Oppressor: Gone… But Not Forgotten
- March 4th, 2010
- Posted in Blast From The Past
- By EvilivE
- Write comment
Before there were a quadrillion tech-death metal bands out there, there were only a handful good enough to be called Tech-Death. Oppressor, a band that most people have never heard of, started doing it in the early 90′s. Unfortunately, death metal was not at its popularity like it is today and a lot of bands didn’t make it.
Hailing out of Chicago, Illinois, Oppressor were very technical for a death metal band during the time. Oppressor was Tim King on vocals and bass, Adam Zadel and Jim Stopper on guitars and Tom Schofield on drums. Between ’91 and ’94 they recorded a few demos and finally released their first studio album, Solstice Of Oppression, in 1994, which can be pretty difficult to find these days. You may be able to find it on The End Records. The original label that it was released on, Red Light Records, went under and they had to seek out a new label.
Their second album, released in 1995, was a live/compilation album entitled European Oppression Live, sometimes called Oppression Live/As Blood Flows, on Megalithic Records. European Oppression Live consisted of a bunch of live songs as well as studio recordings from their 1992 As Blood Flows demo and a great version of Motley Crue’s Looks That Kill.
Oppressor released two more albums before deciding to call it quits due to the popularity of their side project that 3 out of 4 of the members were in. In 1996 Agony was released and their final album, Elements Of Corrosion was released in 1998, both on Olympic Records. Now this next part may have you gasping.
The side project that 75% of the band quit Oppressor for was a band that I’m sure you have heard of. That band featured at that time Ryan McCombs, currently the vocalist for Drowning Pool and guitarist Shaun Glass, formerly of now defunct American death metal band Broken Hope. Yes, that band was SOIL. The only member to not go on to Soil was Jim Stopper, who now plays with Chicago’s Twelfth Gate. These days Soil consists of the three members from Oppressor (King, Schofield and Zadel) and A.J. Cavalier on vocals.
Sadly, Soil is nothing like Oppressor, but Oppressor left us with a handful of technical death metal albums to enjoy if you can find them. It would be nice if they all got back together for a reunion of sort and quit wasting our time with Soil. I think Soil’s time is up and with the current popularity of death metal, it’s time for them to quit fucking around and get back to doing what they do best. Below is a still video of the opening track on Agony called ‘Gone’. As you can hear, they kind of sound like Morbid Angel with a little more melody and technicality.
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interesting read my friend. welcome aboard i’ll have to give it a whirl. btw if you like tech death with some thrash check out some Revocation http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqWLRVIzcJs
I’ve only heard the live album and Elements of Corrosion, and I wasn’t that impressed, but I’m interested in the old material before I cast final judgment.
The live album was my first find back in 1995 and the production on the studio songs is really rough in my opinion. Agony is by far my favorite, but if you want a good mix of the three studio albums there is a compilation called Solstice of Agony And Corrosion.
As for Revocation, there is something about the vocals that I don;t care for. I’ll give them more time and probably come around as I usually do, cause the music is great.
and who could forget Cryptopsy’s great None So Vile
Good song choice. Revocation are pretty sweet.
yes indeedy. i have been meaning to relisten to Existence Is futile and probably will in the next few days
Yeah don’t care for Revocation, can’t get into thrash revival for the life of me. Hey EvilivElivielivelilE looking forward to more posts!
Sick riffs on that album. I saw Oppressor way back when. Tim had the tightest sneakers ever. Strangled sneaks. Love Tim!
Dallas Coyle read my post! That makes me feel pretty good! I think we need to get a petition together to get Oppressor back together!Thought about going to see God Forbid tomorrow night, but it just won’t be the same without ya, Dallas! Should have gone to see DRI tonight though, but gotta save the cash for Soulfly, Prong, Rotting Corpse and Incite on the 10th.
@EvilivE
uh EvilivE… yer inner fanboy is showing… now he won’t want to comment on your next post because you shot your load first thing on this one… gotta play hard to get sometimes if you want to keep their attention… :p
@deseee
Not so much an inner fanboy. Just thought it was cool that an established metal musician commented on something I wrote. In fact, I wouldn’t say I’m a fanboy of any band. At least one or two has let me down here and there (Cough*Megadeth*cough), but Endgame fucking rules. God Forbid are a fairly newer liking of mine in the last year. Would have just like to see them with Dallas, that’s all. It’s not like seeing Carcass without Ken Owen, though I damn near creamed my jeans at the reunion tour.
@EvilivE
Nothing wrong with being a fanboy sometimes… I’m that way about Primus.