Red Christmas – Practice Volume 5 (HDV Records Tape #26)

Red Christmas
Practice Volume 5 (HDV Records Tape #26)
198? Heath Dog Violet Records

Mark Krischak
Paul Honescko
Jim Camp
Jerry Andrews

Side 1:

1. (Silent Night)
2. Close to Me
3. They’ll Never Know
4. Back in the Fight
5. Heal the Girl

Side 2:

1. Take My Life
2. Good Boy
3. (Holy is the Lord)
4. All Because of Love
5. Forgive & Forget
6. Home
7. (So Blind)
8. (track snippet)

This tape actually started off with the missing song from tape #8, and then the rest of the tape is this volume. Because the whole tape is bumped up one song, the last song I have was cut very short. So I have no idea what it is, or if there were any songs after it. As with other Mark Krischak bands, this one is also a catchy power pop alternative rock band. Song titles above were mostly taken from other Red Christmas releases, except for a couple like “All Because of Love” where the band mentions the name. A few I had to guess at – those are in parenthesis above. This is a bootleg recording of a practice, so there is chatter between songs, some songs cut short, some with mistakes, and some like ”Back in the Fight” that have extended jam sessions in them.

Blueprint

Blueprint
198? Red Sky Music
Leeds, England, United Kingdom

Side 1:

1. Rev Houston – Celestial Rock
2. Rev Houston – The Power and the Preacher
3. Rev Houston – My Love and I
4. Kenny Spence – Running Song
5. Kenny Spence – India
6. Kenny Spence – Prodigal One

Side 2:

1. McCurry Co – My Redeemer
2. McCurry Co – The Way
3. McCurry Co – Life is a Symphony
4. Iva Twydell – The Warning
5. Iva Twydell – I Surrender
6. Iva Twydell – The Dance Has Just Begun
7. Pearson – I Want to go to Heaven
8. Pearson – Angel
9. Pearson – We Need a Lot More of Jesus (and a Lot Less Rock ‘n’ Roll)

This is a compilation of songs from albums by the artists featured. I mainly decided to digitize it based on the fact that it had some of the solo songs from Iva Twydell (After the Fire fame). I had also heard the Rev Houston songs before as well (you can find it poking around online) but wanted to hear the others as well. Rev Houston’s 1985 album The Power and the Preacher is a mixture of alt rock, new wave, and rock – even though the three songs chosen for this comp are more of the rock vein. Kenny Spence has put his full album Class of 84 up on SoundCloud, His album has a bit more of a rock edge that almost borders on hard rock at times than the songs on this tape. McCurry Co is a keyboard-driven pop band, but the songs here don’t really have any new age to them. Like the others, their full-length album Pleased to Meet You might be different. Iva Twydell’s songs come from Duel (1982) and Secret Service (1981). Twydell is also a bit more alternative/progressive than the three songs present here. Pearson’s songs all come from his Brighten album. Can’t find that album, but the songs present here are more avant-garde and experimental than the other artists here. No date is given for this compilation, but the Rev Houston album was released in 1985, so probably not much later than that.

Cyrus Fleet – Demo

Cyrus Fleet
Demo
19?? (no label)

Side One:

1. Chains Around Your Heart

Side 2:

1. Walk in the Light

I usually see this demo described as rock, but the first track is definitely a commercial metal track. The production could stand to beef up the guitars a bit, but that is typical for most demos. The second track is maybe a tad slower, but is still a rock-out metal track. Maybe even a bit more traditional metal than the first. But that is about all I know about this band. I wonder if the cover drawing is meant to indicate that this band is a trio? Based on the sound, I would guess this came out in the mid to late 80s or even early 90s.

Missing Information: Who played on this? What year was it released?

Conundrum – Demo

Conundrum
Demo
19?? (no label)

1. S.R.S.C.
2. Awake
3. Perishing Souls
4. Society Forbids Me
5. To Kill the Mockingbird

Don’t know much about this band, but they generally play a thrash metal sound with a few other influences mixed in. Sometimes they are a tad hardcore or crossover, other times they have some traditional metal in there, and so on. I also feel like there is a bit of an early Believer technical progressive metal influence on the riffs. Even on the vocals at times. Most of the songs are in the 6-7 minute range, with the shortest one still over 5 minutes. Other than that – that is all I know!

Missing Information: Who played on this? What year was it released?

Tracy Towns – Lifted

Tracy Towns
Lifted
19?? (no label)
Mackinaw, Illinois, USA

1. Speed Kills
2. Extremes
3. Anticipate
4. Bow Your Head
5. 11:30
6. Lifted

Much like Town’s other demo, this is an instrumental shred metal album – mostly. This one has vocals on the 4th song instead of the second song, but otherwise the format is the same. Shred guitar over a bed of bass guitar and what sounds like a drum machine. It could possibly be a one person project, or there could be others playing on these songs as well. It pretty much sounds like this one and his other demo were recorded at about the same time or almost same year, but without dates on them I don’t know which one came first.

Missing Information: When was this released? Did anyone else play on it?

