Brutalizing headbangers throughout the late eighties...

It all began in 1985 when Jason Pelletier graduated from Forest View High School in Arlington Heights, Illinois. Shortly thereafter, his family moved to Schaumburg, Illinois where his younger brother Derek Pelletier started attending school at Schaumburg High School. While he was going to school there, he met a few guys who were musicians that were looking to start a heavy metal band. He met a drummer named Jim Machonis and a guitar player named Jeff Jones. Both these guys were seniors at Schaumburg High School. He told them that his brother played guitar and was interested in finding other musicians to form a heavy metal band. They got in touch with Jason and soon met up at Jeff's house to talk about starting a band. After meeting for the first time, it was pretty clear that the three had a lot in common and the band was on its way.

One of the biggest obstacles the three faced was finding a place to start jamming at. They contacted several local real estate companies and by chance one of them had a friend that owned a free standing two story house that had a basement. (see photos below) The building was located off a main road and there was nothing around it. The owner Jay Walker ran a hair salon called Walker's Lock & Nail. He contacted Jason and setup an appointment to talk about the possibility of renting out his basement to the newly formed band. Walker was a really cool laid back business man. He would cut hair by day and party by night. It was really important to him that the band did not interfere with his business. They agreed on $200 a month rent and the band soon moved in. (quick fact - They rented his basement for a total of five years: 5 x 12 x $200 = $12,000 in rent not including the extra fees for heat in the winter) Jay used to keep his shop open to 9pm at night, so the band could practice from nine o'clock on. (which usually meant 'till the beer ran out and the bitches went home...)

Once the three moved in, they needed to find a vocalist and a bass player as soon as possible. They posted flyers at the local music stores and an ad in the classifieds section of the local newspaper. Soon, they were contacted by Rick Rizzo. He played bass and he wanted to audition for the band. They met Rick and everything started to come together. Rick also volunteered to take on the role of lead vocalist of the band as well as playing bass guitar. (quick fact - Rick was a few years older than the rest of the band and he could legally buy beer at the local liquor store down the road… What, 21 years old, fuck... you're in...)

DISCLAIMER: Ok, most of this information should be pretty accurate and true to life, but considering this shit happened 20 years ago and we spent most of the time partying our asses off, I will continue putting it back together as best as I can remember... Jason

Source : http://DagothMetal.com