Violation - Anthology: The Underground Metal Vault: Chapter 1 (Vinyl)

Limited OBI Strip Edition Vinyl LP

Anthology: The Underground Metal Vault: Chapter 1 opens Ripple Music's Underground Metal Vault, a series of 12-inch vinyl and CD releases devoted to the metal bands that came up at the end of the 1970s and the start of the 1980s without major-label budgets behind them. The first chapter collects the recorded output of Violation, from Livermore, California, including songs that had only ever circulated on a demo cassette. This LP edition carries an OBI strip and runs 12 tracks, a little over 45 minutes.

Longtime friends Paul Harris and Perry Fotos formed Violation in the late 1970s, later adding bassist Brian Khoury and drummer Mike Pavlick. The band rehearsed after hours in Galaxy Records, the downtown Livermore record store run by the Khoury family, and began as a cover band playing UFO, AC/DC, Thin Lizzy and Blue Oyster Cult at house parties, halls and high schools before turning to its own songs. Two of those early originals are here: "Hot Fire" and the power ballad "Coming After You," which closed many of their shows.

Club dates followed at the Keystone in Berkeley and Palo Alto and at The Stone in San Francisco, and the band went on to headline The Old Waldorf in San Francisco and the Whisky a Go Go in Hollywood. In 1982, after Pavlick left, the remaining members recorded "Meet Me at Midnight," "Balls Out" and "Goin' Down Fightin'" with Leonard Haze of Y&T on drums, uncredited. "Meet Me at Midnight" backed with "Balls Out" came out as a 7-inch single on the band's own VIR Records, and Ripple's notes say it sold in Europe as well, helped by a positive review in Kerrang!, and went to No. 1 on the Kerrang! chart.

With Don "Rocket" Stephenson on drums, Violation was then invited by Mike Varney of Shrapnel Records onto U.S. Metal Vol. 3, the third in his series of albums featuring unsung metal guitarists. The band recorded a new version of "Gonna Get to You" for it at the Music Annex in Menlo Park, with Tim Hall on lead vocals. Hall left soon after that album came out, and Violation disbanded in 1983.

Tracklist

1. Balls Out
2. Meet Me At Midnight
3. Going Down Fighting (Original Version)
4. Don't Leave Me
5. Ready To Roll
6. I Found You
7. Hot Fire
8. I Need You Back
9. Coming After You
10. Gonna Get To You (Original Version)
11. Following My Heart
12. Longest Night