A few years ago we worked with our friend Brian Walsby on a music video for the band Valient Thorr. The video was composed entirely of printed and scanned images (on paper) with lots of Walsby illustrations and animations. We spent a few months working together in my small studio space and we took turns playing records for each another. At the time, Brian had this “no good hardcore happened after ’84 sort of attitude that I was trying to crush. I kept playing lots of crusty, metal tinted, thrash stuff for him that I thought he would dig. Time and time again he would respond with “this sounds like a bad ripoff of early Die Kreuzen”. 

When we started working with bands on these T-shirts. Die Kreuzen was one of the first groups we collaborated with. It’s rare that we end up using the first go at a t-shirt idea. Typically there are several attempts before we get everyone on board with a final design. Brian actually came up with this image prior to the “Children of the Corn” inspired drawing that we used for the first DK shirt we produced. I just couldn’t get the design part of the equation right. When we started speaking with the band about doing another shirt, this drawing came up again. We hope you dig this new/ old design as much as we do!