It was a steamy night in New York City. Orgy's fans sat in the packed auditorium chanting the band's na,e incessantly - "Orgy! Orgy! Orgy!" - during the sets of opening acts Dovetail Join and Boiler Room. Not that there was anything wrong with either of these bands - its just that Orgy's fans were aroused, and they wanted their heroes to take the stage... now!

Finally, some time well after midnight, vocalist Jay Gordon, guitarist Ryan Shuck, guitar-synthesist Amir Derakh, bassist Paige Haley, and drummer Bobby Hewitt - the five extremely tall, handsome men that make up Orgy - took the stage, much to the delight of their somewhat-drained following. Orgy lead singer Gordon wore eye makeup, two strands of hair were molded into devil's horns on his head. Lyrics to songs like Stitches and Platinum poured from his lips as he gazed intently into the eyes of audience members. Guitarist SHuck rocked back and forth with abandon as he fingers a riff riot. His spiky blond hair didn't move one inch the whole time. The crowd offered a thunderous response to every move the band makes, and to every step the band takes.

Audiences all over the country have been acting in a similar when Orgy is the subject at hand. Quiet simply those dedicated throngs have been getting addicted to Orgys brand of seductive industrial metal. Indeed, this is a band clearly on the cutting edge of hard rocks nect wave - a group that through their style and spirit (as well as their rock star good looks) are developing a dollowing everywhere.

"It's definently getting out of hand," Shuck says backstage. "Lately, people are freaking out on the streets when we walk by."

"We never know how people are doing to react to our band," notes Gordon. "But they always react."

"Everyone has an opinion on us," agrees Shuck.

Love them or not, these days it seems that just about everybody has an opinion about Orgy. As it happens, the right opinions have gotten Orgy to where they are today. California legends Korn, made Orgy the first signing to Elementree Records, their new Reprise-distributed record label. Now the group's first disc is fast approaching gold.

For those of you who might care about such things, the vision of a Korn-fronted record label first came together three years ago when Korn was supposed to headline the 1997 and final Lollapalooza tour. Guitarist Munky (a.k.a. James Schaffer) contracted viral meningitis a short time into the tour, so being forced into a period of non-touring, Korn decided to keep themselves busy by starting their own record label. Orgy were a natural choice for the Elementree signing as various band members have been co-writing songs with Korn for years.

But theres more to Orgy than just good looks, cool videos and famous friends. For example, Derakh is considered the technical wizard of the band, having co-produced both Coal Chamber's first album (who recorded the song Amir of the Desert for him) and Spineshanks debut disc. The other members of Orgy also share a multi-faceted musical persona.

"It was like just putting together the other like-minded individuals," admits Gordon after he started writing with Shuck. "Then we thought of Amir and we were like, We gotta call Amir because he'll deginently be into this."

Once Derakh hooked up with Shuck and Gordon and they started hanging out together, making music, talking musical philosophy-they realized there was a natural artistic attraction between them.

"Ryan and I conceptualized Orgy only about six months before we were signed," says Gordon. "We started writing songs together as soon as we hooked up. It started off in a garage, with Josh Abraham, our co-producer. We just started throwing sounds together, and the next thing you know we're recording an album and making plans to tour with Korn!"

As the music was laid down, the Orgy vision began to grow into something larger. The band started talking about the aesthetics, the visual stuff they wanted to try. They also focused their attentions on how they wanted to come off live and what their musi should sound like. They quickly found out they were of like minds on many levels.

Orgy's debut album, Candyass, is a probing look into the minds of five musicians, caught up in the glamour and excess of pre-Y2K Hollywood. Equally influenced by early '80s British synth-pop and the roar of the '90s new metal underground, from their moment of inception, Orgy was intent on becoming a major rock and roll force.

The band's debut album offers a unique musical hybrid, fusing the drive of metal with the sleek, futuristic flourishes of new wave and techno-dance. Candyass prompted one critic to call them "Duran Duran on an acid trip," and their live show prompted another to label them "music for the next century." For some reason, one of the group's favorite tags for their music is "death pop."

The term death pop is kind of cool, admits Gordon. That's something I came up with in teh shower one day, like, Oh, yeah, you know, death pop."

"We're dark and mlodic, so it fits," admits Derakh.

One might imagine that with everything going for them, life has been relatively easy for Orgy. Well, it has been-but that doesn't mean that they haven't daved the occasional hostile crowd, especially when they were still little-known and they were opening shows for the Might Korn.

"Korn fans are generally more open minded, thank God," notes Gordon about Orgy's first tour. "That was a good thing because on Family Values we were on tour with two of the largest rock bands-in Korn and Limp Bizkit's case-theyre like the two biggest bands out there. It's great that they're friends of ours. Because they pulled us on this tour, and we didn't know what to expect, and it came out really good. In the long run, it was cool."

After getting the grip of the road with their music parents, Orgy toddled off with Love and Rockets in spring 1999, followed by dates with Sugar Ray and Videodrone. They have been loved and nurtured and are now a thriving musical entity in their own right.

"Obviously we want to be successful, but we don't really think about it a lot, concludes Derakh." "Whatever happens, happens. But I do know we've only just begun to work this record."

- Jodi Summers