The first stirrings of the death beast, pt. 2
posted on 12 Jun 2010 under category History
So, we left off the last post sometime in 2002, when Sado-Stan Dementor, Axecutioner, and I had hammered his first lyrical ideas into what you all now know as the Apocalypse Metal demo - four original songs and a few covers. At the time we decided that this stuff was so good, and the ideas were still flowing, so we should go for broke and have a go at making a full album. Dementor sent me some more lyrics while Axe and I hammered riffs out.
At this time I was really busy. Though Rampage would end up going nowhere for a couple of years, I was working hard at it trying to write more stuff in the New World Blasphemy vein. I was working on Death Beast. I ran UHR, which was both a label and a store at that time.
And as if I didn’t have enough to do, Black Goat came calling.
Being pretty impressed with my label/distro abilities, he approached me in 2002 about running “Barbarian Wrath Vinland,” his second attempt to get a satellite distro running in the US. I had been in contact with him before, of course - he sold me my first Countess CDs, and I got to know him through his association with ChorazaiM of Megiddo. I even sent BG some Rampage stuff, figuring he might like Rampage enough to sign us - but he told me my vocals needed a lot of work. And it turns out he was right - and ultimately that’s what led to what happened next.
Just as he was chatting me up about running BWV, I had already decided to let him hear Death Beast. I figured that if he liked my music but not my vocals, then he should love Death Beast, since it’s (mostly) my music and someone else’s vocals. I sent him some MP3s, and then he demanded the full demo. I burned what we had and sent it to him - and thus Death Beast became a new Barbarian Wrath band.
Fate is funny, though - it would be three more years before the album finally got released… but those are tales for another time.
(It’s weird when someone you read about and look up to all of a sudden becomes someone who is a regular part of your life. That’s basically what happened with Opyros and Barbarian Wrath Vinland, and then of course us and Death Beast. It’s weird that it happened at the same time, but that was pure luck - I’d just basically finished a demo’s worth of material when he asked me about starting up BWV - just good timing, I guess. All too often I talk about what a mean bitch Fate can be, but she does give those nice moments one in a while.)