Posts Tagged ‘us metal’
Damien Thorne – Sign of the Jackal – CD Review
Damien Thorne hit the scene in 1986 with their debut release Sign of the Jackal on Roadrunner Records. At that time 
Roadrunner had decent distribution and their tapes and records were in most stores. I am pretty sure a former friend from high school and I were out and about when this one got discovered. Sometimes it gets hard to remember. Doesn’t matter. This was a good discovery.
Damien Thorne fit the category for what I considered speed metal with a hint of NWOBHM in them. Justin Fates vocals were definitely the high point for me with these guys. He reminded me a lot of Glen May from Tyrant (LA)…good normal singing voice and great high notes heavily laden with reverb/delay/chorus. Good times!
Since I was listening to this on cassette for many years, side 2 would be considered my favorite side. Hell’s Reign, Escape or Die, Siren’s Call and Damien’s Procession (March of the Undead). Side 1 wasn’t shabby by any means, but the album got better as it went along.
DT had pretty decent riffs and good drumming with some good straightforward double bass stuff in it. Most of the songs are good mid-paced US metal.
While Damien Thorne weren’t any sort of groundbreaking act, the debut is certainly worth tracking down. The CD version was available for a few years but seems to be out of print now.
Tonight was the first time I have spun this in a few years and it really brought back good memories of my high school years (there weren’t many) of hanging out in Churchland with the old crew…
Man, looking back it’s a wonder that some of us are still alive. Well, sadly, some of us aren’t. It’s interesting to see who ended up where doing what.
Going back and listening to some of these old albums really sets off some stuff in the brain. It’s a good stroll down memory lane with some music that always takes me back. I definitely wore out a few cassette copies of Sign of the Jackal. Riding around in my 66 Nova II 4dr. While I generally don’t miss those days, there were enough good times intertwined with friends and music that will never be forgotten. Luckily I talk to friends that remind me of an album or I listen to an album that reminds me of some old friends.
Download it here. Buy it if you can find it.
Hittman – S/T (1988)
Now here’s a closet classic! I first heard the track Dead On Arrival on The Metal Shop in 1988 and I am pretty sure I 
taped the song, if not the whole show (wish I still had those tapes!). I let Kelz hear it the next day or so and he hated it. Doofus. Of course today he’s all about it, or so he says. He’s such a liar sometimes. hahaha. Kidding. Ok, not so much.
Anyway, I promptly went to the Music Man and picked up the cassette. I loved it! Mainly the dude’s vocals. He had a cool range. Good riffs on the album and some smooth drumming. Unfortunately the drums were severely under-produced much like the drums on Megadeth’s Peace Sells or Sanctuary’s Refuge Denied. Very muddy. I loved that tape. This album was just good classy US metal with some Geoff Tate type vocals but music not as progressive at Queensryche.
Lyrically this album could be better but I can overlook it. The one track I don’t dig is their version of Secret Agent Man (Secret Asian Man!). I never liked the original so I didn’t want to hear a cover version of it either. We jammed on this album a lot. We always cracked jokes about the song “Backstreet Rebels”; usually make jokes about some chick…”Backstreet Nikki” or whoever. Silly dumbasses we were, but the lyrics needed to be joked on. All in all this was a fun album to play drums to. The double bass work was straightforward enough that my feet could keep up with it.
In 1991 or 1992 I went to Cleveland to see my friend Bronwyn and hit a great string of record stores up there. One of which had this CD import for $3! This one store had a ton of metal for cheap on vinyl and CD. The manager said “I don’t like metal and just want to see this stuff out of here.” I easily dropped $200 in that place on some cheap metal. Glad to be of service, sir!
So, I highly recommend this to you as some really good 80s US Metal. Again, very out of print so I don’t mind uploading it. I do not recommend their followup album, Vivas Machinas. It was pretty bad.
The Metal Files 
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