Possessed/ Seven Churches/ lp/ (1st pressing)

"Hey There Hammerheart!" To address the Bathory question, I think I knew about them at the time. I would honestly say that since I had'nt heard the music nor had any of my friends then neither of us went out to investigate it. Also, the record store that we frequently went through, (The Record Vault in San Francisco), someone there or somebody passing through might've said that they were similar to Venom. I'm kinda' fuzzy on that one though. Myself and a group of my friends were all about the Bay Area Thrash so I think that Mercyful Fate, Venom, Slayer and Possessed, obviously, were as satanic as we got. I think it was the speed and heaviness that pulled us in. Simultaneously, we decided that we wanted to get into punk as well. One of our friends was making mix tapes of metal and passing it off to the punks and vice versa. Since the Mabuhay was across the street, it made sense. Kinda' ironic that I would jump ship when both genres were checking out the other! (spring of '85) Now days I'm a bit more discerning, a lot more critical. I still like thrash but I'm extremely critical of what is considered punk. (Warbringer and Goatwhore are some of my favorites!) As for the Primus mention, funny how all of that came about! In the late 80's, I would see them almost every weekend or every other weekend it seemed. It blew my mind when someone told me who that was on guitar! I actually saw Larry LaLonde with Serg Tankian some years ago. It was a great show! I did'nt know what to expect because, at the time, I was'nt a System of a Down fan. I could go on but......one story/ memory leads to another. "Cheers, eh!?"

......spring of '85; I got into punk and the sub genres that follow and or are associated with that. The first punk show that I saw was Suicidal Tendencies with Faith No More on an earlier slot. They were good but I really remember them for their cover of Van Halen's, 'Jump'. Everyone nearest the stage flew paper airplanes back and forth for the duration of that song! We left halfway through ST's set as we were a ways from home. We later found out that the show ended in a riot! Summer of '85, I saw GBH with Metal Church. This is when punk and metal bands were crossing over so there was always a fair amount of critique from the audience. In this case, for the duration of the set from Metal Church, a constant barrage of empty beer cans were tossed onto the stage! In 1986, I finally got to see Discharge. The club was packed and everyone was treated to a falsetto, glam-ish version there of. (The Grave New World, tour) This did not go well. Much criticism and a variety of things were thrown. After storming off the stage, the band came back. "Did the audience want to hear some old songs?" "Yeah!", everyone screamed! "If you're good little boys and girls then we'll play some........(mumbling quickly), right after we play a few new ones!" A few minutes later a garbage can was thrown onto the stage, at the band. Middle finger responses, expletives and the band removing themselves to finish the early evening! Fast forward to a few weeks or a few months ahead within 1986. I saw Stevie Ray Vaughn! That was an amazing show. By the later 80's, I ended up at a small warehouse show with Gwar, Operation Ivy and a few other bands. Music wise, I end up getting into a lot of east coast straight edge bands at the time but Sick of it All emerges as my favorite. (yeah, I know they're not straight edge) I got lucky and ended up seeing them in downtown New York City, 1990. Since they were headlining I decided to try the New York Mosh. That worked out well for about 30-45 seconds! Also, within the late 80's, I saw that whole wave of punk/ funk / bands, etc. (Chili Peppers, Primus, Faith No More, Fishbone)

......there's still more to all of this but you obviously get the long winded and convoluted story! Ha! Ha! Apologies that my responses are more like unedited encyclopedias. (or run on sentence/ novels!)