Stabbing Westward was an American industrial rock and alternative rock band. They formed in 1985 in Chicago, Illinois and began recording in the 1990s. Christopher Hall and Walter Flakus decided to start an Industrial band by the name of Stabbing Westward. The phrase "Stabbing Westward" first appeared in a 1950s newsreel film that declares "Soviet Russia was expansively stabbing westward, knifing into nations left empty by war."[1]