During the summer of 1984 Shane Embury, Mitch Dickinson and Wayne Aston discussed the idea of forming a band that represented their passion for underground Thrash Metal. There were NO other bands in the UK performing Metal on a truly ground breaking level at this time. WARHAMMER was a band that was formed by 100% Metal fans that wanted to push the envelope and create a sound that was forward thinking and as brutal as possible. Taking their initial influences from favourites such as: VENOM, SLAYER, BATHORY, SODOM, DESTRUCTION etc, the three core members started writing tunes as blasphemous as they could. It was not long until they met another like minded individual to fill the slot of bass guitarist. Enter Mike Clarke. Mike lived in the same village and fitted the bill perfectly. Mike and Shane hit it off immediately with their love of Horror, Fantasy and all things dark. Incidentally, Mike was an avid Dungeons and Dragons fan and came up with the name WARHAMMER. After a couple of uninspiring local auditions for a vocalist, Mike decided he would give it a go. Mike's vocals were surprisingly sinister. Greatly influenced by the guttural style of Cronos and Quorthon. Perfect!
The band gained a very credible underground following worldwide thanks to the international tape trading circuit. This was all made possible by the fact that Mitch and Shane wrote to many people in the classified section of the sadly missed "Metal Forces" magazine. Two of these people that became big fans were 16 years old Bill Steer and Ken Owen who need no introduction. Bill was a tape trading king at this time and he sent the rehearsals worldwide. The knock on effect of this and writing to tons of people was that the tapes were circulated widely to critical acclaim. Further influences during this time were taken from underground demo legends at the time such as DEATH and POSSESSED.
Of course, this was very inspiring. The band wrote many more songs, some of which pre date current trends for lyrical blasphemy. "Christian Slaughter" would be a fine example. MARDUK would be proud of that one! As time passed it was decided that the band needed to have a studio recording. The idea for the recording was not for the purpose of getting a record deal which is the way things are done these days. The reason was that the band wanted to raise their profile on the underground and perhaps get a few gigs in the process.
The resulting demo that you are listening to on this very page (4 tracks of it) was entitled "Abattoir Of Death". The title track dealt with a particularly sadistic killer who hacked and tortured his victims to a slow and painful death in a room where no one could hear their screams! Brutal for the time.Surprisingly, the demo proved to be quite a hit on the underground. An enthusiastic fan of the band around this time was none other than Borivoj Krgin who now runs Blabbermouth. I recall him giving the the demo 8/10 in his "Violent Noize" fanzine. Even more surprising was that the demo even made the placing of Number 1 on the charts of well known scenester Don Kaye's Metal radio show in Brooklyn during May 1986. The artist at number 2 was none other than METALLICA with "Master Of Puppets". Pretty astounding, but totally true.
Shane told me around this time that the guys from SACRIFICE (Canada) and ONSLAUGHT (UK) were raving about the demo too. Big news at the time. That's what thing were like back in those days. There were no real peers and everyone supported each other. It's a great pity that thing have changed so much. Everything is so competitive now. The sincerity seems to be missing in most areas of Metal these days.
An interesting fact: A few years ago the Mitch was contacted by Crin (From the infamous Godreah Fanzine) who was putting together a double compilation CD entitled "Britannia Infernus: A History of British Occult and Black Metal". The track "Halloween" appeared on this excellent compilation alongside such greats as ATOMIC ROOSTER, BLACK SABBATH, VENOM, ANGEL WITCH, SATAN etc. WARHAMMER on the same CD as BLACK SABBATH and VENOM! Amazing!
To end this biography I'd like to add that, although WARHAMMER were pretty inexperienced in their musical abilites, and at times the songs go a little out of time here and there! We couldn't hear a thing in the studio. Importantly, it has to be remembered that these were times of discovery. The average age in the band was only 18. We were far from being accomplished musicians, but we gave it our best. Forward thinking music with true belief in what we did. The band went on to play a handful of shows, but shortly after this the band folded. Shane and Mitch went on to form UNSEEN TERROR........
Mitch Dickinson: November 2007
