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A
TRIBUTE TO...
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It
all started back in 1985 in Bayonne, New Jersey, when drummer Kevin Kuzma and
bassist Louis Starita joined forces with vocalist Gary Markovitch and guitarist
Adam Tranquilli under the band's original name, BLOOD LUST. BLOOD LUST's first
studio effort surfaced in February of 1986 in the form of a four song demo tape
entitled "Suicidal Mission". Later that month, Michael Basden was
recruited as a second guitar player. In May of 1986 the band was approached by
New Renaissance Records to appear on a pair of compilation album "Thrash
Metal Attack" and "Speed Metal Hell Volume 3", with two tracks
lifted straight off the demo tape. Soon afterwards the band was forced to change
their name, and so they did... now calling themselves BLOOD FEAST. In June of
1986, New Renaissance Records offered the band an album contract. The band
financed the budget for the recording of the first album themselves, and in
February of 1987 the debut album from BLOOD FEAST entitled "Kill For
Pleasure" became reality. Even with an extremely poor production and very
little promotion from the record company, the album quickly became New
Renaissance's top selling release. It was the band's musical talent,
determination, and electrifying live performances (which always ended with a
blazing cover of the CELTIC FROST classic 'Into The Crypts Of Rays') that gave
them the recognition they deserved, not to mention their strong underground
following and many favorable reviews in magazines and fanzines worldwide.
Realizing BLOOD FEAST's potential, New Renaissance immediately sent the band
back into the studio to record a four song mini-LP. In December of 1987,
"Face Fate" was released and almost immediately outsold the debut
album. In June of 1988, BLOOD FEAST found themselves back in the studio to
record a ten song demo, this time as a quartet, as Adam Tranquilli was asked to
leave the band (he was later seen in HEADLOCK and most recently resurfaced in
the band WITHOUT END on guitar and lead vocals - for more details, check out our
review section). This demo was titled "The Last Remains", and it was
recorded on 24 tracks and indicated a tremendous growth in the band's
songwriting and musical skills. The music is still aggressive and powerful as
ever, but the addition of professionalism and finesse brought their music to new
heights. There were some minor changes in the production of the album, such as
new cover artwork and a name change. The title became "Chopping Block
Blues" and was recorded in the summer of 1989 and released in February of
1990. "Chopping Block Blues" marked the band's greatest songwriting
achievement, and is a concrete indication of their true potential and unique
style, but unfortunately, became the band's last recording, as they broke up
soon after its release. After being disbanded for over 10 years, the band got
back together for a one time only gig at the March Metal Meltdown in Asbury
Park, New Jersey in 1999. When they hit the stage, they took everyone back to
1987, because it seemed like you were seeing them in their prime. Unfortunately,
although there were rumours of a possible reunion, it never happened after this
concert and now each and every member is living his own life. However, in 2002,
a compilation CD entitled
"Remnants: The Last Remains"
(including demo tracks, unreleased stuff, live and cover versions) was released
by former drummer Kevin Kuzma's newly founded own label Militia Records...
The
following interview was done with Kevin way back in 1998 and originally appeared
in Snakepit Magazine, issue # 4, but as most of its contents is still pretty
fresh, even today, we figured that it was time
to re-publish it for your enjoyment here...
As far as I've heard, the band originally started
out as BLOOD LUST... Was that your first band ever or was there already anything
prior to that?
"Uhm... BLOOD LUST... BLOOD FEAST was pretty
much my only real true band. I mean, I've played in cover bands before that. We
used to play a lot of Thrash covers at the time. I might have been in about
maybe two different bands before that. Nothing serious, we never wrote any kind
of original material, it was basically just... you know... some friends got
together and we just used to play some songs that we liked. We did stuff by... I
don't know man... god... EXODUS, POSSESSED, CELTIC FROST; DESTRUCTION,
SODOM, VENOM, METALLICA... We did a lot of underground stuff, that was
considered heavy at the time... we did some RAVEN, we did ANGEL WITCH... we did
stuff like that. At the time, obviously, when l originally first started
playing, those were pretty much the bands that I was influenced by... I never
really had too much influences as far as mainstream kinda Rock. It basically
went from BLACK SABBATH to TANK to a lot of the NWOBHM stuff and then it just
went from there. But basically the answer to the question is yeah, I was in
other bands prior to BLOODLUST, but nothing serious, just basic coverbands, just
fooled around, played out maybe a
few times with that and had a good time with it."