Tracy Towns – Demo

Tracy Towns
Demo
19?? (no label)
Mackinaw, Illinois, USA

1. Fast Ave. Blues
2. Bow Your Head
3. Mackadamia
4. Reign
5. Lifted
6. Striving

Based on the look of this demo, your first guess is that this is a one-person instrumental shred metal project. The first track is an instrumental blues-based shred song. Then the second song is a song with vocals, so it’s not an instrumental album? Still lots of shred in the solos. The drums sound like a drum machine, so I assume it is Towns on everything as well? Then the rest of the tracks are shred metal instrumental. So I guess it is (mostly) instrumental shred metal? Towns has another demo called Lifted also without a year, so I am not sure which demo was released first, or if there are any others.

Missing Information: What year was this released? Did anyone else play on it?

Stone Deaf – Global Lunch

Stone Deaf
Global Lunch
19?? (no label)

1. Global Lunch
2. 3 Dead Gods
3. Relative Truth
4. Love You Enough to Leave Ya
5. Perfect Love

This band kind of gives you nu metal or rap metal vibes based on the name, but its really more of a wild mix of Torn Flesh, Noiz Boyz, and Lust Control. The first song has punk overtones, the third song has thrash vibes, and so on. They seem determined to rock out and play fast and loose with genre lines. Lots of humor, as well as turn or burn lyrics. But they don’t come across as a joke band, either. It kind of all evens out to being heavy metal, but with a heavy leaning to punk thrash. The 5th song is (as noted) half in Russian. But it is also an industrial metal number, with a heavy electronic presence. Very eclectic listen.

Missing Information: Who played on this? When was it released?

R.O.K. Master – Demo

R.O.K. Master
Demo
198? (no label)

1. (Your Love)
2. (Don’t Cry)
3. (My Love)
4. (bass guitar instrumental)
5. (With My Heart)
6. (Don’t Cry) (instrumental accompaniment track)
7. (My Love) (instrumental accompaniment track)

This tape was shared online, and there was no information with the tape other than the pic above. So the name of the band could be “R.O.K. Master,” or this could have been the master tape for a band called “R.O.K.” But I have heard “R.O.K. Master” before this was shared, so I will go with that. The song titles above were guesses by the original uploader. The tape starts off with a ballad, which was kind of a thing briefly in the late 80s (either starting an album with a ballad, or releasing your ballad as the first single). That could also be a good guess for when this was released. They do rock out with a late 80s glam metal sound for a few songs, then there is a bass solo track, and finally two instrumental accompaniment tracks of earlier songs (the ones titled “Don’t Cry” and “My Love”).

Missing Information: Who played on this? What year was it released? What are the official track titles?

Bloodshed – Demo

Bloodshed
Demo
198? (no label)
New Braunsfels, Texas, USA

1. Disturbing the Children
2. Ephesians

This is a pretty short demo of power metal from a Texas band that I don’t know much about. This is not the same hardcore band that was later on Tooth & Nail. And that is about all I know. I don’t know what year this, but it would fit in about mid-80s. The singer seems to strain a bit here and there to maintain a power metal style of vocals, but overall they do pull off a solid power metal style – for 2 songs. Wonder if there is more?

Missing Information: Who played on this? What year was it released? Also need a scan of the full cover.

Made for Aid

Made for Aid
198? (no label)
Newport, Wales, United Kingdom

The White Side:

1. Filament – Listen to Your Heart
2. Martyn Joseph – I Could Not Do His Justice
3. Wynne Gloss – (Love Somebody)
4. Vigilante – Silent Spectator
5. U Turn – Someone to Love
6. Tim Maguire – Benediction

The Black Side

1. Maranatha – Take Me As I Am
2. Jeff Hankins & Jane Woodford – Come and Live in the Light
3. Ray Bevan – Somebody Loves You
4. Stress Factor – Vietnam
5. Andrew Pidcock – (Wall to Wall Lighting)
6. Rob Ashong – Taking Pictures

The title of this compilation makes it seem like it is some kind of fund-raising project, but there are no details on the cover. It was made for Vision Magazine, so maybe there were some details about this project in one of their issues. And yes, there were two song without song titles, so I took a guess. I guess those two artists missed the deadline for getting their song titles in? Most of the artists are from the UK, and the few albums that are listed are from 1983-1984.

• Filament: Upbeat middle of the road rock with keyboards and female backing vocals.
• Martyn Joseph: Probably the most well-known act on here (as far as I know) – singer songwriter mellow rock, from his 1983 album I’m Only Beginning.
• Wynne Gloss: The first of two songs without a title, this folk singer \/songwriter song says “Love Somebody” the most, so I went with that.
• Vigilante: Probably the hardest band here, but still just shy of hard rock and more AOR really.
• U Turn: A light rock ballad, so hard to tell what style this band is. Probably not the same band that released Just What It Means in 1991.
• Tim Maguire: Folky singer-songwriter – also the producer of this compilation.
• Maranatha: Brings a bit of funk to some upbeat rock with male and female vocals.
• Jeff Hankins & Jane Woodford: Kind of a folk rock duet between these two singers.
• Ray Bevan: Light pop rock.
• Stress Factor: Probably the most alternative rock song on the compilation, this song is kind of The Alarm-esque.
• Andrew Pidcock: The second song with no title, Pidcock was also a part of One to One, which someone once compared to Spandau Ballet. This is a quirky electronic experimental song that could almost fit on Corpquii Productions.
• Rob Ashong: Singer songwriter, but no real trace of folk.

Missing Information: What year was this released?