Reunited San Francisco Bay Area thrashers VIO-LENCE have inked a deal with Metal Blade Records. The band's new EP is tentatively due to be recorded in the coming months. Vocalist Sean Killian comments: "My first real exposure to thrash metal was brought to me by Metal Blade Records in the form of SLAYER's 'Show No Mercy', which turned into my first live thrash metal show when I saw SLAYER at the Keystone [in] Berkeley. Today, being able to announce that VIO-LENCE has signed an agreement to bring new music to thrash metal fans and future thrash metal fans around the world with our partners Metal Blade Records is a very proud moment for me and VIO-LENCE. "Metal Blade has been involved in thrash metal since the beginning with their compilation 'Metal Massacre', and they have stood the test of time because of their love for heavy music. "Thank you everyone at Metal Blade Records for believing in VIO-LENCE and for being fans of the music I love." This past January, VIO-LENCE parted ways with guitarist Ray Vegas and replaced him with former OVERKILL axeman Bobby Gustafson. VIO-LENCE released three studio albums between 1988 and 1993. The group reunited soon after guitarist Phil Demmel left MACHINE HEAD in late 2018. VIO-LENCE performed its first comeback concert in April 2019 at the Oakland Metro in Oakland, California and spent the last year playing select shows in the U.S. and Europe. The band's current touring lineup consists of Demmel, Gustafson, Killian, drummer Perry Strickland and bassist Deen Dell. Although MACHINE HEAD frontman Robb Flynn was part of VIO-LENCE's classic incarnation and played on the band's debut album, "Eternal Nightmare", he wasn't contacted about doing the comeback shows. Demmel told Australia's Heavy magazine about VIO-LENCE's comeback: "This whole thing kind of started slow, right after I quit MACHINE HEAD and did a little bridge thing with SLAYER [filling in for Gary Holt]. Sean reached out about doing a couple of shows, and I was pretty floored, because he wasn't looking too good the last time I saw him. [Editor's note: Killian received a liver transplant in 2018.]… My only concern was Sean, and how he was physically. I think that all the other things could be put into place, but there's no VIO-LENCE without Sean Killian. [It was about] making sure that he was going to be good, and be able to pull it off. I didn't want to go out there and just kind of prop him up and have him just be going through some — not midlife crisis, but some sort of thing that he just wanted to do. I wanted it to be quality, because we've always put on a pretty quality product whenever we got together and jammed." Photo credit: James Willard
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