When did you exactly start out with BLOOD LUST and
who was in the line-up at that time?
"BLOOD LUST started... I think we formed
probably at about like '85. It happened pretty quick. It was myself on drums,
Lou Starita on bass, Adam Tranquilli on guitar and Gary Markovitch on vocals. We
used to have a different guitar player in the band at the time, I don't even
remember his last name... his name was also Kevin something, but he just really
wasn't working out. When we first got together,
we started out playing some coversongs, a lot of coversongs that we did, again
were in the same type of vein as I previously mentioned. We were real big on
CELTIC FROST; we did like, I think two CELTIC FROST covers, some SLAYER, some
METALLICA, some EXODUS... But the line-up was originally the four of us and we
started, like I said... I believe it was around '85 when we originally got
together."
Did you still play a different style of music at
the time?
"If you're basically asking us, if we were
playing stuff out of the mainstream, yeah! I mean, like I said, ever since I
started playing in a band, I've never really played anything, but more of the
aggressive, more underground type of Metal! Whether you wanna call it Thrash,
Death, Black... whatever kinda term you wanna use for it. It was always
basically out of the mainstream, aggressive, fast... you know, that type of
stuff. "
When and why did you go for a name change? Was
the other BLOOD LUST (who were also around at the time) responsible for your name
change in any way?
"Exactly! They were pretty much the reason
why we changed the name. Soon after our demo was released we discovered that
there was another band called BLOOD LUST out on Metal Blade. We didn't really
know how to handle it at the time, we basically kept putting out our demotape
under BLOOD LUST... A lot of people knew us already as BLOOD LUST around our local
area. We
were starting to make a name for ourselves, we were starting to make an impact
into the scene around here. It wasn't really until we were starting to talk to
our record company and really got into the thing about getting signed, when the
name change really came up. It was pretty much an advice from our lawyer at the
time to basically say, 'Listen... they might have copyrights, they might have
trademarks on the name, so you guys better change your name'. So, for the sake
of really getting signed without any type of legal hassle and going through this
at the last minute and instead of building up even a bigger following under the
name BLOOD LUST we just decided, that yeah, its probably better to just go ahead
and change the name. BLOOD FEAST I think was always something that was sitting
in the background anyway, to tell you the truth. We pretty much had a list of
names before we actually picked out BLOOD LUST, you know. And I think BLOOD FEAST
was one of the names on there. So, it wasn't like it was a big decision, it
wasn't really that hard to go back and say 'Well, now we have to look for a
totally different name and change I it this much and people won't know who I we
are anymore... ' and all that kinda stuff. We basically just went back and I
looked for something similar or close I and we all liked it, so..."
Did you already record anything as BLOOD LUST or
did the "Suicidal Mission" demo come out under the BLOOD FEAST
moniker?
"No, the demo originally came out under
BLOOD LUST. The entire time the demo was available, it was under BLOOD LUST. Like
I said, we really didn't need to change the name or felt we had to change the name
until we were really getting close to getting signed. And basically that's
what we did."
Tell us a bit more about that demo, like which
songs appeared on it, how many copies you spread around, what kind of response
you were getting and stuff!
"Well, I don't have a definite account on
how many we actually made and sold and spread out. A lot of 'em went to
fanzines, a lot of 'em were done as giveaways, I mean, we used to go to shows
and just hand out our demotape at shows. There were only a few stores at the
time that would actually accept demotapes. I would have to say that the
demo itself... I don't know... I'll say a thousand maybe, that we actually put
into stores and maybe sold. The rest, like I said, were pretty much given away.
The four songs that were on the demotape, were 'Menacing Thunder', 'The Evil,
'Bloodlust' and 'Suicidal Mission'."
