To many people, our "From Beyond" demo (1990) is the most well known recording of the band. Recorded during December of 1989 and released in early 1990, "From Beyond" was leaps and bounds superior to our humble debut demo (1988's "Thrashcore"). This time around we had a better engineer and we had progressed as musicians, although we were still learning. Martin Lugo was still on drums, Oscar del Rio was still our bass player and this marked Luiz Ahumada's recording debut with Draksen. We had 4 new songs finished and decided to re-do one of our earliest songs, "Permanent Anesthesia", which originally appeared on our debut album. Memories beging to feel hazy after so many years, but overall, we had fun recording "From Beyond". We knew we had something special and something that sounded closer to how we were during a live performance. The title track was one of the heaviest songs we had ever penned. Written when Andres Rodriguez was still in the band, "From Beyond" had a heavy european thrash influence: Kreator, Sodom, Destruction and some Exodus were definitely inspiring us during the writing of this song. Lyrics are basically the story from the movie of the same name, Stuart Gordon's "From Beyond", which in turn was based on an H.P. Lovecraft short story. When I saw the movie I was delighted at how over the top it was. Having seen it recently, it's still gory, but it's nowhere near as nasty as that other Stuart Gordon movie: "Re-Animator".
So the movie influences were still heavy on us. "Permanent Anesthesia" is about a psycho-serial-killer-doctor. Typical slash and dice, friday the 13th type of lyric. Musically, there's a bit of Iron Maiden, Metallica and Slayer thrown in. The main riff is actually a mixture of Iron Maiden's title song and Metallica's "Hit The Lights". This was like the second song I ever wrote in my life, back in 1985!!! I was still elegantly ripping off riffs off my favorite bands! Hahaha! "Something Wasn't Right '89", Martin Lugo came up with the title. I have no idea why he chose that title, save for the "89" thing, which of course refers to the year I wrote it. When recording this song, Luiz had not learned it yet, so I had to play all guitars here. I guess this is my "Joe Satriani" moment, hahaha! I wanted to do a guitar oriented instrumental, show off a bit. Some notes sound plain awful, but hey, I has trying hard!
"In The Name Of The Cause" became a live favorite. It was one of our few "mid-paced" songs, our answer to Metallica's "Four Horsemen". Musically, there's the obvious Metallica influence, but I can cite Destruction and Manowar too. Manowar specially with the lyrics about kings and swords and "Excalibur" type of shit. That was our "power metal" song! In reality, "the cause" was veil for something way cornier: heavy metal dude!!! Hahaha! But instead of writing about how "metal" we were, I decided to write an allegory about it and make it sound like a King Arthur song. By the way, I love "Excalibur", it is one of my all time favorite movies, so the song really wrote itself, easy as a cake. Musically, it was THE longest song we've ever written. I think it still remains as the longest, at over 6 minutes.
"Poisoned Environment", which originally had the "Thrashcore II" thing, was a more direct metal song. It dealt with the trends within the scene and how those trends will end up dilluting it. Musically, it was a concious effort to write a song very much in the vein of the original "thrashcore". You see, at the time (1989) I already had many songs practically ready to be played and or record, but those songs were slightly less thrash and more heavy metal. One of those songs was kind of Metallica's "Orion" but with lyrics. I was frustrated the band did not like those songs as much as I did. I always said, "if you like faster or heavier or slower songs, write them yourself! It's nice to have a balance". But since I was the unofficial songwriter for the band, I had to write what I thought they would like. Hence, "Poisoned Environment". I love the song, but I do feel parts of the mid section lose plot a little bit; it could've been edited out, but the guys loved it so those parts stayed. It is one of Fabian Medina's favorite songs.
