DESTRUCTOR rare PRIVATE PRESS heavy metal punk 1st LP

$

66

ARTIST: Destructor   

TITLE: Maximum Destruction

LABEL: AUBURN 004

YEAR: 1985

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: USA

VINYL CONDITION: EX

COVER CONDITION: VG+ nice copy with some creasing

DETAILS: Comes with Original Inner Sleeve w/ lyrics & photos. Very RARE
Private Press LP from Ohio early 80's.

Auburn president Bill Peters' first encounter with Destructor was seeing the band perform their very first 'live' show in 1984 at The Pop Shop, a club managed by Chris Andrews and located beneath the historic Cleveland Agora.  Already working with bands such as Breaker and Shok Paris at the time, Peters fell in love with the band's untamed energy, great songwriting, wild spirit and charismatic stage presence.   The Cleveland metal scene was dominated at the time with 'technically' great sounding bands.  Many questioned why Peters would choose to work with a band such as Destructor and how he could possibly record and capture the band's energy in the studio.  After all, Destructor were considered to be one of the area's most 'anti-technical' of bands at the time.  Despite the rough edges and regardless of the criticisms, Peters had a vision that Destructor could develop into something special and saw something in them most of his industry peers did not.  He took a chance and moved forward, signing Destructor to his Auburn label in 1984.  The band entered Suma Recording Studios to begin recording their debut album with engineer Paul Hamann at the helm.  Destructor's "Maximum Destruction" album, released the following year in 1985 on Auburn Records, is considered by many to be an underground metal classic and quickly silenced the critics.   It became Auburn's biggest seller and catapulted the band to international success in the metal underground.   The album was licensed to Roadrunner Records in Europe several months after the initial release and later reissued by Listenable Records in 1999.  Destructor's crushing 'live' performances in the area, both headlining and opening for national acts such as Anthrax, Slayer and Megadeth, became legendary.  The band received rave reviews and full features in prestigious metal publications like Metal Forces, Kerrang!, Hit Parader and Metal Hammer.   In 1987, Destructor entered Beachwood Studios with engineer Jim DeMain to begin recording their second album "Decibel Casualties".  The album, along with Jag Panzer's "Chain Of Command", was going to help launch a joint venture between Auburn and major label Island Records.  Unfortunately, both projects never saw the light of day.  Several months into the Destructor recording sessions, bass player Dave Iannicca was innocently murdered on January 1, 1988.  The incident devastated both the band and Auburn president Bill Peters, who had been a good friend of Dave's over the years.  Coping with losing a 'family' member was very difficult for everyone to overcome.   Destructor needed time to recover from the tragedy and were in no condition to begin playing music again.  Peters struggled with his emotions and his dealings with Island Records, who took more of a business stance on the whole situation.  Peters eventually decided to walk away from the entire 3-year label deal.  It was a tough decision but the right one he felt to make at the time.