What made you recruite Mike
Basden as your second guitarist after the recordings of the demo? Did you feel
you were lacking in harmonies or was it just to give the band an even heavier
sound?
"I would probably have to
say that harmonies at that particular time, when we were creating the songs, had
really nothing to do with it. It was basically to have a heavier sound, but also
to have another guitarplayer's input. We felt that it would be better to have
two guitarists to come up with ideas and share ideas between themselves as
far as writing, rather than just have one. I'm not saying that one is lacking
anything... Like I said, I think the initial reaction of getting a second
guitarplayer was due to the fact of... we wanted to present ourselves to be
really really outstanding live and we felt that having the one guitar player was
sufficent for recording purposes and writing purposes, but to actually perform
the material live was a main concern on getting a second guitarplayer. And
that's why Mike pretty much entered."
With two of your songs,
'Manacing Thunder' and 'Suicidal Mission', you managed to appear on the New
Renaissance Records compilation albums "Thrash Metal Attack" and
"Speed Metal Hell Vol.III' respectively. Have they been taken from the
demos or were they from the album recording session?
"Those two tracks, that
we put on those comps were strictly right off the demos. What we did was, we
went into the studio where we recorded the demo itself, we basically just went
in and we mastered them a little bit. Nothing was really remixed, we basically
just threw a little bit more highs and lows into it and sorted some of that
stuff out."
How did you actually hook up
with New Renaissance Records? Was that the only label that showed interest in
the band or why did you go with them? I mean, at least overhere their reputation
at the time wasn't really the best, so...
"I could probably spend
another five audio tapes explaining this whole situation to you with New
Renaissance, but to save me the headache and to save you the time, I'll pretty
much $sum it up as short as possible. At the time when we had our demotape and
we were sending out a bunch of packages and stuff like that we weren't
really getting the best response from record companies. A lot of the record
companies that we sent stuff to, the bigger record companies at the time anyway,
Roadrunner, Metal Blade... we didn't really send too many overseas record
companies any type of packages, but it was mainly trying to get a label here in
the U.S. We probably would've had a better deal, if we did send stuff out to
Europe more and probably gotten a much better record label to support us rather
than what we did here in the States with New Renaissance. So, yeah, they were
probably one of the only labels that showed interest in us that they weren't
signing as much Thrash Metal, which we were considered at the time. They wanted
to move on to explore other types of Metal, other types of music, I believe. The
letters were pretty consistent in that kinda way. New Renaissance we felt... the
good thing about them at the time we thought was that they were a new label and
that they were gonna be hungry and that they would be willing to do a lot more
for new signings, due to the fact that they were a new label and they might be
actually starting to make an impact into this record industry. You know, we were
young, I mean, I was 18 when I signed that contract and I was pretty much the
youngest person in the band at the time, being about maybe two years or three
years behind the oldest person in the band. And we really didn't have any type
of experience, we didn't really have anybody that we could count on as far as
giving us any kinda legal advice or explaining any contracts to us. We basically
went to an attorney that I knew personally, from my family actually dealing with
him. And he basically
looked through the contract and said 'Well, this is the
contract and if you guys feel that this is a sufficient contract and you guys
wanna be involved in the record company this way, then go for it!' And basically
that's what we did. Long story short - the way New Renaissance turned out, they
pretty much hurt us more than anything else! You know, we had a lot of
opportunities thrown at us from different people to do a lot of kinds of
different things. Touring was a big thing that we could've done, we could've
done extensive touring, more so than what we did. But unfortunately you needed
some type of backing, not only from the company that was going to actually book
the tour, but from your record company! And you know, New Renaissance pretty
much just sucked! We were one
of the only bands that was, l know, at the time selling for them. We were one of
the only bands who's actually out on the road and doing stuff on our own. And
like I said, we pretty much had a lot of opportunities slipped through our
fingers due to the fact that... when it came time for New Renaissance Records to
actually provide us with the support that we needed, whether it be advertising ,
whether it be funds to go on the road or any type of support or anything like
that, their answer was always "We don't have the extra funds to do
it!" and it hurt us more than it helped us. So, if you're telling me they
didn't have the best reputation, I'm sure you're understanding where I'm coming
from as far as the record company is concerned."
