Posts Tagged ‘karion’
Karion Concert Review, San Antonio, TX 04/12/2014
Two years ago I reviewed Karion’s Iron Shadows release. Last week I finally got a chance to see them at Papa Woody’s in San Antonio as they are preparing to play the KEEP IT TRUE 2014 metal festival. I’ll just say this, they are going to go over very well there.
I was extremely tired from seeing a concert in Fort Worth the night before but I had to get off of my ass to go to San Antonio to see this legendary Texas metal band.
Their set was slated to start at 1130 and I was fading fast after I got down there. Luckily Scott from Texas Metal Underground was there to keep me company as well as my drummer.
The band comes on and is just pounds out the metal…unfortunately to only about 20 or so people. The 2 previous shows were better attended and also had several of the Texas metal royalty there to support. I had only seen Art play guitar in his Motorhead tribute band, Martyrhead, but watching him play this stuff was just a pleasure. He’s a damn killer guitarist. Chris Cronk’s vocals are still stellar. I recommend looking up Talisphere on YouTube. Also, one of the audition demos he did for Fates Warning is up there as well. Pete Perez put on a bass clinic. What a truly gifted musician. If you’ve heard his work with Spastic Ink and Riot, you’d already know. The drummer isn’t original and is apparently MIA but the new guy, Chip Alexander (Evil Mothers, Hogbitch), holds it down perfectly. The whole show was truly great and we got the extra bonus of them playing the SA Slayer Prepare to Die EP.
I did get Cronk to sign the book and also ran into Jerry from San Antono’s Death Tripper who are also listed in there.
Can’t wait to see them again!
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- Karion
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- Pete Perez
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- Art Villareal
Karion – Iron Shadows CD/DVD Review
There’s no secret that Texas had a legendary metal scene in the early-to-late 80s with the likes of Watchtower, Militia, Wyzard, Syrus, SA Slayer, Juggernaut, Sentinel, Obliveon Knight, Assalant, Helstar, Pantera, Rotting Corpse, Gammacide and a ton of others.
Another band that deserves mention and praise from that era is Karion which featured Art Villarreal (SA Slayer), Chris Cronk (Jag Panzer, Fates Waring, Talisphere, SA Slayer), Pete Perez (Riot, Reverend, Spastic Ink) and Frank Ferreira (Helstar).
Starting sometime last year, Art and friend Bob “Dog” Catlin (Juggernaut, SA Slayer) began the process of cleaning up some Karion demos and the result is the 2-disc set entitled Iron Shadows.
Disc 1 contains 6 tracks which I believe are compiled from their 84 and 87 demos, although not all of the songs from the 87 demos are on the CD. Karion brings that great style of progressive power thrash that was well-known in south central Texas at the time. Good clean higher ranged vocals, solid guitar riffs and killer solos, great bass work and fine power drumming made this disc a valuable addition to your collection of true 80s metal, especially for the fans of Texas metal.
Disc 2 of a live DVD of a 1986 Karion show filmed from the balcony of the Villa Fontana. The audio/video quality is much better than I expected and shows that the band had a really good fan base at the time. Their performance is solid and makes me wish even more that I had lived in the area at the time.
One interesting thing that I found while doing a little extra reading about Karion is that vocalist Chris Cronk recorded 2 different demos with Fates Warning in 86 and 87. I haven’t listened to them yet but a quick search will lead you to a download of those.
I can’t recommend this set of discs enough. It’s been kicking my ass for a week now. I recommend that you pick it up from Rockadrome Records in San Antonio. Keep it local!
The Metal Files 
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