thrash metal maniac wrote:blacktears wrote:Xyster - seriously great band from Warrington. Their 3 early demos - "Children of Violence" ('87), "In Cold Blood" ('88) & "Black Bible" ('89) are superb. The album "In Good Faith" was a little disappointing, but still good.
Purgatory - the best thing to have come out of Weston-Super-Mare since John Cleese. Again, a band that released only two demos. The 2nd "Who Cares?", in particular, in bloody great. They also appeared on that "A Taste of Armageddon" album, which was a UK Speed Metal comp put out by Buster Bloodvessel from Bad Manners!
Arbitrator from Warwick
By the way, does anyone here like Slammer? That was a vilified band back in those days. Probably a lot of angst about them signing to a major label totally out of the blue, whilst more worthy bands were ignored.
blacktears.... man..... that's a lot of bands I've never heard of!
I have an Xyster demo rip.. it's titled '30 minutes of metal' though, do you have any info on that?
YES! Purgatory!!! I live in Weston!!!! I only heard one of their demos though, my mate got told about them a few years ago by the brother of one of the band members!
Arbitrater are pretty cool, I have Balance of Power on me comp, its a good album, not the fastest or heaviest or most 'out-there' but very enjoyable!!
I quite like Slammer, again, not the most original/heaviest/fastest or anything, but they have quite a good sound!!!
As i was in PURGATORY (Andrew jamieson Lead Guitar )it is cool to see people still remember us!!
I still have a copy of the 1st demo FLT but i'm still to find anyone with a copy of the 2nd 'Who Cares?' Does anyone here have a copy as i would love to hear it again.
The band did have two chances to become professional,we had roadrunner come to see us live but they chose to sign Xentrix instead.Infact we later found out that the a&r man had wanted to sign both bands but chose between us by a toss of a coin! We did sign a deal with Manic Ears records but just as we we're about to go in the studio the owner of the label sold the company to Trojan records who we're part owned by BMJ they hated the band and we were dropped.
We gave up after that.I played with various bands ,GRIPSHIFT were the last band i was in.Only Chris neighbour kept at it 1st wit GUTTERSNIPE then FOURWAYKILL.Two of the members left the uk,living in New Zealand and Australia.The funny thing is the A&R man working for Roadrunner is now the head of the company and chris met him at the kerrang awards a few years back,he told him he made a big mistake and should have signed us! Oh well thats the fickle fate of the music business!!! I'm still friends with a lot of people in the metal scene,Panic Cell and Onslaught.I still miss the fun times when the uk thrash metal scene was very active,there were a lot of good bands out there its just a pity only a few made it.
