HISTORY:
San Antonio, Texas circa 1982-1986, a new music scene in the metal genre begins to gain a fast growing and rabid following. With bands like Slayer, Watchtower, Militia, Helstar, Juggernaut, and others sharing the bill throughout jam packed venues in the areas in and around Austin, San Antonio, and Houston, it appeared the unlikely arrival a Texas metal scene was actually taking place.
Summer 1983, Karion joins the ranks of the regional scene and quickly begins sharing the stage with their counterparts.
Formed by former members of San Antonio's own "Slayer", guitarist art Villarreal, vocalist Chris Cronk, and future members of Riot, Spastic Ink, Helstar, bassist Pete Perez, drummer Frank Ferraira, Karion combined their aspirations and ideas to present a unique and powerful
approach to this fast growing sub-genre. Influenced by a vast array of styles ranging from NWOBM, seventies hard rock to fusion, Karion set out to play their brand of metal with fast, harmonic unison bass and guitar runs, along with healthy doses standard issue metal rythms, and melodic vocals.
Press Release
Texas cult metal act KARION ready archives release
August 24, 2006 - San Antonio, Texas underground cult
faves KARION have announced the release of 'Iron
Shadows', a collection of re-mastered demos recorded
at Sound Cube Studios in Converse, Texas with engineer
Ron Thomas during the band's brief three-year tenure
in the mid-80's.
Contemporaries of such Texas legends as WATCHTOWER,
(S.A.) SLAYER, PANTERA, HELSTAR, and JUGGERNAUT,
KARION was formed in the summer of 1983 by guitarist
Art Villareal upon his exit from local heroes SLAYER
with whom he recorded the classic 'Prepare To Die' EP
for the Rainforest label. Villareal quickly recruited
original SLAYER vocalist Chris Kronk, bassist Pete
Perez, and drummer Frank Herreira. The new band soon
garnered a sizeable following gigging around San
Antonio and Austin while sharing the stage with the
likes of WATCHTOWER, SLAYER, WYZARD, and MILITIA at
legendary venues such as the Villa Fontana (site of
the infamous S.A. SLAYER vs. L.A. SLAYER show in 1984)
and The Ritz before calling it a day in 1986.
Post-KARION, Kronk would briefly be associated with
Colorado's JAG PANZER, Herreira joined HELSTAR in time
for the 'A Distant Thunder' album, Villareal
collaborated with late 80's RIOT rhythm section, Don
Van Stavern (SLAYER, PITPULL DAYCARE) and Bobby
Jarzombek (SEBASTIAN BACH, ICED EARTH, HALFORD), in
JACK RUBY, while Perez would end up replacing Van
Stavern in RIOT in 1990 and went on to record with
both SPASTIC INK and LEATHERWOLF.
"I can't wait for this release to get out there. I'm
amazed that there is still all this interest in SLAYER
and classic Texas Metal in general, which is something
I really wasn't aware of for a long time. Pretty
amazing!" states Villareal. "Basically in KARION we
were trying to do something a little different than
the whole SLAYER thing. We were getting away from the
whole evil, demon, witch, violence thing, thus the
weird name KARION, which a friend of mine suggested.
We also wanted to do something a little different in
metal by being more musical and at the same time play
fast, with some cool syncopated stuff thrown in. We
rehearsed a lot and Pete and I were pretty meticulous
about working out parts, and so was Frank. I spent a
lot of that time writing music, too, and it was
exciting to know that whatever I came up with, Pete
and Frank could handle it! If 'Iron Shadows' gets
enough attention - who knows? Maybe I'll get the guys
back together to play a little and write some new
stuff. We all still play every day so nothing is out
of the question."
The forthcoming KARION CD is set to include the tracks
'Panzer', originally written by Villareal for his
pre-SLAYER outfit BLITZKRIEG, 'The Edge and the Nail',
'There For None to See', live fan favorite 'We Are the
Law', and 'Iron Shadows'. The songs were digitally
re-mastered by Villareal's former BLITZKRIEG and
SLAYER band mate, guitarist Bob Catlin (JUGGERNAUT,
PIGFACE).
For more information please visit
www.myspace.com/karion1
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