Howdy, I'm writing a book covering all known metal demo tapes released in the 1980s. It's tentatively scheduled to be released in 2012. I'm already over a year into it, putting together the master list of tapes to research and review. I've also started contacting band members to verify info, and buying tapes and searching blogs for downloads so I can properly review the demos. As I've started running into dead ends, I created a blog to provide an open, searchable query forum where hopefully people can help. If you're curious please check it:

http://demolitionbook.blogspot.com/

If you can help in any way, please get in touch. I'm an "old school" collector and illustrator going back to 1985 when I bought my first metal zine, and I was a heavy tape trader right up until about 1990. Check it out, and thanks in advance for the attention and any help.

--Bob Plante, Albany, NY, USA

P.S. I'm also buying metal zines from the '80s and '90s. I will pay good prices if you're looking to sell.

That sound quite interesting, if a ridiculously mammoth task! Out of intrigue, do you have any kind of vague estimate of how many demo tapes you will be covering? I'm mean surely there's so damn many!

Yes, it's a huge undertaking but someone needs to do it, it has to be documented while all of us who participated still have our memories. Thousands of tapes will be covered. We're looking to break the entries by band, with each tape covered within the band's entry. It's be real interesting so far. And by the way, I've found plenty of tapes not listed in the Metal Archives, and have found many errors also. It's all good.

I'd suggest googling some key words of the music you're looking for along with "blog" or "blogspot" etc. I know I've found a ton of blogs focusing on old obscure releases just by googling a certain one.

Yeah, I've found a ton of demos that way, but there are plenty that are so obscure they haven't been digitized at this point.

This sounds like a massive task, good luck with it, man.
I wish I could help but the website last.fm can sometimes be a god send if you haven't checked it out.

The site is far from perfect and it relies on people like you, who have the correct information, to help provide us with it. Please don't sit on the info if you have some new/corrected information to share. Help make the site better. You do use it as a source of information in your own research. Help the next person out.

The correct Google syntax is "inurl:blogspot" without the quotes. It'll turn up everything that has your keywords in any url with "blogspot" in it, very effective.

To the OP: are you writing about ALL metal demos for ALL subgenres from ALL countries the 80s? Because that's really, really goddamn ambitious, especially considering all the Asian countries we're talking about here where the original people might not even speak English. I'd definitely be down for buying a copy of the book if you do even half of the demos, though.

Sounds interesting.

This is a pretty awesome idea. When it's finished i'll definitely pick it up.

I would strongly recommend checking out the Lockjaw and RAF666Underground blogs if you haven't already. They are a goldmine for old obscure demos.

If you haven't, I think contacting this man may help you a lot. He also has a profile here, MikaelBayusik.

Thanks for the suggestions, everyone.



Yes, I know, and the book will be a valuable resource for someone to update this site with once it's out. I'll have my hands full for a while writing it, though!

Yes. I'm even doing hard rock demos not covered on this site. Yes, that includes hair bands, as long as they aren't too keyboard-oriented and AOR-sounding. There are actually some decent hard rock tapes out there.

That's an amazing endeavor to undertake :O I wish you luck

Thanks, and be sure to check out the blog regularly, I will be posting queries almost daily.

How far are you moving out of metal into hard rock? Would heavy garage rock count as hard rock in your book? What about heavy psychedelic rock? There was some bands like this in the 1980s.
And how far into punk/hardcore/grindcore are you going? Bands like Napalm Death and Extreme Noise Terror started as punk/grind bands on their demos and didn't become metal inn till much later. The same goes for many crossover thrash bands.

Well, the early Poison and Alice 'n Chains demos will be covered. As long as there aren't heavy keyboards, it'll probably be covered. Not getting into neo-garage rock though. Give me some examples of psychedelic rock.



They will be covered, along with select straight HC bands that were influential on metal, like Siege.

Good luck with this mammoth task, I hope it goes well for you!

