BH 031 Paleontology 1983-1992
These are demos and rehearsals from the earliest days of Bert and me playing music together in 1983, to my 4-track recordings at home, through the preparations for the Never Comes Silence release in 1992. All songs are from old, deteriorating cassette tapes, so the sound is hissy and the quality sometimes poor. JB.
Metal Merchants
From about 1982-1983, Bert and I played in various incarnations of a 5-piece cover band named Metal Merchants, with two or three different singers. We were both 16 years old. This tape is a rehearsal of two songs recorded at St. Rita's high school gymnasium, where we rehearsed one time, in Dundalk, MD: Victim of Changes (Tom Harris sings) and Phantom of the Opera (Scott Alpigini sings). We had a third singer named Matt Slowikowski, but no tapes of this band have surfaced yet.
Metal Merchants rehearsal (1983)
Rampage (1984)
After breaking up Metal Merchants, Bert and I formed a 4-piece cover band with Bobby Blumberg (drums) and Scott Alpigini (vocals) named Rampage. This band played a handful of local shows and parties before breaking up in late '84. Bert and I used to press the other guys to play heavier songs, such as Manowar or Accept, and it was always a battle. We also began writing our first original songs and rehearsing them, but nothing came of them and no tapes of them have been found.
Here are two rehearsals: 1984a and 1984b.
Have Mercy
The song "Haunted Sleep" is the only song I wrote for Have Mercy. We played it at rehearsals and once or twice live. Here is a live recording of the song from 1985.
Haunted Sleep (1985)
Panic (March 1986)
The band Panic existed in a few different forms, starting sometime in early 1985, when we were a 5-piece cover band that included Steve, Bert, Andy Kremer, and me. (Once, we won "Most Popular Band" in a battle of the bands. Steve and Bert still have their trophies.) I left this band to join Have Mercy in the summer of 1985. In early '86, after my time with Have Mercy, Steve, Andy, and I re-formed Panic as a 3-piece doom metal band. In June '86, we changed our name to Revelation, which was one of our favorite songs by Trouble. Here is a three-song rehearsal from March, during the time we still called ourselves Panic. We were still mixing thrash metal with doom metal, although we took even the slow songs at a faster pace than we would later. The song "Mind Control" contained riffs that we would eventually work into the song "Confusion." I don't think we had decided who would sing at the time, so the songs have no vocals.
Strange Phenomenon/Fatal Blow Salvation's Answer Mind Control
Recorded with my Fostex 4-track cassette recorder, this song features a double lead harmony over clean guitars. My plan was to use it as an intro for our "The Illusion of Progress" demo, but I never did.
Intro (1988)
After I borrowed Bert's old Roland 505 drum machine (and eventually bought it), I began making 4-track versions of cover songs. The one is Nasty Savage's "XXX," from their "Wage of Mayhem" demo (and later recorded officially on an EP). I probably chose this song because I liked programming the double-bass drums for the machine.
XXX (1988)
This song exists only as a fragment. Perhaps I taped over the original and it is lost forever. Or perhaps a complete version is on another tape, still missing. I remember recording three Cirith Ungol songs: "Better Off Dead," "I'm Alive," and "Edge of a Knife." Only this fragment remains so far. Also missing are versions of Manilla Road's "Crystal Logic" and Nigro Mantia's "Death Romance" and "Monolith of Infinity." SEE BELOW!
Better Off Dead (1988)
A great song by one of my favorite bands, Angel Witch. I never got around to recording vocals for any of these cover songs, so they remain instrumentals.
Angel Witch (1988)
I didn't drop tune for this song, as Wino did, but played it in E instead. Revelation used to play The Obsessed's "Hiding Mask" at rehearsal regularly, although at the time the original song had yet to be officially recorded and existed only on a cassette. I had many, many cassettes of The Obsessed.
Hiding Mask (1988)
Holocaust was another of my favorite bands, and in 1988 people still weren't too familiar with them. Revelation was supposed to cover this song, but we never got around to learning it well enough.
