James Douglas Morrison (December 8, 1943 – July 3, 1971) was an American singer, songwriter, and poet who was the lead vocalist and primary lyricist of the rock band the Doors. Due to his charismatic persona, poetic lyrics, distinctive vo ...

Axl Rose W. Axl Rose ( ; born William Bruce Rose Jr., February 6, 1962) is an American singer and songwriter. He is the lead vocalist and lyricist of the hard rock band Guns N' Roses, and has been the band's sole constant member since its inception in ...

. Although Syn was sought by three other bands at the time, he joined Zug Izland as their official singer. The band broke onto the national competitive music scene in 2003 with their debut album, '' Cracked Tiles'', which was followed by tours with

King's X King's X is an American Rock music, rock band formed in Springfield, Missouri, in 1979. They were first called the Edge and later became Sneak Preview before settling on its current name in 1985. The band's current lineup has remained intact fo ...

and

Dope Dope may refer to: Chemistry Biochemistry * Dope, a slang word for a euphoria-producing drug, particularly: ** Cocaine ** Cannabis (drug) ** Heroin ** Opioid * DOPE, or 1,2-Dioleoyl-''sn''-glycero-3-phosphoethanolamine, a phospholipid * Discret ...

. The album peaked at No. 48 on the ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

Heatseekers''

chart A chart (sometimes known as a graph) is a graphics, graphical representation for data visualization, in which "the data is represented by symbols, such as bars in a bar chart, lines in a line chart, or slices in a pie chart". A chart can repres ...

and at No. 31 on the ''Top Independent Albums'' chart. Zug Izland released a follow-up album '' 3:33'' the 1st of June 2004. It peaked at No. 26 on the ''Top Heatseekers'' chart and at No. 22 on the ''Top Independent Albums'' chart. The release of the ''3:33'' album amicably fulfilled

Psychopathic Records Psychopathic Records is an American independent record label headquartered in Farmington Hills, Michigan. The label is most associated with the hip-hop music subgenres horrorcore and rap rock. The label was founded in 1991 by Alex Abbiss and h ...

contract with Zug Izland. Zug Izland would depart from Psychopathic Records due to financial issues later that year. During this time, they started recording songs for a new album titled ''The Promised Land.'' Certain tracks like "Next To Me", "How Does It Feel?", and "Lies" were released officially online with leaked songs "Promised land" and "Woke Up Screaming" surfacing online some time later, along with "Chemical Girl". In 2005, Zug Izland recorded a cover of

Pink Floyd Pink Floyd are an English Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1965. Gaining an early following as one of the first British psychedelic music, psychedelic groups, they were distinguished by their extended compositions, sonic experiments ...

classic "

Another Brick In The Wall "Another Brick in the Wall" is a three-part composition on Pink Floyd's 1979 album '' The Wall'', written by the bassist, Roger Waters. "Part 2", a protest song against corporal punishment and rigid and abusive schooling, features a children ...

". The track was a crowd favourite that Zug Izland would often cover at their live shows. Re-working the lyrics, the new track took a "Juggalo" theme replacing Pink Floyd's child chorus with a group of angry Juggalos screaming "Hey! People! Leave Juggalos alone!" in reference to the Juggalo culture's misrepresentation in mainstream media. The finished track was made available through the ZugIzland.com, but never made available on an official release. Following years of touring and various line up changes, Zug Izland reunited, and returned to Psychopathic Records, announcing plans to reissue ''Cracked Tiles'', record a new album, and tour with Insane Clown Posse in promotion of ICP's '' Mighty Death Pop!'' album. In the December 21, 2012 edition of ''Hatchet Herald'', it was revealed that Zug Izland would release a "

greatest hits A greatest hits album or best-of album is a type of compilation album that collects popular and commercially successful songs by a particular artist or band. While greatest hits albums are typically supported by the artist, they can also be creat ...

" album, featuring three newly recorded songs recorded by Violent J and Mike Puwal. In August 2013 Zug Izland's greatest hits compilation ''Toxicology: Zug Izland's Dopest Bangers'' was released on Psychopathic Records, their first official release since ''3:33'' in 2004. The album featured a collection of tracks from their debut album ''Cracked Tiles'', three remastered songs from ''3:33'' and three new recordings. The new songs reverted to the writing/recording process of ''Cracked Tiles'' with Violent J of Insane Clown Posse writing lyrics and Mike P writing the music. In 2016, they finally released, via the independent record label So What I Think Is Kool Records,''The Promised Land,'' as an album named ''The Promised Land / Nebula'', an album which contained tracks from ''The Promised Land''. These tracks would be remixed for the album. There were also remixes of previous tracks too. Syn would release a video in promotion of the album, a music video for the song "Promised Land", and stated that the group planned to drop 4 of these kinds of albums. Two years later, they would release ''The Promised Land / Event Horizon''. ''Event Horizon'' also contained remixes of past songs, new tracks, and a remix of "Promised Land" with Sewerside. Guido Milligan passed away on April 7, 2021.https://x.com/icp/status/1380339546454437889?lang=en According to Faygoluvers.net, the line up is now Syn, Mike P, D-Lay & 2 Phat.

Band members

;Current *Syn — Lead Vocals (2001–2009; 2012–present) *2 Phat - drums (2005–2009; 2018–present) *Mike P. — guitar (2001–2004; 2012–present) *D-Lay — bass (2012–present) * DJ Clay - DJ (2012–present) ;Former *Guido Milligan — bass (2001–2002, 2004; deceased) *Rex Hamilton — bass (2004–2007) *Dan Miller — keyboards (2003–2004) *Lil Pig – drums (2001–2004; 2012–2017) *Joey V. – lead guitar (2007–2009, 2012) *David Vied - Bass (2007-2009) *Nestor Hendricks – Bassist (2003) *Violent J – Lead Vocals (2001)

Discography

*'' Cracked Tiles'' (January 31, 2003) (

) *'' 3:33'' (June 1, 2004) ( Ax & Smash Records/

) *''Toxicology: Zug Izlands Dopest Bangers'' (August 13, 2013) (

) *''The Promised Land / Nebula'' (September 10, 2016) (Independent release) *''The Promised Land / Event Horizon'' (July 17, 2018) (Independent release)

References

External links

Zug Izland
on

Myspace Myspace (formerly stylized as MySpace, currently myspace; and sometimes my␣, with an elongated Whitespace character#Substitute images, open box symbol) is a social networking service based in the United States. Launched on August 1, 2003, it w ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Zug Izland Hard rock musical groups from Michigan Musical groups from Detroit Musical groups established in 2003 Psychopathic Records artists