{"id":1211,"date":"1985-05-01T00:00:10","date_gmt":"1985-05-01T00:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=1211"},"modified":"2013-05-28T16:26:33","modified_gmt":"2013-05-28T16:26:33","slug":"feature-griffin-mf11","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/feature-griffin-mf11\/","title":{"rendered":"GRIFFIN – Semi-Thrash With A Vengeance (MF11, 1985) | Features @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

GRIFFIN – Semi-Thrash With A Vengeance<\/strong><\/span>
\nKelv Hellrazer<\/span>
\nMetal Forces, Issue 11 (1985)<\/span><\/p>\n

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Griffin (l-r): Tom Sprayberry, Billy McKay, Mike \u2018Yaz\u2019
Jastremski, Rick Wagner and Rick Cooper<\/b><\/em><\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n
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Pic: Joe Martino<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n

The Griffin in Greek mythology is known as the protector of truth and the protector of death; enter Griffin the band, masters of semi-thrash. All I know is that any heavy metal band that can turn me away from my glam \/ AOR roots has got to be something special.<\/p>\n

Now a couple of months back, we had an onslaught of releases from Shrapnel Records. We had Hexx, Chastain, Trauma and Griffin. All of them were metal of the finest pedigree, but it was Griffin\u2019s Flight Of The Griffin<\/em> that really caught my attention. With such classics as \u2018Hawk The Slayer\u2019, \u2018Heavy Metal Attack\u2019 and \u2018Hell Runneth Over\u2019, it\u2019s no wonder that the album is so popular with the death metal contingency down at Shades record store here in London.<\/p>\n

San Francisco\u2019s Griffin mix the speed of Iron Maiden with the slow meaty riffs of Angel Witch to produce a deadly combination. The difference between these boys and all the other bands in this current death \/ thrash metal wave is that you can clearly hear that the members of Griffin are all competent musicians. They don\u2019t just get as many swear words as possible and see if they can stick them all into one song. No, Griffin\u2019s songs are well structured and sound as if they have really put time and effort into them. This band has the power to please any metal head and stir them up into a metallic frenzy of wild stage diving.<\/p>\n

Enter the voice of Griffin frontman Billy McKay; himself a heavy metal purist who prides himself on honesty, truth, respect and a never-ending drive for perfection. \u201cGriffin was formed six years ago,\u201d he reveals. \u201cI met guitarist Rick Cooper on a tennis court, and then things just took off from there really. At first we used the name Sinister Savage, but we soon changed it to Griffin. We had different people in the band at the time though. It was basically the fact that these people started with the right ideas, but along the way they strayed from the original Griffin concept, so we had to get other people in until we reached the present line-up.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn 1982 we recorded a demo featuring \u2018Hell Runneth Over\u2019, which is my favourite song on the LP. This demo was good for a first try, but we knew we could do it heavier. Then we did the demo which was reviewed in Metal Forces a while back. This demo was a helluva lot better. We then picked up with JM Enterprises, our present management.\u201d<\/p>\n

How did the deal come together with Shrapnel Records? \u201cWell, our manager Joe Martino knew Mike Varney and got him interested in the band. He then heard what we were like and obviously liked us, hence the arrival of the LP. Our manager is a real hard working guy, I tell you. That guy is busting butt for us 24-hours a day, and it\u2019s his hard work that makes life a little easier for us.”<\/p>\n

Do you consider yourselves a part of the death metal movement? \u201cYeah, I sure do. It feels like a real part of me and it is everything that I stand for. I\u2019m really into the music 100% you know. I buy LPs by bands like Slayer<\/a>, Exodus etc. They stock all of these LPs down at my local store, and I like to keep tabs onto what is currently happening within the metal scene. The new Slayer LP (Hell Awaits<\/em>) is really hot stuff. I really dig bands of this calibre. Yesterday, I went to see Venom with Exodus and Slayer supporting. Venom were really good, but Slayer got one helluva reaction for a support band. Venom may not excel or stand out as the greatest musicians in the world, but they are a great live band and their attitude is cool. Yeah, I rate them. Griffin I really believe are part of this movement. We may not always play at 100 miles per hour all of the time, but basically it\u2019s the same idea.\u201d<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t you think the band is gonna have to go more commercial to attract major record company interest? \u201cWell, I know it\u2019s obvious that the majors are not signing up real heavy bands by the bucket load. I know that companies have to make bands into sellable commodities. This is what stinks! But I ain\u2019t gonna change my music; I\u2019m into real hardcore heavy metal. Okay, so there is a place for commercial hard rock – I accept that. I mean, when you\u2019re tired and driving down the motorway, the last thing I wanna hear is speed metal blowing my ears off. But the majors are gonna have to take Griffin as a heavy metal band and nothing else. Sure, I\u2019ve seen other bands turn commercial, but a lot of the time it\u2019s due to signing bad deals that they can\u2019t get out of.\u201d<\/p>\n

So what do you think of this poser metal scene that\u2019s happening down in LA at the moment? \u201cI just think that the whole OTT thing of image and stuff has been taken to the limit now. How more outrageous can you get? Sure, an image is real important, and Griffin doesn\u2019t go out of its way to ignore image. But I just think it detracts from the music.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Billy McKay<\/em><\/b><\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n
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Pic: Harold Oimoen<\/em><\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<\/td>\n
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So how come your bass player Tom Sprayberry has spikey hair, ala M\u00f6tley Cr\u00fce<\/a>? \u201cHe just wants to show off to all the women, I guess\u2026 and maybe the men as well (he laughs). No, Tom is a cool dude. Actually, aside from outrageous as far as image goes, our second guitarist, Yaz (aka Mike Jastremski), has outrageous onstage antics which often acts as a cue for all the \u2019crazies\u2019, as he gets a variety of responses from the headbangers.\u201d<\/p>\n

What was the response to your demo feature in Metal Forces<\/em> issue #4? \u201cIt was remarkable\u2026 we had a lot of letters from all over the world. It\u2019s amazing what some good press can do for you. Speaking of press in a different light, I heard we got a bad LP review in Kerrang!<\/em>. Well I tell you, Mike Varney is real upset and has taken it real bad. I\u2019ve got to see it myself though before I pass final judgement.\u201d<\/p>\n

I read somewhere that the band were influenced by Angel Witch? “I love Angel Witch. That band did a helluva lot for me. It\u2019s a real pity how things turned out for that band; they had so many good songs. It makes me sick what the music business does to certain bands. I\u2019m sure if it wasn\u2019t for dodgy record deals then that band would have been up there rocking with the rest of them. Kevin Heybourne is such a good guitar player. It\u2019s just criminal what happened to them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Finally, what\u2019s next on the agenda for Griffin? \u201cWell, we would like to do our second LP with a major label. We need to have a big company behind us so that we can carry out the things we wanna do. We would really like to play in Europe and see what the buzz on us in places like the UK is really all about.\u201d<\/p>\n

I wish Griffin luck and I hope they get a major deal real soon.<\/p>\n

Interview taken from Metal Forces, Issue 11 (1985)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

GRIFFIN – Semi-Thrash With A Vengeance Kelv Hellrazer Metal Forces, Issue 11 (1985) Griffin (l-r): Tom Sprayberry, Billy McKay, Mike \u2018Yaz\u2019 Jastremski, Rick Wagner and Rick Cooper Pic: Joe Martino The Griffin in Greek mythology is known as the protector of truth and the protector of death; enter Griffin the band, masters of semi-thrash. All […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1211","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-griffin"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1211","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1211"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1211\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11730,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1211\/revisions\/11730"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1211"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1211"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1211"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}