Choking Victim - Definition and Overview

Choking Victim was an influential Ska/Punk/Hardcore (what they call "Crack Rock Steady" poking fun at the mid 60's Jamaican style) band from NYC in the 1990s. The band became hometown legends for their innovative music and highly political lyrics. At the same time they also became infamous for their Satanic imagery and numerous references to the vagrant lifestyle such as crack-smoking, shoplifting and squatting (living illegally in a building, usually condemned, for free by pirating utilities), and also for anti-police sentiments in their songs. On the other hand, the Satanic aesthetic they use is widely understood to be more anti-religion than pro-Satan. They state quite clearly in their lyrics that they are atheists, making it unlikely that they would worship anything at all. They broke up after the first day of recording for their one and only album, but the recordings from that one day were enough to make a solid album. After they broke up, two of their members (Stza and Erza) formed the band Leftover Crack.

They released two 7" entitled Crack Rock Steady 7" and Squatta's Paradise before releasing a full length CD/LP entitled No Gods, No Managers on Hellcat Records in 1999. The latter, interestingly, did not contain a barcode, presumably in accordance with their staunch anti-capitalist message.