FUCKING SIEGE. YEAAAAH.

I was thinking psychedelic in the vein of garage rock, nor straightforward psychedelic. The Fuzztones have some psychedelic elements to them.

Yeah, not of that stuff will be covered. I'm sticking with acts that are in the metal milieu culturally.

2012 seems a tad optimistic to me as its such a huge undertaking. Anyways, I will buy a copy when it comes out. I have favourited your blog as well.

I could put you in touch with some people who documented the Irish scene in the 80´s if you want?

I agree, but that's what we're shooting for. I'm working hard every day on it.



Sure, I'd appreciate that, thanks. Send along a PM.

Not sure what you want/need but I own three original Grave Digger demos; 1982, 1982 and 'Return Of The Reaper'. I can supply images if need be.

What we're hoping to do is make the book graphic-heavy, using as many logos and j-cards as possible, so yeah, good scans of those would help immensely. Thanks!

You should try to gain access to the collections of people like Brian Slagel. Every band used to send their demo to him. Or people from zines like Bernard Doe, although he has sold a lot already.

Bob, info sent as promised (to the forbiddeneyedesign email address)
Good luck!

Thanks a ton, Ericfg.

I would love to plunder the collection of someone like Slagel, who probably has a whole warehouse full of tapes, but I wouldn't have the gall to ask for them, that would be a supremely tacky move. Take a look at eBay, many of these tapes, even the lowliest of the low, are worth some ducats.

Just wanted to pop in and say that this is an awesome project and the mark of someone who genuinely supports the scene. Hail!

Most Croatian metal demos from 80's are lost, but I can find most of them for download or upload it myself if you want it.

I can also find some info on them.

Actually, for a release with band permission of extremely rare material of that band, collectors will be more willing to supply tapes than they would some average Joe looking to get his hands on tapes, who would have to resort to methods such as paying top dollar or trading his rarities.

Likewise, it would seem more likely that 80s metal collectors would be more willing to supply recordings to you since it is an 'official project'

What is your stance on demos that were more 'violent noise' that were often associated with and spread about the 80s metal tapetrading ring? Many of these bands tried to play Metal, but either ended up playing something similar to modern Noisecore; having bad recording conditions that, muffled the sound of a really fast band, making them sound insane; or just plain sucked at playing and tried to play instruments as fast as possible but ended up producing unstructured garbage. Will these bands be included?

Also, though demos are generally 'officially released', will rehearsals or live performances that were recorded and spread among tape traders, without the bands permission, be included? How will you distinguish 'officially distributed' rehearsals and live tapes from taper recordings?

Check your PMs also

Impossible task my friend. Good luck but there's no way you'll be able to complete this endeavor.

Good luck on this, sounds like a great idea and something that will be well supported.

For the most part, yes. They fall into the category of tangential bands that, while maybe not technically heavy metal, sprang from that culture and through their aberrations helped move the sound forward (or backward in some cases). Generally if I question whether a band should be included, when in doubt, I ask myself, Were they on metal tape trading lists?



Great question. For now I am including them, if I can verify that the band sanctioned/released them. That might change if we find that the book has gotten too big and something needs to be cut, though we have discussed breaking it into two volumes, which I hope we don't have to do. I'm not including live tapes, unless the band issued it with a cover, making it "official" (many demos were recorded live).

I'll check my PMs!

This. But good luck anyway.

Thanks, and I hope to prove you wrong!

Thanks, LS. There's a blog out there I check regularly that uploads obscure Yugoslavian demos and zines, have found some gems there. But yeah, I'm still looking for tons of stuff and any help would be appreciated and acknowledged.

For the past 14 months I've been looking at every single entry of the Archives; almost done with the S groups.

OK, just say what you might need, because some of the demos aren't on every blog and some of them are deleted, etc.
So, if you can give me a list of ex-Yu metal/hard rock demos you try to find, I'll be pleased to help.