Beneath The Shadows - Background

Background

T.S.O.L. had released their first full-length album, Dance with Me, in 1981 through Frontier Records. Its combination of hardcore punk with horror film- and gothic-inspired subject matter had put the band at the forefront of what was becoming known as "deathrock". Their subsequent EP, 1982's Weathered Statues, was released through Alternative Tentacles, the record label run by Jello Biafra and East Bay Ray of fellow California hardcore band the Dead Kennedys, with whom T.S.O.L. had performed. The experimental nature and melodic leanings of the EP presaged the musical direction the band would pursue on their next album.

With the addition of keyboardist Greg Kuehn to the lineup, the band expanded in new creative directions. According to singer Jack Grisham, improved musicianship and new musical influences were also factors in T.S.O.L.'s stylistic changes:

We learned to play. We wanted to try more things. We're not going to pretend we're something that we're not anymore. It's funny, Mike Roche got mad at me for doing what I did, but he's the one who turned me on to Roxy Music. After hearing different singers and music I'd never heard before, you're bound to expand.

Beneath the Shadows was recorded at Perspective Sound in Los Angeles with producer Thom Wilson. It was released in 1983 through Alternative Tentacles as catalog number VIRUS 29. Grisham credited himself as Jack Delauge on the sleeve, following a tradition of using a different pseudonym on each release both to confuse audiences and to hide his true identity from the police. Drummer Todd Barnes credited himself as Todd Scrivener, a pseudonym he had also used on Weathered Statues derived from the name of the street he lived on.