Heart of Darkness (the band)

I almost always write about literary matters here at this blog, with occasional political intersections.  But as long-time readers will know, I’ve also written a number of music-related posts, including on bands that I’ve been in myself (I was/am, mostly was, a drummer), such as Wasted Talent and Oblivion.  The band I was in after these was Heart of Darkness, based in State College, Pennsylvania, from about 1986 till our eventual break-up in Hollywood, California, in 1991.  We (self-)released three demo tapes and a 7” single (on blue vinyl), and at one point had some minor record label interest, but it seemed to me that the band’s impact was minimal at best, at least outside of a small but dedicated local following.

HOD’s original singer was Mike Scalzi, who went on to create the legendary metal band Slough Feg.  (Not a lot of people know about Scalzi’s pre-Slough Feg career, though he discusses it in an interview here.).  My brother, who was HOD’s founder and rhythm guitarist, is now in the New York-based punk band Chesty Malone and the Slice ’em Ups.  But HOD is virtually unknown in the annals of rock, punk, or heavy metal history — probably deservedly so, since no one has done much in this digital age to foster awareness of the band (we tried and I guess failed at the time).

So it’s interesting to me that all of the sudden one of our demo tapes (from 1988!) turns up in Des Moines, Iowa, of all places, and someone posts a blog piece about it: http://idontlistentopunkanymore.blogspot.com/2012/11/heart-of-darkness-leeway-usa-demo-tape.html, and kind of raves about it (at least some aspects of it).  I guess you never can tell what will resonate for people, whether now or in the future.

(The lead guitarist, by the way, who the reviewer loves, is Eric Borkovec, my brother is on guitar and vocals, the bassist is Rusty Glessner, and I am on drums.  The songs are downloadable.)