Fourth Estate – Fourth Estate

Fourth Estate
Fourth Estate
1988 (no label)
Loveland, Colorado, USA

Dave Beegle – Guitar
Fred Babich – Bass
Jim Iltis – Drums

Side 1:

1. Grunt Rock
2. Sweep the Floor
3. Reflections

Side 2:

1. Hocus Pocus
2. The Hammer Song

This is the same Fourth Estate that went on to release two national CDs (Finesse and Fury in 1994 on Rubicon Recording Co. and See What I See in 1995 on Liquid Disc Records). This is the first of three demos preceding those releases, the next two being Edge of the Shadow in 1989 and In Phase in 1990. “Grunt Rock” and “Reflections” from this demo made it on to Finesse and Fury, and “The Hammer Song” made it on to See What I See. But don’t think of this demo as a rough beginning for the band – they seemed to spring out of non-existence into a full quality instrumental rock/metal band on this demo. If you like the idea of a tight band with all three players contributing high-quality parts to every song, while avoiding sounding cliché or repetitive like many 80s guitar shredder bands did, you will like this. Fourth Estate is a band band – not a “band” band where the bass and drums are just there to hide behind the guitarist shred. And while you get a good amount of shred on this, Beegle proves he has much more soul and feeling than the stereo-typical shredder. Certainly a quality release. You can hear three of these songs on a demos collection on BandCamp, as well as listen to the later full release versions of the other two songs on BandCamp as well.