User:Deadfoot/COMBAT

History
Troll epic. A small but vital piece of the thrash wave of the 80's, east coast in particular, COMBAT started life in the midst of the "Kill 'Em All For One Tour". The Rossbach brothers joined up with X-"Amen Whip" bassist Chris "The Monarch" Weidner and became one on their pursuit of putting out the thrash on an unsuspecting Long Island. From their very first performance at a L'amour Battle of the Bands tryout:

"You guys play too loud, too fast and you need a singer"

At another club called Sparks, the soundman pulled the plug and it almost came to blows with deadfoot the drummer. Regardless of the lack of support from club owners, when Mötörhead came to Sundance in Bayshore "The Monarch" did what he had to do to get COMBAT on the bill. Armed with camo, gas masks, 2 smoke machines and special forces t-shirts, they made the most of their stage time.

Combat Records took notice. Joe Leonard, previously the Frigid Bich vocalist (one of the other few thrash bands on Long Island), was the man at Combat Records and he saw the band was ready. He asked for 2 things: 1) A better recording than the "Let The Battle Begin" demo tape, and 2) A band name change. No way would Combat Records sign a band with the same name. It was from this point that the band would be known as NAPALM.

A new demo was cut at an 8 track studio with engineer Bob Spencer. It was done live, with guitar and vocal overdubs. The demo was handed off to Joe Leonard and he said he would let them know. Soon after, they got a contract to sign, and naively signed away without consulting a lawyer. And it seemed like the next day that NAPALM was on  Combat Records' bootcamp series, using the 200 dollar demo on the EP. They were disappointed and pumped at the same time; they thought they were going to record an album and not use that recording for anything, but it was great to see their names on real vinyl.

Push came to shove and the last gig of the original members was at CBGB's.  There was too much pressure to get into the studio right away and they really didn't have enough new material. The idea of re-recording what was already on the EP was not an option for Jeff, and so the Rossbach brothers parted ways with "The Monarch".

NAPALM continued on for some time with 2 more line up changes.