Deadly Blessing

Turnersville, NJ-based heavy metal band Deadly Blessing blended elements of speed and power metal (think Omen meeting Exciter) into an otherwise indistinctive '80s metal assault, which never did break them out of the underground. Originally formed in 1985, the group used a self-financed 1987 EP (since referred to both as Salem's Lot and the band's own name) to secure a deal with leading independent New Renaissance Records, which issued their only full-length album, the evocatively titled Ascend from the Cauldron, the following year. But the recording lineup of vocalist Ski, guitarists Tony Kerr and Tom Bach, bassist Nick Mitchell, and drummer Wayne Kellie was already falling apart, and a revamped Deadly Blessing managed only a final 1990 demo called Psycho Drama before vanishing altogether. Except, that is, for bassist Mitchell, who briefly hooked up with German metal siren Doro for her 1998 LP Love Me in Black.