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'Wild Pussy' (1986-1990)
'Religion' (1990-1995)
'Damaged Gods' (2004-present)
‘Wild Pussy’ were formed in the 1986. Based in the Rhymney Valley in South Wales, UK. The band was formed initially as a musical outlet for two sets of friends, hence the somewhat stupid band name, and the slightly tongue in cheek members’ pseudonyms!
Beginning as a covers band, ‘Wild Pussy’ gained a good local following and support encouraged them to continue.The band began to write music as a five-piece, and although influenced by bands as diverse as ‘Kiss’, ‘Marillion’ and ‘Judas Priest’, there began comparisons (especially upon release of their first mini-album) to ‘Iron Maiden’, ‘Slayer’, ‘Metallica’ and ‘Queensryche’. The music could best be described as power-metal, more akin to early ‘Helloween’ - the key to the ‘Wild Pussy’ sound was complicated-but-powerful arrangements that either slashed like razors or hit like a hammerhead.
The first (and only) official recording from ‘Wild Pussy’ was the E.P. called ‘Mechanarchy’, which was recorded and released in 1988 and featured four band-composed tracks. ‘Mechnarchy’ was self-financed by the band (put out on their own ‘Metallion’ label) and had no official ‘distribution’, available only by purchase from their gigs or via mail-order. Magazine critics were incredibly positive about the bands first recording, notably ‘Kerrang’ magazine (‘Lyrically inspired and built on a sound that begs comparison to ‘Metallica’ and ‘Queensryche’, if those two had a bast+++ child then you could be staring at it’ - Phil Wilding); ‘Metal Hammer’ magazine (4 our of five star review) (‘Imagine a mix between the brilliance of ‘Maiden’ coupled to the sheer blitzing of ‘Slayer’ – Tim Oakes) and ‘Metal Forces’ (‘beyond the large talent of vocalist Jon Blood, you have the awesome abilities of twin guitarist Skies and Storm who combine better here than (Iron Maiden’s) Murray and Smith and even (Metallica’s) Hammet and Hetfield!’ – Dave Shack). The quality of the music an musicianship on display on ‘Mechanarchy’ was beyond question, with vocalist Jon Blood also proving himself an excellent lyricist who a good ear for word-play and dynamics. In ‘Ready To Strike’ he told of ‘warring factions of huge cybernetic machines’, in ‘Hatred’ he spoke of ‘political corruption’. Blood also told of fantastic ‘Cthulu-myth’ like tales of ‘creatures from the abyss’ in ‘The Vigil’, and explored his own ‘inner demons’ in ‘Evil Speak’. Over the years, ‘Mechanarchy’ appears to have become regarded as something of a minor metal classic, with the E.P. selling for between £50 - £80 online and sometimes in excess of that.
Live, the band were a force to be reckoned with too. A tight four-piece of musicians, searing twin-lead guitars courtesy of Red Skies and Rob Storm, pummeling bass lines from Lee Hamer all powered along by Ace Will’s powerful high-speed drumming gave vocalist Blood the perfect framework to scream, growl and whisper over. At 6ft2†and some 300lbs plus, with his face smeared in grotesque greasepaint and spitting a violent mixture of barbed-but-eloquent words and red-gore at you, Jon Blood made for a memorable front-man.
Despite beginning to build a strong reputation, Rob Storm decided to leave ‘Wild Pussy’ for personal reasons in around 1990. After the departure of Rob (who was replaced by Lee ‘Noog’ Lavis), ‘Wild Pussy’ eventually evolved into ‘Religion’. Stripped down into a more ‘Pantera’ styled outfit, ‘Religion’ continued to impress live and recorded one album’s worth of material called ‘The Dark Carnival’. Featuring ten tracks of self-penned material, and again, self-financed, it featured a re-recording of ‘Hatred’ from the ‘Mechanarchy’ era. Two self-made videos were shot during ‘The Dark Carnival’ era, one for a track called ‘Mausoleum Waltz’ and ‘The Hand That Feeds’ from ‘The Dark Carnival’ sessions, the latter getting airplay on the late night ITV rock and metal TV show called ‘Noisy Mothers’. However, despite ‘The Dark Carnival’ beginning to get good reviews (as a album length ‘demo’), the promise of decent management and a mini-tour on offer, the band split somewhat acrimoniously in 1995. Lee Lavis, Ace Will, and Lee Hamer went to on to form the pop-rock band called ‘Sal’, who continue to record and perform (although Hamer and Will would leave within two years or so). Jon Blood and Red Skies were joined by German keyboardist Uwe Frey and went on to write and demo as the industrial-metal outfit ‘Damaged Gods’ although this project is on hiatus.
Sadly, the potential of ‘Wild Pussy (aka ‘Religion’) was never recognized. Only a few scraps of live video footage, some demos exist, along with the bona-fide product of ‘Mechanarchy’ to attest to a great unsigned British metal band from the late 80‘s and early 90’s.In 2004, after a lengthy period of lost contact, Rob Storm recently met up with Red skies and Jon Blood. Rob now plays bass with Red’s metal and rock covers band. In 2007, Jon Blood has also met up with Ace Will after a long period and have began to discuss ways in which they can celebrate the memory of ‘Wild Pussy’.
