Gel's Disturbing End
- Fred
- Mar 31
- 4 min read
Somewhere between the carnage that manifested amongst the members of Black Metal's Mayhem, and the drug-induced in-fighting of Classic Rock's Fleetwood Mac, comes the story of Gel. The hardcore band's breakup is arguably the most disturbing story in a generation.
Now I am basically deaf, I get the cochlear implant next week, so I am not the best judge of Gel.
But I'll tell you what, almost every online music publication has had a story about the band. I mean, publicity that you can't just buy:
Before the story started to fade away, it then moved into the world of the tabloids:
What happened, in a nutshell? Gel was a nice, little hardcore band that was starting to generate a national, as opposed to a regional, buzz...
Hell, I'll just let them explain for themselves:
"Hey everyone, friends and fans – Gel is no longer a band, and therefore will not be playing any of our currently scheduled upcoming shows. The reason is pretty simple at its core; the former guitar player, Anthony Webster, has committed such heinous acts in trying to forward himself in his musical career that he’s done irreparable damage to the band in the process, and it’s affected us as human beings more than we can even attempt to explain, to the point of being completely unable to do the band anymore. Here are some examples of what he’s done:
He’s stolen tens of thousands of dollars from us, and the best part is that he left it all on record for us to eventually find. He spent it on his own rent, personal food orders, and really whatever else he wanted to, because for a long period of time, no one had access to the bank account (or any accounts for that matter) but him, despite numerous attempts to gain access, because you know, we’re a band, and we should have all had access to those things. Oh yeah, he also spent it on a truly unbelievable number of OnlyFans purchases and mysterious CashApp transactions, likely in the same lane.
He posted nude images of band members on Reddit for the world to see. Yup, just casually, for who knows what purpose. Let that one really sink in. He did that all while still in a band with us too, by the way. Luckily, he’s truly terrible at covering up his tracks, so we have the receipts to prove that one too.
He put us in physically dangerous situations numerous times. From talking shit on the band Twitter and getting our van window smashed in with a baseball bat, to regularly driving erratically like a psychopath because he was “upset” for again, who knows what reason (oh yeah….he wouldn’t let anyone else drive either by the way, so we just had to deal with it), and throwing things at us because he’s a little fucking baby and can’t handle himself like an adult, it was always the same with him. Absolute misery and inconsideration for anyone and everyone around him (well, except for the people who he wanted to impress and would feign being a nice quy to…LOL).
Now, I’m sure a lot of people are thinking, well why didn’t you just stop dealing with it? Why didn’t you just leave? If you’ve ever been in abusive relationship, emotionally and / or physically, you’ll probably understand this better. It’s like that, but with your life’s work and passion at the forefront as well. It’s not so easy to just give something up that you care so much about, especially with pressures from outside organizations, people, etc that are all counting on you in some way. We wish that this could have all been easier, and we wish that it didn’t have to end this way – we’re fighters though, and we saw it through to the very end, until it simply couldn’t go on anymore. And we’re proud of that.
On that note, we’d like to send our most sincere and deepest apologies to anyone who this is affecting on a personal level and beyond. We know so many people were counting on us, including Spiritbox, Volbeat, our good friends in Anxious – we are so sorry that we have to end it this way and we truly hope for the best for all of you. Thank you so much to the friends we’ve made over the years, and thank you so much to our fans for always being there for us and showing us how much you care. Take care of each other, and love your friends."
Love,
Now, 2 weeks later, the story has really cooled. I found a nice little article from 2024 at Anti-Matter that really captured the essence of the band before things went south. Charismatic lead singer Sami Kaiser gave a brief glimpse into the inner-workings of the band, but other than that, remarkably little news.
Did Anthony Webster get arrested? It doesn't appear so.
Is Sami Kaiser going to keep playing music? I hope so.
Will the rest of the band regroup on Convulse Records? I'm less sure of that.
I am sorry to be so jaded, but if Anthony Webster owns the name Gel, the band is finished.
If the band owned the name, they could regroup and forge ahead, trading Webster's stake in the band for the rest of the members not suing his brains out.
You remember the first paragraph? The band Mayhem, inexplicably, is still around 30 years later. Gel now has a limited brand, whether they like what's associated with it or not. They question for the remaining members is: Do you exploit the pain and build on it...
Or walk away.
hmm...I guess gel is something the band didn't.