This tape is from the collection of Steven ‘Stel’ R. It contains a mix of demo-material, live registrations and rehearsals. Back in the days I helped Bobs & Set of Loony Tunes recs to distribute the LP The Ice (out in ’88). But the music here dates from before that.
(side A)
1st demo (87-04-20): Into The Light / N.D.S. / Damnation Game / Dark Side / Lost Cause
2nd demo (87-12-05): Rape / Immortal / Code Of Silence / Eyes Of Another 1+2 / Damnation Game / Rape (extro)
(side B)
live in M’boro (88-02-01): Eyes Of Another / Immortal / N.D.S. / Damnation Game / Dark Side / Lost Cause
rehearsal (88-01): The Last Psalm (acoustic ending)
live in Newcastle (Zoots; 87-09-15): N.D.S. / Into The Light / Code Of Silence / Damnation Game
The band – from Gateshead (near Newcastle-upon-Tyne) – consisted of Alan Hindmarch (bass), Ian Curry (drums; later ‘Hellkrusher’), Grant Taylor-Kane (vocals/guitar; ex ‘Hellbastard’) and Sean Harrison (guitar).
My review in Tilt! #5: >>The Ice seems a funny record at first sight but the lyrics proove these guys can be serious too. The sometimes intelligent thoughts are served with a sauce of crunchy metal that’ll make your heads drop off.<< On the www one can read they play “Rocking and heavy metal-punk, music between bands like ‘Onslaught’, ‘G.B.H.’ (for the vocals) or ‘English Dogs’, early stenchcore, stuff like ‘Antisect’, ‘Nausea’ (anachronistically) or ‘Hellbastard’ and proper metal bands like ‘Venom’ or ‘Warfare’.”.
review in Metallised #10
We were just a bunch of mates into the same music which thought we could manage a band…
Sean Harrison
Four teenagers who had been into punk music and in bands on and off for a few years. ‘Debauchery’ formed as the the punk/metal crossover was beginning. There’s a lengthy bio in Ian Glasper’s book called Trapped In A Scene…
Grant Taylor-Kane
‘Debauchery’ originaly formed in 1986 and imediatly wrote around 6 songs, 5 of which apeared on the 1st demo and later The Ice album, the 6th song called Stop The Rot was never recorded or played live, which is a shame as it was a good song but somehow just got lost along the way. There was a practice-tape which had a version of it, but even I no longer have it. Someone somewhere might have a hidden copy. Not long after forming I joined another band and ‘Debauchery’ was put on hold for around a year after which we got back together in ‘87, recorded the first demo and started doing gigs. Another 2 demos and an album followed, with 2 more later recordings that remained nothing more than demos.
The original direction of the band was the punk/metal crossover that was in its early stages at the time: ‘English Dogs’, ‘Onslaught’, ‘Sacriledge’, etc. But like all of them, by the last demo we eventually strayed a bit too far into metal territory, although the vocals thankfully always remained in the vein of ‘G.B.H.’.
Personally I think the songs throughout our existence were all good, however the majority of the band were more intersted in getting pissed at every opertunity, so the recordings were all substandard in both sound and execution, and most gigs were at best average and in a few cases a spectacular car-crash were we were literally too pissed to play.
The other major disaster in our catalogue is the album-cover, which was basically thrown in at the last minute as we just didn’t bother to sort anything out until it was too late. Looking back I’m suprised the album actually came out at all since we pissed about instead of making any effort!
After the album we recorded 2 more demos: the first of which has 2 tracks Green And Pleasant Land (which is on a par with the album recording) and Shadow From The West, which is poorly played and basically unusable. This again was down to too much time wasted in the pub during the recording-session, which was the same problem with the album. The last demo had 5 tracks and should have been released as an EP, however by the time it was finished the writing was on the wall and a general lack of interest by all concerned ensured it never happened. For once however we took the recording more seriously, and the songs are quite well played with a better sound (both possibly due to adding a second guitarist) but one overlying problem spoils the whole thing, which is that the vocals are way out of time on virtually every song. looking back the songs are basiclly played too fast (maybe my fault) and due to there being a lot of lyrics to fit in, it was done by singing line 1 & 3, then going back and fitting in line 2 & 4 on the verses. Sounds easy but it really isn’t, especially on fast songs, and it didn’t work. There are very few copies of this demo in circulation, if any, and thats probably for the best!
It’s a shame that we didn’t take things a bit more seriously and keep the drinking seperate from band-activities as we may have left a better legacy behind us, but that aside we had some laughs along the way as most gigs turned into some sort of fiasco, such as getting chased out of Preston by a gang of lads who we had been verbally abusing on the other side of the river, thinking they could not get to us, only to walk a bit further on and see a bridge which they were now running accross! Or the gig were we dropped all the instruments we had borrowed mid song and ran out as we realised we were going to miss our train home! On top of that, broken down vans, police-harassment and all other manner of things.
In an ideal world I would love to re-record everything we did but there is no chance of ‘Debauchery’ ever re forming and in reality I doubt anyone cares!
Ian Curry
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