How about the live shows of BLOOD FEAST back
than? Did you have many possibilities to play out across
the country or was it difficult to get shows?
"Shows was never really a difficult thing. At the time the club
scene was a lot stronger for Metal, to see live performances by Metal bands than
it is today. Again, like I previously just said, we had a lot of opportunities
that we could've done, a lot more stuff than we did and unfortunately because of
the situation we were in with the label that we were on, nobody really wanted to
touch us due to the fact that they knew that there was gonna be no kind of tour
support available for us. What we did manage to do, we managed to tour from the
Eastcoast to the Mid West of this country with DEATH ANGEL, who were pretty
popular at the time. We also did a Eastcoast tour with the band DEATH, I think
it was during their "Leprosy" album and basically around here it was
were we mostly did our shows. We mostly
played along on the Eastcoast... New York, we constantly played a club which I'm
sure everybody's familiar with, called L'Amour in Brooklyn. We used to get a lot
of really good opening
spots on those shows that we did there, because we were a local band and our
following was strong, the people used to definitely come out to see us along
with whoever else was playing. We've opened up for a lot of good and big bands
and we've done stuff with TESTAMENT, POSSESSED, KING DIAMOND, MEGADETH... I mean
the list goes on, you know. We had a lot of good opportunities also to do stuff
that never happened. We were supposed to do something over in Europe too, which
again fell through due to the fact of lack of tour support, lack of promotion,
due to New Renaissance's part. I know that we were trying to get something
together, to do something over in Europe at the time with SEPULTURA, which
would've been great. But unfortunately a lot of the stuff fell through. But
getting shows in general around here to keep us alive, to keep our name going...
like I said, it was never really a problem to get shows. I think we were a big
enough band around here and in the States at the time to be able to hook up with
bigger bands and do support for them at shows."
Where did you draw your main musical and lyrical influences from back
then?
"Musical influences for us, and I guess I speak on Gary's part,
cause I think Gary was the guy who mostly wrote all the lyrics... was stuff that
we were listening to at the time. You know... I'II go through it again, we
listened to bands like VENOM, METALLICA, SLAYER, DESTRUCTION, SODOM,
TESTAMENT... the list goes on, anything that was Thrash, a lot of German stuff
man, I mean, we used to listen to... I know everybody in the band used to be
into ASSASSIN, ARTILLERY... you know, all kinds of stuff like that. Lyrically
I'm going to say, I feel like I'm speaking on the part for Gaary, but... you
know... the music, the scene itself, all the things that influenced us, the
movies we used to watch, the news on TV man. I know that there was some songs
that he basically got ideas from watching the news, so I'd say it had to do with
music, it had to do with everyday life stuff that we'd see, stuff that we'd
hear... just along the lines of that is pretty much where all our influences
came from."
When and where did you record your debut album "Kill For Pleasure".
Was it difficult for you to come up with a satisfying result as you had to pay
for the recording on your own?
"We actually recorded "Kill For Pleasure" in a city called
Hoboken here in New Jersey. As far as the production, I'm going to say that I'm
not a hundred percent satisfied with the way it came out. I think that it wasn't
really a good representation of what the band actuslly sounded like when you
came to see us or what we were actually capable of doing. Due to the fact that
we did have to pull the money out of our own pockets to pay for the recording of
it... we went to a wellknown studio around here... But the problem was not so
much the studio we went to, but it was the people that we were working with. You
know, we walked in and the guys who were running the studio, who own the studio,
really had no idea whatsoever on how to take what we were laying down on tape
and get across in the way we were trying to present it. Therefore I'm going to
say that, even with the minimum amount of money we spent on it, I think that if
we actually had better people behind the board, when we were recording it, it
probably would've come out much better. I do like the fact of how it sounds
though, due to the fact of that it's so raw! I mean, if you basically came to a
rehearsal of ours, you'd pretty much hear those songs the way they sounded with
an overall little bit better sound, a little bit better guitar sound, a little
bit better drum sound, the way we really sounded and the way we were trying to
present our sound really wasn't been shown on that recording, but, like I said,
I love raw recordings like that. I don't like recordings that sound like like
overall shit, which I don't think "Kill For Pleasure" sounds like, it
definitely lacks the prime quaIity production that a lot of bands were getting
at the time and even have today. But I think for the time of when it came out
and for the type of material that it is, I think the production is one of the
things that actually draws some people to it."
