Public Assassin - Des Moines, IA, June 1994

This thread started back on April 16 when I posted the complete audio and video of a classic Cannibal Corpse show with Chris Barnes from The Bleeding tour that, to the best of my knowledge, has never been circulated. Don't forget that Cannibal Corpse plays this Saturday, May 1 at Station 4 in St. Paul with support from 1349, Skeletonwitch, and Lecherous Nocturne. I decided to follow-up the original Cannibal Corpse post with the complete audio and video of the sets from the support bands on the tour: Cynic and Sinister. To complete the thread, here is the audio and video of the final opening band of this show: Public Assassin, featuring Richard Christy on drums!

Public Assassin was an excellent death metal band from Springfield, Missouri that put out a string of demos from 1989–1994. Upon moving to Florida to start Burning Inside, Richard Christy rapidly made a name for himself as a drummer for Acheron, Death, Control Denied, Demons & Wizards, and Iced Earth. He has now achieved even wider recognition as a comedian as a member of the Howard Stern Show. Richard's latest band is Charred Walls Of The Damned, which also features Tim "Ripper" Owens and Steve DiGiorgio. Their debut self-titled album was released this year on Metal Blade, and was reviewed here.

This show took place in June 1994 at the Two Rivers Music Hall in Des Moines, Iowa. To the best of my knowledge, this is the only complete Public Assassin set that has been made available. Although I'm not at liberty to disclose the taper, this is a first generation copy from the original source. Here's the set list, which primarily featured songs from their 1994 Murdered demo:

1. Cholera

2. Led Away

3. Disgrace

4. Ugly

5. I Haven't A Soul

6. Thaw

7. Headbox

8. Worms Return

The download links for the both the video (.mov, H.264, 640 x 480) and audio (.mp3@320 kbps or flac) are contained in the text file linked below.

Click to watch Public Assassin play "Disgrace".

Click to watch Public Assassin play "I Haven't A Soul".

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=SH2Q6FX5

As always, feel free to share the download links, but please forward the link to this post rather than re-posting the links on other sites. Look for more never  seen before, uncirculated shows from a number of bands to be posted here at Twin Cities Metal soon! Enjoy!

Charred Walls Of The Damned Album Review

I've decided to somewhat expand the scope of albums I review to include select noteworthy releases from artists that currently do not have shows scheduled in the Twin Cities. First up is the mighty Charred Walls Of The Damned.

Charred Walls Of The Damned – Charred Walls Of The Damned

Metal Blade, 2010

9/10

Charred Walls Of The Damned is a new eyebrow-raising project of drummer extraordinaire Richard Christy (Death, Iced Earth, others). All music was written by Richard, and he assembled a dream cast of musicians to execute his vision: Tim “Ripper” Owens (Judas Priest, Iced Earth, Yngwie Malmsteen) on vocals, Steve DiGiorgio (Sadus, Testament, others) on bass, and Jason Seucof (producer of countless metal bands) on guitar. The real wild card here is the vocal prowess of Tim Owens. How will his soaring vocal style fit with the predominantly death metal pedigrees of the band? Exceptionally well, actually. The closest comparison I can draw is to the sole album by Control Denied, the progressive power/death metal project of the late Chuck Schuldiner (Death). Charred Walls Of The Damned isn’t death metal, but not quite thrash metal or power metal. The riffs are heavy and the vocals are strong, yet there’s enough breakneck rhythms balanced with melodies and guitar solos to keep each song interesting. Things are about what you’d expect from the union of death metal musicians with a power metal-style singer, but the quality of the songs raises this album to heights not usually seen with project albums. The album opens with “Ghost Town”, a furious statement of intent, and is following by “From The Abyss”, one of the best tracks that features awesome vocal melodies over a slow tempo. “Blood On Wood” nearly matches the vocal glories of “From The Abyss”, while “The Darkest Eyes” elegantly combines interesting guitar work with fast bass and drum work. There aren’t any throwaway songs in the lot of nine, but a couple unmemorable ones (“Creating Our Machine” and “Manifestations”) is all that’s holding back a 10 rating. One interesting aspect the recording is the heavy use of multi-tracked vocal harmonies, which adds to the strong voice of Tim Owens to create an impressive vocal sound. Hopefully this won’t be the last time we hear from Charred Walls Of The Damned.

Richard Christy Pays Tribute To Powermad

Prolific drummer and Howard Stern sidekick Richard Christy will be paying tribute to Minneapolis legends Powermad with his new band Charred Walls Of The Damned by offering a cover of "Nice Dreams". Although this track was recorded as a Japanese bonus track, it will be available to US fans through iTunes when the self-titled album is released on February 2. Charred Walls Of The Damned also features vocalist Tim "Ripper" Owens (Judas Priest, Yngwie Malmsteen, Iced Earth, Beyond Fear) and Steve DiGiorgio (Sadus, Testament, Sabastian Bach, many others).

Richard was cool enough to put in some high praise for Powermad, and his reasons for recording "Nice Dreams" in a statement on the Charred Walls Of The Damned Myspace blog:

"I've been a huge fan of Powermad's classic 1989 album ‘Absolute Power' since it came out. I wanted to do a cover song that I loved and at the same time, one that a lot of people probably have not heard. ‘Absolute Power' has been out of print for some time now so I'm sure the song Nice Dreams will be new to a lot of people, but will also bring back some great memories for metalheads like me who love the song and who love Powermad" explains Christy.