Milk Toast - 1989 Demo

So these guys were from Cortland, NY. At least one of the members went on to the band Creeper (whose demos I plan on uploading at some point), who then got signed to Roadrunner Records as Shank 456 (due to some lawsuits over the name Creeper). Anyways, Milk Toast were rather cool, as you can hear from this demo. This needed a lot of work to master it up to a more listenable form. The standout track, would definitely have to be, Ball of Hate. Enjoy...

Download: Milk Toast 1989 Demo

Final Nation 1990 Demo

This band I know nothing about. I found the demo, it rocks, and there is no info. Just that it was released in 1990 and they are called Final Nation. Female fronted Rock / Power Metal. Two great songs. If anyone knows anything about this band, please let me know!

Download: Final Nation 1990 Demo

DIRTUNDERgOD "deus ex machina" 1994 Demo

DIRTUNDERgOD were all Ithaca College students, I do believe. I am pretty sure this was the only thing they recorded, and I think they broke up after graduating. The vocalist Tait Halverson may have been local as afterwards he recorded a solo demo that was much more mellow than this. However, this is a great sounding release (only needed some minor mastering) with some really catchy songs. Very much electronic Hard Rock, as was popular back when this came out, the best of the four would have to be Give and Stick Figure Man. All four are pretty cool, though.

Download: DIRTUNDERgOD "deus ex machina"

Groovy Seeds - 1993 Demo

I don't think Groovy Seeds lasted very long. I could be wrong about that, but it seems like they weren't together more than a few years at most. The vocalist, Ted Kelly, and drummer, Bob Gaylo, were both in Saint Chaos, whose demo is posted here back a couple months. The sound is similar, but with more of a Groove to it. Go figure. I don't know a lot about this band, really. They were based in Auburn, NY, and this is a pretty damned good demo. And their little mascot was neat looking, not that you can see it well in this scan, but it's one of those twirling seeds that spin down from a certain tree, giving the thumbs up...

Download: Groovy Seeds - 1993 Demo

Twilight Kingdom "The Guardian" - 1995 Demo

The first time I heard this, I was blown away. The fact that this was basically a new band, and this was their first recording... Wow. This holds it's ground with most progressive Metal bands. You can hear elements of Dream Theater throughout, a touch of Fates Warning here and there, but at no point do they sound like either band. Heavy and melodic at the same time, Twilight Kingdom may very well be the best Progressive Metal band from Central New York, ever. And you can download this remastered version of their 1995 Demo and hear that for yourself.

A powerful opening track, March of the Guardian, couple of long, powerful songs, Shadow Troops and Awakening, following, and an almost New Age flavored instrumental, Winter Dreams, ends off the first side. The second side begins with an awesome song, Forever Sacred, inspired by the movie Thunderheart, another New Age-ish piece, Living on Borrowed Time, and then the Epic Angel to No One. Finally, tagged onto the end is The Ticket. A silly little song.

I also included their post Guardian demo tracks, bands members switched around a bit, but Chris Bedell and Thomas Rice were always the foundation of the band. They later signed to a small prog label, Siegen Records, who managed to destroy their recordings and relase something with possibly the worst production ever. The songs were great, but it almost seemed like the label and studio were sabotaging them for some reason. The resulting CD is FAR inferior to these recordings. The post Guardian tracks include all the songs from their 1997 Demo, which include Bell, Adze, Angel to No One rerecorded, Saviour, and Escape. And finally, Chris and Thomas recorded a couple of songs under the name Ex Nihilo, first as Twilight Kingdom, and then as a side project. Two of those tracks are on here, Ex Nihilo and Bleeding Son's Admonition. Unlike Twilight Kingdom, these tracks are ambient and gothic.

Twilight Kingdom broke up after Adze. They never played a show live, Chris being the drummer and vocalist had trouble pulling both off live. The band minus Chris went on to form Full Circle, who released one CD, Matter of Time. In the vein of Twilight Kingdom, but not quite as dynamic. That also has broken up. Meanwhile, Chris and longtime friend Pat Ward formed Lotus Project, which was more of a brutal, yet still progressive, type of band. They did perform live, with Chris doing both the drums and vocals. Currently, they are on hiatus, and a studio band. I may be adding their demo to this eventually at Chris' request. Chris and Pat are currently in the band Castle Bravo, more Hard Rock / Alternative than anything they have done before, but still an exceptional band. AND, Chris, Thomas, and Steve from TK, are working on yet another project, this time with Pat from Lotus Project and Castle Bravo, and Shane, who drummed for Full Circle. This project is called Death of Centuries.