What kind of response did
you get on it? Do you think New Renaissance Records promoted you properly
enough?
"No, I don't think New
Renaissance did anything properly enough. But the response was phenomenal!
Basically... I know she had some type of distribution overseas, I don't even
recall who it was at the time, but the fanmail was so consistent. I could go to
the P.O. Box every day and there would be letters in there, not one, not two,
but several letters from people from all over the U.S. and mostly, I would say
probably 75% of all of our fanmail, came from Europel The response from what I
could tell, and this is just by going from live shows, this is just by going
from fanmail itself, by doing the shows that we did, touring a little bit that
we did and talking to people, it was a great response that we had to that
record!"
In 1988 the "Face Fate" EP followed,
which was only released as a picture disc. What was the reason for that? Was it
limited in any way? Tell us a bit more about the songs that appeared on that and
when you recorded them!
"The "Face Fate" EP actually was
done under the request of New
Renaissance Records. They knew that "Kill For
Pleasure" was doing really well, they told us that it was doing really well
and they wanted to put something out that was gonna be a little bit special for
the people who were into this band at the time. Picture Discs back then were
something of a collectable kind of appeal. The size, you know, just putting out
a picture disc with old songs on it or not giving something bonus seemed
like a bogus kinda thing for a record company to do in our eyes. So, basically,
when New Renaissance presented us the idea of doing something like this, a
Picture Disc for something, instead of putting "Kill For Pleasure" out
on a Picture Disc or maybe just giving them four songs on a limited edition
Picture Disc, we basically decided that we would like to do something new or
something different with some of the songs that we had and put it on this, so
that the fans would not only buy it for the reason of it being a collectors
Picture Disc, but would also be buying it for what it was, what was on it. It
also came out on
cassette by the way and the reason it came out on cassette was because of the
material on it too. 'Face Fate' was a brandnew song and that was one of the
songs that was currently new to us at the time, so right away we decided that
'Yeah, we definitely wanna put a brandnew song on there!'. The track
'Bloodlust', the reason that it's really on the EP, is due to the fact that it
was not released on "Kill For Pleasure" here in the States. The song
'Bloodlust' was recorded during the "Kill For Pleasure" sessions, but
was only released on the vinyl and on the CD copies, released in Europe at the
time. Like I said, there was no CDs at the time originally when "Kill For
Pleasure" was released here in the States. It was onIy on vinyl and tape.
So,
basically the song 'Bloodlust' was left out. So, what we did was, we decided
that since we're gonna go in and record a brandnew track, let's put this song
'Bloodlust' on it, since the only way you'll be able to get it was in Europe,
plus it was a re-recorded
version of it, which came out absolutely amazing! If there's any favorite
recording of ours that we have, that's favorite to me, would be the "Face
Fate" EP, cause I just love the way that recording came out! lt represents
the band real well, it's a powerful recording, but yet it's clean, it's raw
enough, l mean, I think it just pretty much has all the elements that captured
us and represented us in a good way. The other two tracks that were on it were
'R.I.P.' and 'Vampire'. 'Vampire', going from responses at live shows and
mail was a song that got a really good response. So, basicaIly we wanted to take
a familiar song and put it on there and remix it. And also what we did was, we
took the song 'R.I.P.' The song 'R.l.P.' we put on there because that was one of
the band's personal favorite songs. And what we did was, we also remixed that.
The Picture Disc was done in a limited edition, I don't know how many copies
were made. Unfortunately things started going bad, relationship wise between us
and New Renaissance and we never really had a good communication with them after
a certain period of time. And because of that I don't really have any type of
numbers to give you as far as limited quantities. But yes, it was done as a
limited edition piece!"
