| CD REVIEW Détente |
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Band : Détente Détente? Have you got a minute…or rather half an hour…while I dig up the goods about this legendary Thrash Metal act (and sorry in advance if I tend to draw things out a bit, and dare to add a bit of bitching about current-day’s music industry at the end as well)? The band was originally formed in 1984 by singer Dawn Crosby and drummer Dennis Butler (both previously of Allies, and before that in late ‘70s covers act Mayesty, where they got involved with each other). With Jim Tutone on guitar and Rob Farr on the bass, and start writing their first songs. The band’s first 3-track demo (featuring the songs “Shattered Illusions” and “Vultures In The Sky”, which were largely written by Tutone) is recorded in April 1984 with guitarist Fred Raskom, after the departure of both Tutone and Farr following a big argument with Crosby. But Raskom soon leaves as well. And it wouldn’t be the last time an argument with the “lady” would end it in a member’s departure, I can tell you, because her career is quite simply strewn with such cases! But Dawn and Dennis persevere, and thanks to adverts in music magazines they find the line-up (Steve Hochheiser, former live bassist for Lizzy Borden, lead guitarist Ross Robinson, and eventually rhythm guitarist Caleb Quinn) which would later record Détente’s only but legendary album. Two weeks later the band was already playing the L.A. club circuit, and some time after that they recorded the epic 4-track demo (including the above mentioned songs from the first demo, but also “Holy War” and “Widows Walk”) that would go on to attract the attention from magazines worldwide, and the inevitable attention of record labels including Combat, Noise, Music For Nations, Metal Blade, and Roadrunner. In those days the latter had no foothold in the US yet, licencing albums from other labels (including UK’s Music For Nations and America’s Metal Blade) to distribute them in Europe. Obviously, Metal Blade was making waves in the US at that time, and even though apparently the band didn’t quite like label manager Brian Slagel, I’m sure they came across with the strongest deal ($12,000 as an advance to record your album was perhaps not a lot to modern standards, but it wasn’t exactly peanuts in the mid-‘80s). The band also signed to Roadrunner, because in those days the US was geared more towards the more melodic type of stuff, and the band felt they would do better on this side of the Atlantic Ocean. The band’s first “official” release, was a raw version of the track “Widows Walk”, put on Metal Blade’s 1986 compilation Metal Massacre VII. Although the band was at first a welcome guest in the Bay Area venues, they get banned after Dawn starts a riot during a gig with Megadeth and Death Angel by throwing beer cans at Dave Mustaine and Dave Effefson (because she had “bad feelings” towards ‘em due to the fact that the Daves at one point lived inn the same place as Dennis and Dawn, and left a huge phone bill when they took off). Later the same year, the band starts the recordings of their epic album. Records have it the band handed over a 3rd of their advance money to producer Dana Strum, because he had good contacts with L.A.’s top recording studio Baby O’s. He managed to get the band extra time by having ‘em work at night (so they avoided getting in touch with the management), and also brided the night watchmen to close an eye while the band borrowed (without asking, of course) outboard equipment from other artists (Michael Jackson’s, among others). In those days, an hour’s time in the studio would cost $175, and since it took 9 nights to record the album, in the end Strum’s part of the money paid itself back effortlessly. However, it’s in the studio that Dawn’s antics (related to her abuse of alcohol and drugs, by the way) make for the first cracks in the good individual understanding in the band. She would make it an habit to leave for home after each little argument with the producer, and after one such instance, Hochheiser followed her home, and woke her up to start screaming at her. She díd return to the studio that same night, but refused to have Hochheiser in her vicinity while she was tracking her vocals. After the recordings, the band still does some local shows, but then decides to have a break, with the release of the album and an ensuing European tour in mind…but also prompted by the somewhat messed-up atmosphere in the band [in between the recordings and the shows, Strum had the potential to round up bands for the soundtrack of Trick Or Treat, and refusing to work with Dawn after her antics in the studio, but liking what the band did, he asked ‘em (Robinson, Hochheiser, and Quinn) to join in. They inquired for available singers, and were thinking of using Dennis as the drummer, should things come to pass. Then, when they asked Dennis, of course he told Dawn (to whom he was married around that time), and she didn’t take things quite well]. However, Dennis then has a serious accident, with industrial acid burning a large part of his body, and resulting in his hospitalisation for 3 months. Touring was out for a while, but the album still had to be promoted in Europe, so Dawn decided to do that on her own. In