biovio-lence

 

Vio-Lence are often remembered as just Robb Flynn and Phil Demmel's pre-Machine Head band, which to me is quite an insult, since I think that Vio-Lence is a far better band than Machine Head. The band released Eternal Nightmare (1988) and Oppressing the Masses (1990), Two masterpieces but from there, things went south quite quickly.

THE EARLY DAYS (1985-1987)

Vio-lence formed under the name Death Penalty in 1985 which they changed to Violence, and then the two-tiered logo with hyphen forced the name change to its permanent form.

The original line-up was Jerry Birr on vocals, Phil Demmel and Troy Fua on guitars, Eddie Billy (brother of Testament's Chuck Billy) on bass, and Perry Strickland on drums. This line-up appeared on the '86 Eastern Front: Live at Ruthie's Inn 2LP compilation with the song "Gutterslut". Bassist Eddie Billy left soon and was replaced by Dean Dell. This line-up recorded a rehearsal tape that was released as a demo. The 1986 Demo included songs like "Eternal Nightmare", "Kill on Command", "Knocking at Death's Door" and "Out For Blood". The band were close friends to the guys in Testament and Steve 'Zetro' Souza told 'em that if they came up with six or seven songs, they could open up for Testament.

In the summer of 1986 Jerry Birr (later to appear in Enemy Mind) was replaced by Sean Killian on vocals. Sean didn't like some of the original lyrics the band wrote so he came in and changed some of it to be even more psychotic and demented. Then the band recorded their first official demo in California. The demo did well and spread like wildfire. Joey Huston a friend of the band became their manager.

In 1987, Troy Fua left and the band managed to recruit Robb Flynn whom at the time was in Forbidden Evil. Forbidden became somewhat of a rival band because of Robb Flynn leaving Forbidden to join Vio-Lence. At the time Vio-Lence got a few local gigs for Exodus and it helped spreading their reputation. Then Vio-Lence got in contact with Debbie Abono whom also managed Forbidden. She agreed to manage both bands going forward.

ETERNAL NIGHTMARE (1988-1989)

Through Debbie Abono the band got in contact with Mechanic Records. They signed the deal and Eternal Nightmare was recorded in Los Angeles and released in 1988. The album was produced by John Cuniberti. The artwork was made by none other than Ed Repka. The album received great reviews and it's considered to be a masterpiece. The track Eternal Nightmare was released as a single. An American tour with Testament and Voivod followed to promote the debut album.

OPPRESSSING THE MASSES (1990-1992)

Vio-Lence sent their newly recorded songs and lyrics for their upcoming Oppressing the Masses album to their label Mechanic Records. But the label wasn't satisfied with the album and the lyrics, they wanted the band to dress up in silver tuxedos on the artwork and the label wanted to change the lyrics to be more correct and they even suggested the band to go on tour with Run DMC. The band wasn't interested in going down the pop route and declined and left Mechanic Records.

The band signed a new deal with Megaforce Records / Atlantic and they went to New York to record the album with master producer Alex Perialas (Anthrax, S.O.D., Exciter, Overkill, Nuclear Assault, Testament etc). Rob 'Wacko' Hunter of Raven helped engineer the album.

In 1990 Vio-Lence's sophomore album Oppressing the Masses was pressed in 20.000 copies but due to censorship from Atlantic records the album was initially stopped. The track "Torture Tactics" was deleted from the album due to its offensive lyrical content, but then was released as the title track of their 1991 Torture Tactics EP, which was released on Caroline Records instead. The band pressed some t-shirts that they were unhappy with being censored. The album was finally released in 1990 without the track Torture Tactics and still through Atlantic Records. Around this time the band Joey Huston left the bands management.

In around 1990 the band felt they that they hadn't reached the same status as their peers in Testament. Vio-Lence wanted a tour bus and better opportunities so they made the decision to fire Debbie Abono, which the band in retrospect said was a stupid decision. Vocalist Sean Killian admitted that it was the bands biggest mistake. Megaforce Records wasn't happy that the band fired the well-respected Debbie Abono. With Debbie and Joey Huston out of the picture, the band hired a new manager. That really didn't look out for the band that much.

Then Vio-Lence recorded a music video for the track World in a World. To promote the album the band went on a headlining tour with an own tour bus. The San Francisco thrashers Defiance became the opening act. Halfway through the tour the booking agency didn't want to continue working with the band. Their new manager wanted the band to tour with a group called Alien Sex Fiend, which was some type of goth metal band. The promotion was bad and people had no idea that Vio-Lence was on tour. Things were pretty bad for the band at this moment that the band started calling the tour the Disastour. Vio-Lence cancelled the tour and went home again to regroup.

NOTHING TO GAIN (1991-1993)

The band hired Alexis Olsen as their new manager, he managed bay area thrashers Mordred at the time and he had previously managed Legacy (early Testament). When the band was going to record Nothing to Gain the music scene started shifting and Metallica had their multi-million selling Black Album out. There was some pressure from the label to adopt and make the album more commercial.

The band was unable to get Alex Perialis to do the production so the band hired Michael Rosen (Sadus, Forbidden, Mordred, Testament) to produce the album. There was some tension between Perry Strickland and producer Michael Rosen. After a month in the studio, Nothing to Gain, was recorded in 1991 but constant record label problems delayed its release to 1993. The album wasn't as good as none of the parts would have wanted. Everyone seemed to be unhappy at the time and Alexis Olsen left the bands management. The bands audiences became smaller and smaller.

At this point, Robb Flynn decided to leave Vio-Lence to form Machine Head.The band felt that replacing him was almost impossible, but the band wanted to continue and they hired local San Francisco guitarist Ray Vegas.

Perry Strickland was fed up with all the struggles, so he chose to put his time and effort elsewhere. Vio-Lence lost two important members in a short time but the guys didn't want to quit, instead they hired drummer Mark Hernandez on drums.

Sean Killian was about to marry his girlfriend and he wanted to leave the band and the remaining guys understood that this was the end of Vio-Lence, they couldn't go on without their vocalist. So Vio-Lence played their last gig in San Francisco on December the 18th, 1993.

POST VIO-LENCE ACTIVITY (1994-2000)

While Robb Flynn made Machine Head superstars in the nineties with albums like Burn My Eyes, The More Things Change... and The Burning Red, Phil Demmel, Deen Dell, Ray Vega and Mark Hernandez formed the groove / thrash metal band Torque. The band released an album in 1996 called Torque but they broke up a year later.

THRASH OF THE TITANS (2001)

In the summer of 2001 Vio-lence reunited for Thrash of the Titans, a benefit for Chuck Billy and Chuck Schuldiner, the band practiced hard for a month and they entered the stage for the first time in eight years. The line-up of Killian, Demmel, Vegas, Dell, and Strickland played a 50 minute gig and many people say that Vio-Lence blew many of the other bands off stage.

Thrash of the Titans led to further shows around the Bay Area. Ray Vegas was replaced by a returning original memberTroy Fua and for one gig, Phil Demmel, who was unable to attend, was replaced by Steve Schmidt. Phil also helped out Machine Head as a second guitarist for a few gigs. A short west coast tour for Vio-Lence followed, opening up for Testament and Judas Priest. At the time it seemed like the band was finally getting where they deserved.

But with many of the band members being fathers and family men it was impossible to go on long tours. Phil Demmel on the other hand wanted to be a full-time musician. So he decided to join Robb Flynn's Machine Head. Vio-Lence ended their life cycle with one last gig with the returning Robb Flynn on guitars.

In 2006 the band released the documentary DVD Blood and Dirt.