After that, I pretty much lost sight with BLOOD
FEAST overhere and the only thing I still remember is your 1990 album
"Chopping Block Blues" which sounded a lot weaker than the previous
material. What had caused the long break in-between and why did Gary go for a
more 'controlled' way of singing on that? I think it hurted the band quite a
lot...
"Well, I am really not too fond of
"Chopping Block Blues" myself due to the fact of, like you said, I
feel it's a little bit of a weaker sounding record. The reason for that though
at the time. A lot of the old label, like I said, were saying, was pretty much
what we were being influenced by at the time of writing that record. Again, we
were all listening... in the beginning of all this whole band thing, you know,
like I said, I mentioned all those bands we were listening to, the heavy Thrash,
the Death Metal... we were just progressing from there, but then we started, you
know, really getting into a little bit more of a more polished sound...
METALLICA, TESTAMENT was a big influence on us at that time, OVERKILL... there
were just certain bands that were catching our ear and they weren't as rough
sounding as some of the older stuff that we were listening to, as some of our
earlier influences were. And therefore it was a little bit fresher, it was a
little bit newer to us and we started just pulling more influences out of that
at that particular time of the writing of "Chopping Block Blues".
Again, perfect example, like you said, the material was a little bit weaker. I'm
going to say that it was weaker due to the fact of the production. I don't
really think that the aggressiveness was so much lost, but I think that the
production was definitely lacking as far as power. But again, basically I think
that had to do with several things.
I think it had to do with lack of funds, I think it had to do with the studio
that we went to and I also think that it had to do with ourselves, you know,
being influenced by that a little bit more polished, a little bit more cleaner
sound. It's where we were going at that time. I was never a big fan of
TESTAMENT, I was never a big fan of the more polished stuff, I was always
personally more into the rougher sounding stuff. So, "Chopping
BlockBlues" to me is one of my least favorite records. I think it's
definitely a progression for us as a band, because if you listen to our writing
ability and what we were able to achieve musically on "Chopping Block
Blues", I think it's a big step from what we were doing on, let's say
"Kill For Pleasure". So, I'm really happy about the way we grew as
musicians and the writing ability became easier and the writing ability became a
little bit more complex actually. But,
I said, the only thing I can explain at the best way is, I think that that
record is definitely a little bit weaker sounding, I mean, I'm happy with it, I
don't regret it in any way, but the response I think was
pretty strong. I mean, I definitely would say that we gained more people. I will
not say that some people were not dissatisfied with it, because it wasn't as
aggressive, I guess. It wasn't as raw sounding, it wasn't as heavy. But I
wouldn't say that we've lost any fans due to it. I think that if we kept putting
out records like that we might have. And we actually started writing material
even after "Chopping Block Blues" came out. We had material that we
didn't put on "Chopping Block Blues" and it was actually more
aggressive material, more heavier material. And because it was a little
aggressive, it needed to be portrayed more aggressively. So, I think, if we ever
took some of those songs and recorded them for a record after "Chopping
Block Blues", I don't think you would've heard as polished of a sound as
you did on "Chopping Block Blues" and Gary singing a little bit more laid back, like he did on "Shopping Block Blues", because the
songs that we had for other recordings were more aggressive in general. And they
didn't go onto "Chopping Block Blues" due to the fact that it just
didn't fit with the other songs on it."
Would you consider "Chopping Block
Blues" somehow as the "stepping stone" in the band's career? I
mean, as far as I know you didn't really do anything afterwards anymore, did
you?
"We never actually physically got to go into
a studio again and record anything. You know, New Renaissance pretty much fell
apart and soon after that the band pretty much split up... We tried continuing
on without Gary and without Mike, because Mike was the first one to leave. Gary,
our singer was the second one to leave... Me and Lou tried keeping things pretty
much together. We did get a new singer, we did get another guitarist, we did
write some other material, we actually came to the point of working out a deal
with a label called Kraze. They were here in the States and I think they put out
the first BIOHAZARD album. But unfortunately, even before we could get the
contracts together, the label went bankrupt and fell under, so that was pretty
much it."
