Category: Demo

Matrix – Monkey See, Monkey Do – 1984

Before there was Bride there was Matrix. Matrix put a lot of effort into getting their music out regardless of a record deal. They actually produced 4 Demo’s before getting a record deal and this is #2 of those 4. This demo had a couple tracks that would later be released as Bride. I listened to both the demo and album versions of “Heroes”, and “All Hallow’s Eve” and I think I prefer the raw sound of the demo versions to be honest. All in all this is a very good sounding Demo and must have been a great prize to have at the time. Of course now it’s almost impossible to come by but luckily Bride re-released all their demo’s on CD in 2001.

1 – Heroes – 3:29
2 – Fright – 3:26
3 – Remember Me – 4:22
4 – Now You See Me (Now You Don’t) – 3:08
5 – All Hallow’s Eve – 2:37
6 – Slippin’ into the Light – 2:58
7 – We Are Going to Make It – 3:37
8 – Look at Me Now – 4:11
9 – He’s the Flyer – 3:42
10 – What Must I Do – 3:56

Armada – All Four One – 1986

Armada was/is a hard rock band out of Michigan. They formed in 1975 under the name Archangel and also appear to have used the name Prophet Song before settling on Armada. This was their demo and was sold in cassette form at their concerts. It is a fantastic hard rock album. If you read my reviews you know that often I am critical of self produced albums/demos. Not on this one though. The production isn’t super polished, but that’s a good thing. This is a raw Rock & Roll band and this demo captures that sound perfectly. They have re-released this album on CD but this is a copy of the cassette reworked as best I could. I see that they are occasionally referred to as a Metal band but they aren’t really and as I said this is good old Rock & Roll album. I think the lead track could have singled on secular radio, but of course it wouldn’t have due to the usual religious paranoia of radio at the time.

Tracklist
1 – Let God’s People Go
2 – Witness
3 – Turn Around
4 – Streetwise
5 – Rock’n
6 – Shelter
7 – You’d Better Believe It
8 – Cutting It Close
9 – Turning Point

Credits
Lead Vocals – Rick Ledesma
Lead & Rhythm Guitars – Dave Dawdy
Bass Guitar – Randy Carlson
Drums, Lead Vocals – John Heald
Produced, Engineered, Mixed – Mark Miller

Emerald – Armed for Battle – 1986

Emerald were a Metal group out of Southern California. They formed in 1978 but didn’t get a recording out until this EP in 1986. Somehow the band were able to save up (or were gifted) $13,000 to record this EP. The result is actually quite stunning for that budget. The album measures up to any Metal album of the time. In fact it is much better than many label based Metal albums. Normally I am terrified of self produced albums but not this one. But it’s not just the production that is good but these guys are really really good. As far as I can tell the album was self published and distributed. The number of pressings appears to be a matter of argument but suffice to say it was small with copies of the original pressing fetching in excess of $500 at the time of this writing. Luckily there has been several re-pressings and a CD version is available now. If you like Metal and you’ve never heard this EP you need to give it a listen. You won’t be disappointed.

Tracklist
1 – Armed For Battle – 4:10
2 – Teenage Suicide – 7:45
3 – We Attack – 3:52
4 – Look To The Stars – 5:07
5 – Winds Of Doom – 7:09
6 – Judgement Day – 4:14

Credits
Arranged By, Producer – Emerald
Bass – Joe Palma
Drums, Synthesizer – Kyle Morrett
Guitar, Keyboards, Backing Vocals – Dave Enos
Lead Vocals – Larry Philips

Resurrection Band – The Demos – 1976

As the story goes there were 3 Resurrection Band “Demos”. “Music to Raise the Dead” and “All Your Life” were recorded in 1974 and sold at their concerts in cassette form. This release is supposed to be the actual Demo that was presented to the Record companies. It has a few remixed songs from those 2 “demos” and some new tracks. It sounds like Stu Heiss is on a few tracks so those tracks would have to have been recorded in 1976 or later. Of interest on this release is a very early version of “Broken Promises”. Other than that it is all unreleased stuff except for “Quite Enough” which appeared on the Bootleg Live album.

Tracklist
1 – There Will Be Fire – 4:17
2 – Free – 5:02
3 – Help Us – 3:55
4 – Jesus Is The Rock – 4:31
5 – Quite Enough – 5:50
6 – Ocean Of His Love – 6:11
7 – He Speaks To Me – 2:17
8 – Broken Promises – 7:36

Credits
Bass Guitar, Backing Vocals – Jim Denton
Drums – John Herrin
Harmonica – Tom Cameron
Lead Guitar, Piano – Stu Heiss
Lead Vocals – Wendi Kaiser
Lead Vocals, Guitar – Glenn Kaiser

Resurrection Band – Music To Raise The Dead (Demo) – 1974

This Demo was one of two demos recorded by Resurrection Band. It was recorded in Gary Rotta’s moms basement and was mixed using headphones as she was sleeping. It was distributed at concerts and is very rare. This was recorded before Stu Heiss joined the band but the style is definitely the sound we became used to from Resurrection Band. I’m not familiar with any songs on this Demo except Quite Enough which showed up on the Live Bootleg album in 1984. This is a nice insight to where Rez came from and lets us hear what they were doing before we all got to hear them.

Tracklist
1 – Down Baby – 6:17
2 – I Can’t Help Myself – 4:17
3 – Crimson River – 6:04
4 – There Will Be Fire – 4:03
5 – We Can See – 4:42
6 – Better Way – 4:01
7 – Growin’ Stronger – 4:22
8 – The Man I Used To Be – 5:25
9 – Quite Enough – 5:58

Credits
Bass Guitar, Backing Vocals – Jim Denton
Drums – John Herrin
Harmonica – Tom Cameron
Lead Vocals – Wendi Kaiser
Lead Vocals, Guitar – Glenn Kaiser