Belial - Band

The band I played with through about 1994

About this page:
This tells the story of the band I played with years ago. Belial - Really heavy, fast, thrash metal. The term "Death Metal", seems to be what most people labeled us, but I've always disliked that term, I more prefer thrash. btw... Yeah yeah yeah, I know there was a band in Finland with the same name. But we were never big enough to be a problem to them.

Anyway... Years and years after the band broke up and went our separate ways, I still look back on those days. It was a great time in my life, and there is some great music that we made, and it's available for people to hear today.

This page is dedicated to those whom I worked with and was friends with for all those years. I'm doing this without any consent, or even knowledge, of any former members. And for that, I will not include any other information about them other than their names.
They would be:
Brian Chaffee (lead vocals)
Ken Lawton (guitars/lead vocals) <--- that's me...
Timmy Douglas (bass)
T (drums)
Dennis Roehr (guitars)
Jimmy Conroy (drums)
Ed Long (lead vocals)

If any of you dudes read this and want your information removed or corrected, email me and tell me so.

Having said all that... On this page, I've included all the music that I think is worth releasing. Some of it I'm more proud of than others. But, everyone is entitled to their own opinion. I hope you download and play all the songs and dig them equally... I also included the music video I put together for "Takeover". Still one of my favorite songs from the last year or so we played.

Takeover - live video.
Audio is from the studio recording. Video is edited together from clips of a couple of live shows. You can download a nicer quality version here.

The Music: (All MP3s... right click/save as)
1994 Demo:
Members: Brian Chaffee (vocals), Ken Lawton (guitars), Timmy Douglas (Bass), T (drums)

I recently uploaded this entire set as playlist on YouTube
You can read more about what I've been doing lately on my Music blog.

Rules and Regulations

Unseen

Wall of Humanity

Birthright

Takeover

Instinct

The Earth Will Bleed (1994)

1992 Demo:
Members: Ken Lawton (vocals and guitars), Dennis Roehr (guitars), Timmy Douglas (Bass), T (drums)

The Earth Will Bleed (1992)

Minds Decay

Violently Suffering

Instrumental

Biography:
The band began playing in 1988 and played until about 1994. It all began with myself and Dennis. He was a surprisingly good guitar player. Especially for the area that I was in. No one knew how to play riffs like that. And on top of that, he could write! Soon after, Timmy Douglas joined up. I had known Timmy for years. He was more than a competent player. The best around in fact. Oddly enough, we'd never played together before. In fact, I was a little surprised when he expressed interest in joining up with us... We finally managed to pull together a singer and a drummer, and the first incarnation of the band was there. At the time we went by the name "Endangered Species". That was mighty short lived. I think we released one demo under that name. And I doubt that more than one copy of that demo even exists any more.

We held the 5 member lineup for a while. Recorded a demo or so... But, things with the drummer were not working out at all. Not only that, but the singer was not working out either. There's no need to get into the specifics of either situation. It's just better to have respect and let it be at that.

The guy we found to take the drummer's place was a guy who not only had been working for us as a roadie and a light guy, but he also had played with Timmy in a previous band, years before.

It was decided that I, of all people, would be taking over the vocals.

We actually had a pretty good time of that. We did a shit load of gigs, wrote some music that I'm still really proud of, and had a blast in the meantime. I'd argue that this was probably the point in our career where we had the biggest fan base, best gigs, and overall best fucking time!

The lineup continued with us 4 for about 2 years. Then, it was time for another change. It was time for Dennis to leave. (Again, no need for specifics). With Dennis leaving, I told the other guys, "I want to concentrate on my playing. I don't want to sing any more."

So, Timmy, T, and I started writing without a singer. Without any clear direction at all, other than just wanting to write some really good stuff... We had 2 songs completed that we were really happy with. With that, a guy who sang for another local band, Technikill, named Brian Chaffee, happened by my house while we were rehearsing (in the living room). He was sufficiently impressed with what he heard that he simply offered to join up. Having heard and seen Brian many times over the past years that we'd been hanging with those guys, there was no need to audition him. If he wanted in, he was in.

So, he made some fast recordings of the songs we had been working on. Went home. Then, the next day, he came back to my house with lyrics completed for both songs. And proceeded to belt them out along with the cassette recording.

At this point, things really seemed to be looking up. We had a new singer, a new direction on things... How quickly things can change, though...

With this final lineup of the band, we only lasted another year. After that, a series of things happened. Most notably was the fact that it was getting harder and harder to get gigs in any clubs. The owners of such clubs were charging REALLY high ticket prices, and most were demanding that you bring a bus load of people, at your own expense, or they wouldn't even book you. On top of that, I distinctly remember, at one gig, looking out from the stage at a sea of completely blank faces. They just didn't get it. The time for what we were playing was fading fast. I mean, these people were our friends and our fans, and they really couldn't care less.

I gotta tell you, it's really disheartening to see that after all that time, we really didn't have much of a following left, and our prospects for a future were looking rather dead.

It was at that gig that I decided that it was time for me to turn this page in my life. A few weeks later, I sat down with everyone and said, "That's it for me, guys. You can do what you want. But I'm out." All of this was met with much anger, of course. But in the end, I certainly still feel it was the right decision.