I was pretty surprised to still
see the name BLOOD FEAST in your letterhead when you wrote me, so is
the band still around or have you reformed or something?
"The band's no longer around and we haven't
been around for years. The only reason that you got the letterhead is because, I
basically just moved and I came across a bunch of BLOOD FEAST stuff and I got
some extra pieces of BLOOD FEAST paper and I figured out to just use some of it.
That's pretty much how you got that piece of paper. Other than that I'm still in
touch with some of the members of the band, you know, everybody pretty
much is just working, everybody is just getting on with their lives, but no, we
haven't done anything, there's no kind of reforming BLOOD FEAST."
But there has been this unreleasad album, which
was supposed to come up before "Chopping Block Blues"...
"Yeah. The two tracks that I recorded for
you are from that. It was supposed to be called "The Last Remains". In
brief about that record, it basically is what "Chopping Block Blues"
should've been. What I mean by that is, we recorded an entire record before we
recorded what now is known as "Chopping Block Blues". The reason that
we pretty much scrapped the recording was due to the fact that Adam Tranquilli
was still in the band at the time and right after this recording was complete,
he left. We didn't wanna put something out with him on it and we weren't really
happy with the production on how this turned out. So, in general, we basically
just scrapped this whole recording. The background vocals that you hear on our
KISS cover 'Black Diamond' were done by Lenny Kravitz. At this point of time a
lot of people don't believe us, but when this recording was done, it was back in
like '88, Lenny Kravitz was doing the recordings for his first album at the same
studio we started recording in. We used to end our sessions and he used to come
right after us. So, he basically used to come a little bit early in here and
heard some of the stuff that we were doing, heard us doing a song by KISS,
'Black Diamond', and asked if he could sit in for a session and just check it
out. So, he did and of course Gary, being the great singer that he was, couldn't
really sing some of the parts that needed to be sung for this type of song. We
basically were hanging out to hear what Lenny Kravitz sounded like and realized
that this guy had this amazing voice. After hearing him and what he was doing in
the studio
after us, we basically asked him if he would mind doing some backing vocals on
it mainly on the parts that Gary couldn't handle singing wise. So, that's pretty
much the story with the Lenny Kravitz thing."
As far as I know, nowadays you have a mailorder
going... When did you start with that, what do you have to offer (have you
specialized on anything in particular) and what are the other BLOOD FEAST
members up to these days?
"Again, I'm not in touch with everybody from
the band, I am in touch with some of them. Basically just working, getting on
with their lives. I know like one or two guys are married, I'm kinda in the dark
about most of it. It's not too often that I spoke to them, I haven't spoken to
them in actually quite some time. Although I did speak to two of them
recently... I'II get into that in a minute. As far as my mailorder thing is
concerned, I basically just started that to see where I could take something
like that. It was pretty much fun for me to do, I had some extra time on my
hands, I felt that I have the capability of actually getting my hands on a lot
of good MetaI CDs, a good selection of 'em and I figured that, if I could offer
this to people who're interested in getting hard to find type of stuff, meaning
imports, some deleted titles on CD and stuff like that, it would be as good for
them as good for me, to be able to make some extra bucks, doing a mailorder type
business. I did have some time with it, I had some good customers, I sold some
stuff, but I reaIly just don't have the extra time on my hands at this point to
go into it full blown, like it needs to be done."
Anything else you'd like to add here?