essence, all members at that time went their own way, leading to Robinson and Hochheiser, tired of the lady’s antics, leaving to form Catalepsy. That might’ve been the end of the Détente story, but of course it isn’t. On her return home, Dawn and Dennis start looking out for new musicians, and end up recruiting LSN members George Robb (also ex-Agent Steel, playing the bass) and Greg Cekalovich (guitar) as well as lead guitarist Mike Carlino, whom had played in several New Jersey cover bands since highschool, and had moved to L.A. in 1985. In March ’87 the band is forced to play a show at San Fransisco’s Country Club without Cekalovich (who’d come to a minor altrication with The Law and therefore couldn’t attend) and after that he left to re-form LSN, taking Robb with him. The band decided to conitnue with just the one guitarist, asking Carlino’s friend Blair Darby (originally a guitarist working in a music shop) to join ‘em on bass. Although Carlino and Dennis got along as brothers, the relationship with Dawn was a bit difficult at first, even though the two had to work together to write new songs for the somewhat low-budget ’87 demo they sent Roadrunner. The label was far from impressed, and therefore felt more than justified in dropping the band. While writing new material (which would eventually surface as the ’89 Demo), the relationship between Dawn and Carlino is smoothed out, especially after the two on one specific evening write the songs “Red To Gray”in something like 10 minutes. In fact, the continued close working on new material saw the two starting a more intimate relationnship…which evidently lead to a conflict within the band. A last show with Dennis is played at L.A.’s Troubadour, and shortly after he divorces from both Dawn and the band (in that order, apparently). Détente then moved to New York, not telling to many people about it. As their new drummer recruits none other than Rob Hunter, formerly of Raven, and it’s with this new line-up that the band records their ’89 Demo at Pyramid Sound in Ithaca (NY) with now famed producer Alex Perialis (whom already hàd quite a rep at the time). Not long after the recordings of the demo, the duo are interrupted in a small domestic fight by a phone call. Turns out Warner Bros. A & R person Roberta Peterson had been looking for the band for about a year, based on their ’87 demo and the good things she’d heard about the above mentioned gig at the Country Club. The label saw a lot of good in the combination of Dawn and Carlino, and what followed were 6 strenuous months of negociations, during which it was also discovered that there was another band with the name Détente. Well, although it was a tough decision, the band was willing to let go of their name. And that should be the end of the first part of Détente’s history, but hang on a while, because the story ain’t quite over yet. You see, the name change didn’t come without some damage, as Hunter then decided to leave. As a temporary replacement the band hired one Eric Alpert, but it’s with Steve Cordova that they record the Within The Veil album with Pat Regan. None too impressed with the flawlessly but somewhat clean result, the band and label then agree on having Andy Wallace remix the album, which was sent to the label under the bandname of Sedition. Only days later, Carlino is leafing through the bible and comes up with a new name: Fear God, to which Dawn retorts, “Fear Of God would be better,” and so thàt band was born! The Fear Of God story not related to that of Détente except by historical facts, I will not bore you with thàt band’s woes (several band members coming and goin’, including Carlino) and victories (a second album and EP recorded & released), and we’ll end this part with the mention of Dawn’s death on December 15, caused by acute liver failure due to years of alcohol abuse. After her death some of the band’s members continued on for several years under the bandname Fog. Détente’s Recognize No Authority was re-issued in late 2007 to positive results, and apparently this got the ball rolling about a “reformation”. In Spring 2008 Dennis Butler, Steve Hochheiser and Caleb Quinn decide to do a series of Détente tribute gigs, taking in Hellion singer-and-legend-on-her-own Anne Boleyn to front ‘em! Originally, press was somewhat reluctant of the combination, but the guys persevered, and started a short “tour” in July at San Fransisco’s Tidalwave festival (the only other gigs at that time being at L.A.’s Black Castle for the US – in Germany the band performed at the Headbanger’s Open Air festival and at Hamburg’s The Ball Room). Surprisingly, reactions to the gigs were real positive, and therefore inducive to further tribute gigs. All 4 played in California between December 2008 and March 2009, the gigs saw the band also play a couple of newly written songs which apparently went down very well with the audiences confronted with ‘em. Tracking of the music on Decline started in early October with legendary recording engineer/ producer Bill Metoyer…when suddenly (but only on December 3) the musicians announced they had “parted ways” (without any other explanations) with Anne Boleyn and had replaced her with one Tiina Teal (originally a drummer-turned-singer some 10 years ago, having played