Bascially, what you have is an amazing amount of musical talent, and it all tracks back to The Guardian.

Download: Twilight Kingdom "The Guardian"

Jealous Bitch - FourPlay (2002)

This band came from Auburn, NY. Basically it was a 2 piece, with guest vocalist. Paris and Tilly Hanson did all the song writing and such, and came up with 3 pretty awesome songs, and one, ok, song. Cody, Just a Touch Away, and Too Good to Sacrifice are all awesome, old school Metal songs. Bordering on Power Metal. Smile, is kind of a ballad. It's not bad, but pales in comparison to the other songs. Unfortunately, they were never able to put together a full band, and just kind of gave up. This was recorded at Loft Audio Recording in Lansing, NY, and I mastered it just a bit in 2009.

Download: Jealous Bitch "FourPlay"

Gangland - 1989 Demo

Hailing from CA, this is just pure power metal from the start. Produced by Bill Metoyer back in the day, this is a damned cool demo, and, the only thing that this band created. The guitarist (Tracy "Spacey T" Singleton) and bass player (Stanley E.) came from Sound Barrier, the vocalist (Tim Bouchee) did some vocals for Unleashed Power, and is currently in HavocHate. Their drummer (Joel Maitoza) came from a band called Elysian. I think the first song on here is by far the best, not to say the other two aren't pretty cool as well. The last song, Metal Morphisis, is that cheesy kind of Metal song so many bands liked to write back then.

I had to master this way up to make it more listenable. Even with the decent production work that it got, it was still a 1989 cassette demo. Check it out...

Gangland: Download

Forward Now - smileremover (1995 Demo)

Now THIS, is brutal. Industrial Metal that just caves in your skull. I do believe that this was their only release, and I also think that they helped out on a track from Slave One on their release, which I will probably post sometime later. Just two guys, in your face, uncompromising noise. Yet another great band from the Rochester, NY area that went mostly unnoticed. They do have a webpage up with very little info, but they did do some other stuff. Anyways, enjoy, all newly mastered...

Forward Now: Download

Evil Twin - The Silence Soiled

There is no good way to classify the music that Evil Twin made. They were from the Binghamton, NY, area back around 1995. We had them up to the radio show a whole of once, and I don't think I ever got to see them live. This demo I really love. I like stuff like this, catchy, and strikingly original. Karen Mittelstadt provides some interesting vocals, far deeper than usual for most female vocalists, as well as playing cello on all the songs. Burt Mueller provides the guitars and programming, and the guitars are secondary to the cello in a lot of cases. Finally, Generic Mike covers the drums and synths. Overall, you have something strange and unique. They changed their name near the end to Vitriola, and then shortly later broke up. What you have in this download is their only demo that I am aware of. Quite well recorded, all it needed was a little cleaning and mastering. Also included was a song called Down, which they recorded right after the demo was released. And finally, the last 5 songs are from their incarnation as Vitriola, all released on two compilation CD's. Enjoy.

Download: Evil Twin "The Silence Soiled"

Saint Chaos - Total Chaos - 1991 Demos

Myself and Joe at The Metallic Onslaught get asked for copies of these I think more than any other demo band from the Upstate New York area. So I went and grabbed the three tapes I have and cleaned and mastered them into this compilation. The majority of these songs were recorded in the latter half of 1991, with a couple from the very beginning of 1992. They did well in this area for quite a while, opening for various national acts and winning various area awards. No idea why they broke up, but the vocalist, Justin Sane, went on to sing for various bands in the area (Groovy Seeds, MT Web), none of which achieved the local notoriety that Saint Chaos did. Last I knew he was still doing various musical projects. Guitarist John Farley went on to join Rochester based Diamond Tyr causing their name change to ONE. He remained with them when Andre left the band (to join Dope and become Virus), and ONE became Bully and moved to NYC. For the life of me, I can't remember what the other two members of the band, Steve Blaisdell and Bob Gaylo, did after this. Anyway, these recordings are not of the highest quality, but I managed to make them quite listenable and enjoyable considering the source materials. For those who no nothing of this band, they were a Power Metal band, with some damned catchy songs. The opener, Nothing is Forever, is by far the best song they ever had. Other standouts are Die for You, Godsong, Pressure, and Hellfire.

Download: Saint Chaos "Total Chaos"