Death Or Glory (1988)
A song that would appear on our "The Illusion of Progress" demo (and eventually recorded by the Mark III version of the band), "Little Faith" was one of the first written. Bert Hall had recently joined the band, and we had been rehearsing 5 new songs for the demo. I played bass on this track, and I imitated, with the drum machine, Steve's already written drums.
Little Faith (1988)
Another demo for our first recording with Bert Hall, for the "The Illusion of Progress" demo. As with "Little Faith," we were to change some minor parts and riffs for the official recording.
Blessed Realm (1988)
This song was largely unchanged when we recorded it for the demo, except for a small part in the middle. I believe Bert is playing bass on this recording.
Infinite Nothingness (1988)
On this recording, I took the song at a much faster tempo, as I did all these songs, than we would record them. Perhaps this is a symptom of playing with a drum machine, or perhaps we were thinking much faster then, with the excitement and challenge of Bert joining Revelation.
Long After Midnight (1988)
These was the first new songs written in between the recording and release of "Salvation's Answer." This recording and the next two I recorded so that Bert and Steve could learn the songs. I'm playing bass on all the songs, which we would eventually record for our "The Unbearable Vision" demo and later the "Never Comes Silence" record.
Spectre (1990) The Unbearable Vision (1990) Frustrations (1990)
A friend of mine recently unearthed a tape containing the song "Against Nature" from the same sessions as those above. I suppose I must have given copies to friends, who traded them, years ago.
Against Nature (1990)
This song was a planned intro for our "The Unbearable Vision" demo, but I never used it. Here it is more of a complete song than an intro.
Dante intro (1990)
"Antique" is one of several all acoustic guitar or acoustic-based songs I was writing at the time. None of these were planned to be released and none were considered Revelation songs. They were private recordings that I played only for friends. I had a cheap Cassio keyboard that I used for these songs, which I would later also use for our "Never Comes Silence" record.
Antique (1990)
Another brief song from my private tapes.
Unnamed Song (1990)
This song is so named because of the white noise sound on the Cassio that reminded me of the sea. I was thinking of the sound of the surf, seagulls overhead, and the slow, irrevocable erosion of the beach.
Seascape (1990)
A brief song that may have been intended for our "Never Comes Silence" record but didn't make it.
Unnamed Song (1990)
This song is not my original, but I can't remember the composer--I've lost the sheet music for it. It's a modern classical guitar piece in four voices. This isn't a good performance at all; I never got around to recording a better one.
4-Part Song (1990)
Not really a song, this is a multi-track recording for voice and echo.
Unnamed Song (1990)
The final acoustic song on this tape.
Unnamed Song (1990)
These next songs are all from a tape Steve recently found in storage. It's not the same tape as with the songs above, although the mixes may be the same in some cases. I believe this tape is a copy of a lost master. The multi-track tapes are long gone!
I played bass guitar, guitar, and programmed the drum machine for these cover songs. I remember the Roland 505 being a real bear to program, and it took me hours and hours to get the drums even close. To this day, Cirith Ungol's "Frost and Fire" is one of my favorite records. I wonder what they would have done had they continued in this direction.
Cirith Ungol - Edge of a Knife (1988)
Cirith Ungol - Better Off Dead (1988)
Cirith Ungol - I'm Alive (1988)
Still a band that surprises and inspires me after all these years, Nigro Mantia was a huge influence on Revelation in the 80s. I can't believe I used to know how to play "Monolith of Infinity"!
Nigro Mantia - Death Romance (1988)
Nigro Mantia - Monolith of Infinity (1988)
Some of these next songs are repeated above, but these are from a different tape. I'm not sure if the mix is any different. They were on the same tape as the Cirith Ungol and Nigro Mantia covers.
No Faith (original title of "Little Faith") (1988)
Stranger (original title of "Infinite Nothingness") (1988)
Poets and Paupers (1988)
Long After Midnight (1988)
Blessed Realm (1988)
(More to follow?)
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