Shadowlord was the project-band that Gregg Garbach and Justin Carder were doing before joining with me and Tim in 1997 to double the line-up of Night Conquers Day. It was the 2nd demo which impressed me. The guys listened to the radio show I DJ'ed (Sonic Insanity) and sent in both demo's and we played tracks on the show from them. After hearing that second demo, I played it for Tim and we decided to ask them if they wanted to join NCD as our guitarist (Justin) and drummer (Gregg). They did. They never did anything further with Shadowlord. Quite a bit of Gregg's songwriting is on the "Rebellion..." CD. But neither of them was in N.C.D. when the debut CD was recorded - that's all me and Tim. This is what Gregg and Justin were writing and recording before I got to know them and play with them.
These are impressive demo's, especially the 1997 one. It's like Iron Maiden gone death metal. They were both very into the technical Swedish stuff of the early-to-mid '90s. Bang your fuckin' head!
Shadowlord - 1996 demo #1
1. ...Of Crimson Night (4:26)
2. Incite The Bleeding (1:49)
3. Heaven Ablaze (4:16)
4. Remorseless Slaughter (1:37)
5. Crown Of Nails (3:51)
6. Drowning In Sorrow (4:07)
DOWNLOAD HERE
Line-up on 1996 demo:
Gregg Garbach - Guitars, Vocals
Justin Carder - Guitars, Vocals
Drums are programmed. This debut demo is crude and it has programmed drums, but there are some cool riffs brewing and ideas beginning on this demo.
1. Need For Fear (5:02)
2. On Broken Wings Of Eternity (7:31)
3. Heaven Ablaze (4:37)
4. Swedish Cheese (9:24)
DOWNLOAD HERE
Line-up on 1997 demo:
Gregg Garbach: Guitar, Vocals and Drums (yes, REAL drums!)
Justin Carder: Guitar, Bass, backing vocals
This demo just kills. Great riffs and melodies - it's like Iron Maiden gone black/death. Excellent technical riffs and twin guitar harmonies. Gregg's drumming on here is impressive for someone who'd played only a year! Thundering double bass and fast tight speed. His guitar work is equally compelling and tight. Justin is equally a brilliant guitarist and also plays a solid bass line under everything. It helps that they went to Watchmen Studios to record this demo - it makes it so much heavier. The song "Heaven Ablaze" on this demo has completely different music than the song by the same name on the first demo. And the title "Swedish Cheese" was just a stupid name for the song because they had no real song title for it yet and never really came up with one. They hated coming up with lyrics and titles. But it's a great long song with some amazing harmonies and leads.
Highly recommended!
No comments:
Post a Comment