Medieval

Western Michigan's Medieval was formed in the late '70s by best friends Timothy Buist (vocals, guitar) and Willjious K. Amsbury (vocals, drums), who, in a move probably inspired by the Ramones, decided to combine their last names into a shared alias of Amsbuist and soon began working on original material while playing local clubs with bassist Magloo in tow. By the early '80s, the Amsbuists had enlisted a new bass player, Elwood Chew, and grown ever more influenced by no-fuss, speed-loving heavy metal bands such as Motörhead, Blitzkrieg, and Raven, resulting in an energetic but still blue-collar assault on their 1984 demo All Knobs to the Right (which referred to their amplifiers' knobs, in case you were wondering). Dubbed by some critics as "sludge metal" (although it had little in common with the slower, grimier style associated with that label in the 1990s and beyond), the demo showed enough promise to earn the trio a deal with New Renaissance Records, which released Medieval's self-titled EP (also known as Reign of Terror) in 1986. This along with the following year's eagerly anticipated full-length album Medieval Kills! captured the Michigan natives in all their visceral, raw, and usually frenetic garage metal glory, and the latter would break New Renaissance's record for orders placed. At least until calamity struck, since, later in 1987, the indie label's distributor went bankrupt, leaving the vinyl stock of their entire roster of bands — including Medieval's of course — locked up in a warehouse, while lawyers went about their dirty business. Having been robbed of their momentum, Medieval decided to call it quits in 1989, but the friendship between Willjious, Timmy, and Elwood remained, and word on the street circa 2004 suggested that they were considering a Medieval reunion.