Monday, May 25th, 2009

Ah, my first death metal band (as well as my first time recording in a studio). Funny because I knew who the guys in this band were and vice versa because we had some of the same friends (and went to the same high school), yet it wasn’t until a year after high school until we actually met for the first time. We recorded this at the infamous Sheffield Studios while I was home from school that summer. Coincidentally, Nick (co-creator of this site) was there and filmed the whole recording of this demo at the studio. We put on all this black metal corpse paint for our band pictures although we weren’t even close to being a black metal band. That was the fun of the band though: evil death metal band full of goofy dorks from Indiana who wore corpse paint even though they weren’t a black metal band. Demo didn’t go very far, although I think we did get a review in Terrorizer and one or two small ‘zines overseas I think. We made another demo the year after but changed the band name to Morthona for that one. Two of the guys in this band (as well as Nick) ended up standing up in my wedding 11 years later!

Submitted by:
Chris Janus
Tags: Chris Janus, Indiana, Morthona, Snuffleupagus
Posted in All Tapes, Commercial Tapes, Live Recordings | 1 Comment »
Thursday, May 7th, 2009

SIDE A:
The first side is the home-recorded demo we made as Morthona a year after we recorded the Snuffleupagus River Thy Eyes demo. We recorded it at Bryan Booher’s (bass) house one weekend. Big Steve (guitar/vocals) was out of town camping or something with his whoa-man at the time, so all the guitars and vocals are Neil. We recorded it on an electronic drum kit (Roland TD-5) I had back then – this was way before Roland V-Drums came along, so there were no dynamics to any of the drum sounds so everything came out full volume even if you just barely tapped one of the pads. The sensitivity wasn’t very good either, so sometimes there might be an extra hit that was triggered by something else, or maybe a hit might not get triggered ’cause of interference with another hit… so there are plenty of random and missing hits throughout the songs (AWESOME!) Just for the record: electronic drums suck for recording death metal. By the end of that summer, we had gone back to Sheffield Studios to record the full Morthona demo which included these three songs. Steve was there for that one!
SIDE B:
The next summer, I stayed in Boston so Snuff/Morthona was pretty much done. One of my friends at Berklee, Joe, was taking classes over the summer and he asked if I’d play for his recital… which I gladly did. I think our friend, Eric MacPherson, played bass if i remember it correctly. Crappy recording – maybe one or two room mics. Two or three prog-rock songs… Vinnie Moore song (the loner) maybe? Joe went on to get his master’s in business I think and has worked for a pretty big record label in Florida for a number of years now.

Submitted by:
Chris Janus
Tags: Berklee, Bryan Booher, casette, Chris Janus, demo, Eric MacPherson, Neil, Roland TD-5, Sheffield Studios, Snuff, Snuffleupagus, Steve, tape, Vinnie Moore
Posted in All Tapes, Live Recordings | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, April 1st, 2009

Yeah, so this was one of those tapes I bought randomly at some used music store. I was into metal but a pretty narrow selection, But Anthrax, Slayer, Megadeth… all up my alley, so I bought it. I had never heard Hook In Mouth until this tape, but it’s been a favorite since. I had never listened to Death Angel until this tape either… and probably haven’t listened to them since; sounded like a first grade girl screaming on vocals. There was a time that I tried to get into Nuclear Assault because of Dan Lilker in SOD, but I think I was one metal generation too old and never found a liking for them. Anyway, this used tape was of course terrible quality, but I cranked it in my Cutlass nonetheless… plus, my buds at Al’s Diner were all into it, so it was in regular rotation when I was on the schedule.
Submitted by:
Chris Janus
Tags: Anthrax, cassette, Chris Janus, Death Angel, Megadeath, Nuclear Assault, Slayer, Thrash Metal
Posted in All Tapes, Commercial Tapes, Mix Tapes | 1 Comment »