Category: Demo

The Lead – Automoloch – 1986

This demo from The Lead was released in 1986. From what I read the band had been together at this point for 2 years and this demo was released as well as the “Return Fire” demo in 1986 but I don’t know which demo came out first. I’ve read several reviews that the band started as a punk band and transitioned to Thrash Metal. This album is pretty early in their career and I don’t hear much punk, I think at this point they were strictly a thrash metal band. That said, my definitions of musical styles may not be yours. The interesting track on the album is a cover of Rez Band’s “Alienated”. It’s actually a pretty good cover and I was pleasantly surprised.

Tracklist
1 – No One’s an Atheist – 3:04
2 – XB – 3:07
3 – Sick Of This – 4:20
4 – You Don’t Need Him – 3:33
5 – Calling Out To You – 2:12
6 – Alienated – 1:46

Credits
Julio Rey – vocals, guitar
Robbie Christie – drums, vocals
Nina Llopis – bass, vocals

Divine Right – Tongues Of Fire – 1987

This is one of 3 demos from Divine Right who was really just Kevin Brandow playing all of the instruments. I couldn’t find out much about Kevin other than he joined Petra for their 1998 album, God Fixation. He is obviously a very talented musician as evidenced by him playing all the instruments on this demo which is no easy feat. The album has a Hard Rock/Metal feel and the songs themselves are first rate but the quality of the recordings is a bit questionable. This may or may not be a result of production but more likely it’s that the source copy was a cassette. Anyway head bangers give this one a listen, I bet you’ll like it.

Tracklist
1 – Tongues Of Fire
2 – On Guard
3 – Far Far Away
4 – One Way
5 – Mystery Uncovered
6 – Silent Victory
7 – Lightning

Credits
Cover Art – Julie Alvaro
Instruments and Vocals – Kevin Brandow
Mixed By – Mark Goyette
Produced By – Traci Leigh
Rhythm Guitar – Bob Alvaro

Damascus Road – I Am A Light Remix – 1982/2012

Damascus Road out of Georgia (not to be confused with Damascus Road out of Texas) recorded this little gem in 1982. Rumour mill says it was recorded with only 8 tracks and a quick listen leads me to believe that rumour. It has a southern rock sound and feel and would have been at home in any bar in the early 80’s. At times I can feel a bit of ZZ-Top and a bit of Skynard but this is a keyboard free Rock album. The original was only pressed with 500 copies but luckily the band remixed and re-released it in 2012 as a mp3 download.

Tracklist
1 – I am a Light – 4:03
2 – Thomas – 3:32
3 – Enter Into the Joy – 2:50
4 – Outer Darkness – 3:53
5 – Go Ye – 3:37
6 – Make It Home – 3:47
7 – Do You Have the Victory? – 3:33
8 – Cutting Edge – 3:29
9 – Hell – 4:32

Credits
Jimmy Dunn – Artwork, Composer, Guitar (Electric), Remixing, Slide Guitar, Vocals
Todd Geeting – Drums, Percussion
Kenny Lawrence – Composer, Guitar (Bass), Vocals

Apostle – Apostle – 1989

Apostle may be the biggest and/or best Metal bands to never have an album deal. It’s unknown why they never has an album deal but I’m gonna say I suspect it’s because they never got an offer they liked. The Florida based band had several demos which sold very well. I don’t remember seeing a group that had more demos over such a long period. As is common with demos there appears to be some confusion regarding this particular demo. Several sites show it as called “Metal for the Master” and was released in 1983. The cassette cover doers not show a title and has a copyright date of 1989 so that is the info I went with.

Tracklist
1 – King Of The Saints
2 – Overcomer
3 – Conquerors
4 – Born Again
5 – Parting The Red Sea
6 – Unlimited Power
7 – Armageddon
8 – King Of Kings
9 – Bread Of Life
10 – Holy Soldier

Credits
Bass – Mark Borrero
Drums – David Paul McKee
Vocals, Guitar – Matt Harding

Soldier – Babylon – 1988

Soldier formed in 1986 in the Bay area of California. They very quickly went into the studio and recorded their first demo “Louder Than Hell”. This is their second demo recorded in 1988. Soldier was very well received in the California CCM Metal scene. They had a cult following that stuck with them for years though the band broke up in 1988. Copies of their demo’s were next to impossible to find but Millenium Eight Records stepped up in 2002 and released both demo’s together on one CD (These tracks are from this CD). The CD must have sold well as Roxx Records released an anthology from Soldier in 2018. It includes almost everything, if not everything the band ever recorded.

Tracklist
1 – Babylon
2 – Louder Than Hell
3 – Deadly Weapon
4 – One Of A Kind
5 – Priceless Heart
6 – Where Have All The Children Gone
7 – King Of The City
8 – Borderline
9 – Angel
10 – First Time
11 – Promises

Credits
Drums – Al Whalen
Bass – Marc Allen
Guitars – Rick Hunter Martinez
Vocals – Jimmy Arceneaux

Inner Lite – Rockin’ The Faith – 1986

This demo appears to be all we got from Inner Lite and I don’t really know much about them. It’s a standard heavy metal album with the quality of the band being pretty good. The production quality isn’t the best but that could be because of the source being a cassette. None of the band (or producer) went on to do anything more that I can find so this will go down as one of those late 80’s Heavy Metal projects that didn’t take off.

Tracklist
1 – Live Eternally
2 – Open Your Eyes
3 – Rockin’ The Faith
4 – Perfect Love

Credits
Bass, Backing Vocals – Dan “Z-Man” Castro
Drums – Chris Powers (7)
Guitar, Backing Vocals – Nick Powers (3), Shiro Nobunaga
Lead Vocals – Billy Birkholz
Producer – Randy W. Brewer

Sacrament – Presumed Dead – 1989

Sacrament were one of the original Christian Thrash Metal bands. This was the demo that started it all for them. It was sold at their shows and apparently had pretty broad distribution. As for the music, I have no idea if it’s any good. I know nothing about thrash metal and can’t stand listening to it. If you like thrash metal this is probably a pretty good album judging from the positive reviews of it. The quality is a little off which is kind of strange for 1989 as technology was pretty advanced for producing demos. That said it just may be the copy I got. The original might be much better.

Tracklist
1 – Separate From Iniquity
2 – Assault (Satan’s Doom)
3 – Lies of The Blind
4 – Face Reality
5 – Presumed Dead

Credits
Bass – Eric Ney
Drums – Paul Graham
Producer – Frank Thompson
Guitar – Brian Toy, Mike Didonato
Vocals – Mike Torone

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