Description

Even though they came into existence at around the same time and place (1982, the Bay Area) as the speed metal movement, San Francisco originals Brocas Helm shared only a few thrash-like tendencies with neighbors Exodus, Metallica etc. Instead, like similarly overlooked contemporaries such as Manilla Road and Warlord, Brocas Helm members Bobbie Wright (guitars/vocals), Jim Schumacher (bass) and Jack Hays (drums) blazed a less popular trail closer to traditional metal powers like Iron Maiden, Judas Priest and, of course, Black Sabbath, before them. This purist's philosophy quickly translated into a contract with Germany's Steamhammer label, which released Brocas Helm's medieval-minded debut album, Into Battle, in 1984, but to little critical acclaim. Fact is, band and label were separated by too great a distance to work together effectively, and the demos that would become Brocas Helm's, second album, ‘Black Death’, would languish unreleased for nearly four years before finally coming to light in 1989 — and then via the band's own Gargoyle imprint. By then, the group (now augmented by second guitarist Tom "T-Bone" Behney) had become a truly underground enterprise, and would issue nothing but demos (1994's "Ghost Story," 1997's "Time of the Dark") until giving up their battle at last in the late ‘90's. This is the original Gargoyle cd version fully signed with blue marker inside the booklet. Extremely rare to come by nowadays Track listing: 1. Black Death 2. Prepare For Battle 3. Hell's Whips 4. Satan's Prophets 5. Fly High 6. Prophet's Scream 7. The Chemist 8. Fall Of The Curtain