"Guadalajara" was just a fun song. I thought that, since it's strange for people outside of Mexico to hear Mexican thrash, it'd be nice for them to hear a traditional mexican folk song all thrashed up. Back in 1989, the closest thing to international latin american metal was Sepultura, that was it. I wrote the arrangements for both guitar harmonies. Again, Luiz did not play guitar on this track. Oscar played some weird bass line that I was never really satisfied with; I wanted a bass line that did not follow the guitars, but did something closer to what is done in the original song. At the time, most of the guys in the band regarded "Guadalajara" as a joke song. Not me. I really like mariachi music and in no way I'm making fun of that song. I'm paying homage to a great song.
If you ask me, I prefer the songs we re recorded for the album. "From Beyond's" most important songs were re done for the debut album. But friends and fans have been wanting to have the demo on MP3 so here you go. Hope you guys enjoy it!
Download "From Beyond" (demo 1990)
So the movie influences were still heavy on us. "Permanent Anesthesia" is about a psycho-serial-killer-doctor. Typical slash and dice, friday the 13th type of lyric. Musically, there's a bit of Iron Maiden, Metallica and Slayer thrown in. The main riff is actually a mixture of Iron Maiden's title song and Metallica's "Hit The Lights". This was like the second song I ever wrote in my life, back in 1985!!! I was still elegantly ripping off riffs off my favorite bands! Hahaha! "Something Wasn't Right '89", Martin Lugo came up with the title. I have no idea why he chose that title, save for the "89" thing, which of course refers to the year I wrote it. When recording this song, Luiz had not learned it yet, so I had to play all guitars here. I guess this is my "Joe Satriani" moment, hahaha! I wanted to do a guitar oriented instrumental, show off a bit. Some notes sound plain awful, but hey, I has trying hard!
"In The Name Of The Cause" became a live favorite. It was one of our few "mid-paced" songs, our answer to Metallica's "Four Horsemen". Musically, there's the obvious Metallica influence, but I can cite Destruction and Manowar too. Manowar specially with the lyrics about kings and swords and "Excalibur" type of shit. That was our "power metal" song! In reality, "the cause" was veil for something way cornier: heavy metal dude!!! Hahaha! But instead of writing about how "metal" we were, I decided to write an allegory about it and make it sound like a King Arthur song. By the way, I love "Excalibur", it is one of my all time favorite movies, so the song really wrote itself, easy as a cake. Musically, it was THE longest song we've ever written. I think it still remains as the longest, at over 6 minutes.
"Poisoned Environment", which originally had the "Thrashcore II" thing, was a more direct metal song. It dealt with the trends within the scene and how those trends will end up dilluting it. Musically, it was a concious effort to write a song very much in the vein of the original "thrashcore". You see, at the time (1989) I already had many songs practically ready to be played and or record, but those songs were slightly less thrash and more heavy metal. One of those songs was kind of Metallica's "Orion" but with lyrics. I was frustrated the band did not like those songs as much as I did. I always said, "if you like faster or heavier or slower songs, write them yourself! It's nice to have a balance". But since I was the unofficial songwriter for the band, I had to write what I thought they would like. Hence, "Poisoned Environment". I love the song, but I do feel parts of the mid section lose plot a little bit; it could've been edited out, but the guys loved it so those parts stayed. It is one of Fabian Medina's favorite songs.
"Guadalajara" was just a fun song. I thought that, since it's strange for people outside of Mexico to hear Mexican thrash, it'd be nice for them to hear a traditional mexican folk song all thrashed up. Back in 1989, the closest thing to international latin american metal was Sepultura, that was it. I wrote the arrangements for both guitar harmonies. Again, Luiz did not play guitar on this track. Oscar played some weird bass line that I was never really satisfied with; I wanted a bass line that did not follow the guitars, but did something closer to what is done in the original song. At the time, most of the guys in the band regarded "Guadalajara" as a joke song. Not me. I really like mariachi music and in no way I'm making fun of that song. I'm paying homage to a great song.
If you ask me, I prefer the songs we re recorded for the album. "From Beyond's" most important songs were re done for the debut album. But friends and fans have been wanting to have the demo on MP3 so here you go. Hope you guys enjoy it!