"This is really fresh,
this is something that I just started discussing with some people over the last
few days. We have been contacted by some label who's interested in putting out
possibly "Kill For Pleasure", re-issuing it with the "Face
Fate" EP on it and also possibly getting ahold of that unreleased album
that I was speaking to you about in the beginning of this, which would be called
"The Last Remains". To refresh, it basically is the recording that we
did prior to "Chopping Block Blues", way different than what
"Chopping Block Blues" is due to the fact of the material being much
more aggressive. Some of the songs that are on "Chopping Block Blues"
are on that in a different form, with a different type of
recording and basically
we're gonna see if we can maybe
work something out here between us and this particular label. If it won't work
out with that label, I'm at least trying to get "Kill For Pleasure"
re-released on CD. Till this day I still speak with people and run into people
and get letters from people asking if they could possibly somehow get a CD copy
of "Kill For Pleasure". The CD was released here in the States by New
Renaissance Records years ago, it had a very short run, I wasn't in contact with
the label when they did it, I saw it in the store initiaIly, I did contact the
Iabel shortly afterwards, I got a few copies on my own, I gave those copies to
the rest of the members and I know that the album was also released on CD over
in Europe. I believe on a label caIled Shark Records. From my understanding
that label is no longer aIso. But like I said, right now I'm in the middle of
trying to work something out with the Iabel, who would be interested in trying
to
re-release "Kill For Pleasure". Personally Frank, if you happen to
know of anybody who you think would be interested in doing this, have them feel
free to contact me please, because, like I said, I spoke to two other members
recently and we would love to see something like that happen, especially giving
them those bonus songs of the "Face Fate" EP, cause that was never
released on CD before and because it was done on a limited basis on a Picture
Disc. A lot of people who might know of it and are into the band, probably have
never seen it or heard anything from it. So, yeah, if you know any labels that
might be interested, that would be great man, have 'em contact me! Again, I just
wanna say thanx very much for giving me a chance to do this, I think it's reelly
cool that we're remembered out there!"
U P D A T E : As you all may (or may not)
know, "Kill For Pleasure" as well as the "Face Fate" EP were
re-released seperately on CD in the meantime through New Renaissance Records,
while
"Remnants: The Last Remains" came out after all on Militia Records,
which is Kevin's own label.
Official website: http://www.drinktheblood.com/
Interview: Frank Stöver
Band
History courtesy of XTREEM
MUSIC
additional info supplied by F. Stöver
THE
RELEASES...
"SUICIDAL
MISSION"
Demo'86
(still as BLOOD LUST)

Tracks:
Menacing Thunder
The Evil
BloodLust
The Suicidal Mission
"THRASH METAL ATTACK"
Compilation LP
(New Renaissance Records, 1986)

Track:
Menacing Thunder (remix)
taken from the "Suicidal Mission"
Demo
"SPEED METAL HELL - Vol.III"
Compilation LP
(New
Renaissance Records, 1987)
Track:
The Suicidal
Mission (remix)
taken from the "Suicidal Mission" Demo
"KILL FOR PLEASURE"
Album
(New
Renaissance Records, 1987)

Tracks:
Menacing Thunder
Kill For Pleasure
Cannibal Vampire
Suicidal Mission
Venomous Death
The Evil
Darkside
R.I.P.
Blood Lust (cassette and CD
extra track)
"FACE FATE"
EP
(New
Renaissance Records, 1988)
Tracks:
Face Fate
Blood Lust (re-recorded)
R.I.P. (remix)
Vampire (remix)
"CHOPPING BLOCK BLUES"
Album
(Restless / Colossal Records, 1989)
Tracks:
The Last Remains
Hunted, Stalked & Slain
Chopping Block Blues
Hitler Painted Roses (Mighty Sphincter cover)
Dropping Like Flies
Born Innocent
Turn To Dust
The Chemically Imbalanced
Spasmodic
Remnants
"REMNANTS: THE LAST REMAINS"
Album
(Militia Records, 2002)

Tracks:
Menacing Thunder (taken from the "Suicidal Mission"
Demo)
The Evil (
taken from the "Suicidal Mission" Demo)
Blood Lust (taken from the "Suicidal Mission" Demo)
Suicidal Mission (
taken from the "Suicidal Mission" Demo)
Kill For Pleasure (
pre-production Demo)
Vampire (
pre-production Demo)
Holocaust (unreleased)
Trail Of Death (unreleased)
Black
Diamond (unreleased Kiss cover)
Curse Of The Womb (unreleased)
Menacing
Thunder (Live)
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