The first time I ever came across the band Blood Feast was back in 1989 at a water park in Seaside Heights, New Jersey called Waterworks. I was there with my friends Robert Savage (he went on to become a police officer in NYC) and Carlos Dengler (he went on to play bass in Interpol), and I saw another kid there wearing a heavy metal-looking t-shirt with what looked like a really offensive logo.
I had to get a closer look.
Once I got within a few feet of the hesher, I saw that the logo of the band sitting within the upside down cross on his shirt said "Blood Feast."
Even at the age of 14, I prided myself on being an in-the-know kind of asshole when it came to all things metal, so it bugged me that I had never even heard of this Blood Feast band, let alone heard their music.
A few days later, I headed to a record store called Numbers Records and Tapes in my neighborhood and looked for anything I could find from Blood Feast. All they carried from the band was a picture disc of an EP called Face Fate. I bought a copy and rushed home (this was a very important thing for me).
As soon as my record player's needle hit the vinyl, I was hooked. The song doesn't waste time getting to business. Within its first four seconds, "Face Fate" is ripped wide open by Gary Markovitch's demented vocal attack, which reminded me of Chuck Schuldiner a lot. Musically speaking, Blood Feast, at least on this EP and their debut album, 1987's Kill for Pleasure, sounded a lot like early Slayer.
"Whoa! This sounds like Chuck Schuldiner fronting Slayer circa '85. Count me in!"
"Face Fate," the song, also has a circle pit-ready part 54 seconds into the song that would have sounded at home on a Cryptic Slaughter album. I remember playing "Face Fate" at Dengler's parent's apartment and moshing around like a bunch of idiots.
Those were the days.
