Aaron – Demo

Aaron
Demo
1988 (no label)
Mississuga, Ontario, Canada

Dwayne Jackson – Vocals, guitar
Gord Longerich – Bass guitar
Mark Rorke – Keyboards
Ron Mellegers – Drums

1. It’s Here Again
2. I Will Remain
3. Tell Them

The logo looks really cool on this. But once you say the band name out loud… not so much. “We are Aaron, and we are here to rock you!” Is Aaron just the band, or band like Dokken made around one person? Who knows – no one is listed in the credits except for Troy Cole – who wrote lyrics to the second and third songs, and may or may not be in the band. Even the tape itself is completely black, with no marks of any kind. Hard to find much about them online as well (see update below). The sound is commercial metal… complete with keyboards, soaring vocals, and shred guitar all in the mix. Of course, the second song is a ballad. The first track is basically a guy going through (a sanitized version of) what goes through his mind as he lusts for a woman that is walking towards him. That was probably best left for an accountability partner, as it just sounds awkward here. The last song goes into neoclassical metal by taking the guitar and keyboards up a notch. They should have focused more on that style.

Update: A former member of the band spoke up and filled us in on the details. That former member was Troy Cole actually. Aaron was named after the Aaron in the Bible (which I figured, but just thought about how the band name would sound to people that didn’t know that). Cole was the drummer for Aaron, but left before this demo was recorded to join Dreamer. He also re-purposed the lyrics of “Tell Them” for the song called “Cryin,” on the Dreamer Full Metal Racket release. Aaron would also open up for the Canadian version of Aslan once they changed names to Narnia. Troy Cole also served as drum tech and sampler tech for Narnia as well. It was Narnia that introduced Dreamer to Dan McCabe, who then became the lead singer of Dreamer. Dwayne Jackson went on to form a band called Forevertree that was more grunge in style. Ron Mellegers also joined Forevertree after they released their debut album Turning on Bulletproof Music. Troy Cole was also the producer for Turning as well.