with several bands before her Metal act Burn The Empire was named “Best Anti-War Band”). In fact, at the time of announcement the new singer had already tracked vocals for 4 of 9 songs that were to be on the album. Wishful thinking, because only 8 tracks made it to the album, clocking in at just under 27 ½ minutes, and therefore earning the album the diminishing factor of “Mini”! I’m not sure, but it’s possible that an EP by the title History 1 actually features that elusive 9th track. So, how does the new material compare to the Détente of old? Well, first some personal remarks! You see, when one would look up the definition of “Thrash Metal”, one would find something to the effect of “a mixture of extreme Heavy Metal with Punk attitude”…which kinda puts a questionmark in my mind when the label (who hàve to do their best to promote their current product, you know) mention Détente as being the legendary band who were the first to succesfully combine Thrash Metal with Punk. I mean, it’s not even the music the band was legendary for, but rather for the vocal capacities of Dawn Crosby, one of the first women in the US to start using such an extreme style vocals (hey, in Europe we already had Sabine Classen from Holy Moses, you know!). Some of members that contributed to the Recognize No Authority album were later found bad-mouthing her (occasionally with good cause, but more often exagerrated and with the intent to hurt her career), but now that they get a new chance to make a buck in the music business, they’re found telling nothing but good things about her! And what’s with “parting ways” with Anne Boleyn the way they did? I mean, just stating the fact, without stating the reasons, what does that do to the guys’ credibility? Not a very smart move, because now the fans can think up all kinds of scenerios!!! Well, returning to the mini-album’s material, what do we think? Of course, I only saw the one video with Boleyn, and therefore to make a comparison to Teal would be a bit difficult. At any rate, I’m always a fan of women in Metal, and Teal certainly pushes a good performance from her throat, screaming, squeeling, grunting, and occasionally placing short bits of cleaner singing…so she at least is safe! How about the musicians, then? Well, thanks to the advantages of multi-track recording, the band succeeds in bringing 8 very intense, fast-played tracks with the necessary occasional lead/solo guitar bits, but when it’s thóse bits that màke your material, I have my doubts about how Quinn (in essence a rhythm guitarist) pulls things off in live conditions! Still, as far as the album stands, things are quite alright. A little surprise came when the album closing “Ashes” opened with a short bit of acoustic guitar, but luckily that didn’t return! When push comes to shove, I prefer to see the Détente of the ‘80s and the Détente of the new millenium as two separate entities…entities which may have something to do with each other due to mutual musical concepts, intensities, and mutual band members…but nevertheless entities I do not wish to compare, as they both have their own qualities! In the end, it’s the listener whom has to decide whether (s)he likes what (s)he hears, or not…so jus-t mmosey on over to myspace.com/deterna, where the band posted 3 songs off the new album alongside 2 off Recognize No Authority and a track titled “Obituary Fear” off the aforementioned History 1 (again, I’ve no idea where thàt comes from!). There! That’s the longest review I ever made for one album, I guess! Sorry for not having been able to bring the review earlier, as the band’s April-May tour of Europe (with gigs in Holland, Germany, Switzerland, but also two in Belgium, and the last to come at the end of this week in Oslo, Norway) is now definitely over. Couldn’t be helped, really! What with so many labels pushing the availability of their download promos (for websites, I’m sure the big magazines get an actual promo album sent, and well in time too) to the last possible moments (to avoid leaking), they shouldn’t be surprised that (with all the work involved first to download the album – sometimes takes a lóng time – and then to burn the albums on a cd-R) it takes some time for an editor-in-chief to get the stuff to his reviewing journalists. Assign individual accounts for each label to each journalist? That’s no option, because in the first place there’s labels out there only wanna work with one account per journalist, in spite of the possible diversity of their music. On the other hand, it would mean the journalists themselves are being bothered with the seedy task of the download procedure? Thanks a lot, but not for me! And thankfully our editor-in-chief sees things the same way. I mean, a good editor-in-chief hàs to stay on top of things, how else can he be sure about things actually being done? The solution is obviously simple, at least to me: let àll labels use watermarked downloads, and have them make the downlods available well in advance to allow the proper distribution of the promos. So, you’re afraid of leaking? Hey, if that happens with a watermarked download, at least you’ll immediatelly know whom was responsible, right? Thàt would surely weed out the bad elements in journalism smoothly enough, I think! 90/100 Tony. |