Description

2009 re-issue with 3 bonus tracks

Taramis were one of the very early contenders on the Australian metal scene in the 1980s, and just like other early local groups like Nothing Sacred, Taipan and Mortal Sin, it could be argued that their existence laid the foundations of the Australian scene as we know it today. Taramis debut album Queen of Thieves was first released by Metal For Melbourne in Australia only in 1988 but the band landed a deal with Metal Blade that re-released the album. The album impressed metal fans all over the world and back in Australia the band also impressed their fans with solid live performances. The band were tipped to play the support slot for Metallica’s first Australian tour in 1987, however the tour was cancelled after the death of Cliff Burton. In 1989 however, line-up changes grounded the band to a halt, when Danny Komorr left the group and a decent replacement was not found until ten months later. Vocalist Joel Southby says ‘Alan Thomas who did the Metal Show on RRR rang me one night to see if we had spoken to Evan Harris, who played in sort of Bon Jovi style band! I said ‘No’, and Allan said he was into all the same sort of music as us and we should give him a try. He came for rehearsal one afternoon and blew us all away. We had never seen someone play like he did, amazing’. With a new bassist in the ranks, the band set about the task of writing material for a second album. Not too soon after Evan Harris joined, however, Craig Robertson also left the band. George Larin from the Melbourne thrash metal group New Religion came in and took Robinson’s place. The band’s sophomore effort, ‘Stretch Of The Imagination’ was released in 1991. The album was a step up in many facets in comparison to Queen of Thieves. The recording quality was a lot clearer, and the musicianship and songwriting had been taken up a notch. The band also made more use of their progressive rock influences in songs like ‘Maze of Glory’ and also took on a few experimental turns in the instrumental track ‘Jigaboo Boogie’. A film clip for the song ‘Dreaming’ was also released. “Stretch of the Imagination certainly gave us even more exposure overseas; it was a shame we couldn’t afford to go and tour there when we should have. The album actually sold better than Queen of Thieves as far as numbers go, and we received some great reviews. ‘Rising Sun records did a lot of publicity for the album and we did a lot of interviews and promo work from Australia – it usually meant staying up to one in the morning waiting for a call from Germany or somewhere for radio station or magazine. The album was certainly a different style in some ways to Queen of Thieves, and to this day there’s people who either love one or the other’. After the release of Stretch of the Imagination Taramis performed some more shows around Australia, and also played support slots to Sepultura and Ian Gillan from Deep Purple. Material for a third Taramis album was in the works, but the group was winding down at this point due to member’s individual commitments. Taramis officially disbanded in 1993.

Track listing:
1. Dreaming
2. Diceman
3. Maze Of Glory
4. Another Tomorrow
5. Behind These Eyes
6. Jigaboo Boogie-instrumental
7. Lonely Star
8. Delayed Reaction
9. Changes
10. Never
11. Defying Imagery
12. Dreaming-video