Bedemon

You can't get more "cult metal" than Pentagram (after all, the group didn't manage to issue a proper studio album during their early-'70s peak), but somehow, Bedemon manages to accomplish this feat. During the early '70s, Pentagram bandmembers Bobby Liebling (vocals) and Geof O'Keefe (drums) were asked by the group's brief second guitarist/horror movie buff, Randy Palmer, if they'd be interested in working on some material that Palmer had penned. The pair agreed, and recorded a few tracks with bassist Mike Matthews circa 1973 and 1974. The tracks were not recorded in a proper studio setting, but rather live at Pentagram's rehearsal space, with Liebling overdubbing vocals and Palmer overdubbing solos. After only three tracks were completed, "Child of Darkness," "Serpent Venom," and "Frozen Fear," Palmer officially joined up with Pentagram (helping co-write one of Pentagram's best songs, "Starlady") before exiting soon after, and O'Keefe following suite a couple of years later. In 1979, Bedemon got back together to record three more tracks, "Time Bomb," "Nighttime Killer," and "Axe to Grind," and again in 1986 (with Pentagram's Greg Mayne taking Matthews' spot in the lineup), when another Palmer composition was recorded, "Night of the Demon," as well as several older tunes. In the subsequent years, Palmer unwisely gave a copy of the Bedemon recordings to a Pentagram fan, who then began selling bootlegs of the material. With interest in Pentagram surging in the early 21st century (when quite a few doom metal bands listed the group as a major influence), Bedemon reunited out of the clear blue in April 2002, and recorded an hour's worth of new material. Sadly, Palmer died from injuries sustained from an auto accident on August 8 of that year. Plans to eventually release the material recorded shortly before Palmer's death soon arose, with singer Craig Junghandel signed on to lend a hand. But before the 2002 sessions were released, the Italian metal label Black Widow issued a compilation of the earlier Bedemon material as a 15-track compilation in 2006, Child of Darkness: From the Original Master Tapes. Around the same time, O'Keefe launched an official Bedemon website, www.bedemon.com.