High Roller Records, black vinyl, ltd 500, insert, bonus 7", Mastering and audio restoration by Patrick W. Engel in February 2022,
Just like the late great Ronnie James Dio, David Feinstein, Carl Canedy, Eric Adams and Joey DeMaio, Andrew “Duck” MacDonald was active in the lively music scene of Upstate New York (a good three-hour drive from New York City). In fact, when he was 16 years of age he was in a band along with Joey DeMaio. The year was 1970 and the name of the band The Grey Ghost, MacDonald was the singer. When another future Manowar member, ex-Dictator Ross The Boss, left French band Shakin Street, Andrew was his replacement on guitar. Shakin Street joined Black Sabbath and Blue Öyster Cult on their “Black And Blue” US tour (all three bands were managed by Sandy Pearlman). Soon after, Shakin Street called it a day. And this is where the story of Bible Black starts. Andrew MacDonald explains: “A lot of the shows I played with Shakin Street on the ‘Black And Blue’ tour were in venues in Upstate New York, so I got a lot of recognition in my home area because of these shows. That’s how Craig and Gary had heard about me.” Bassist Craig Gruber and drummer Gary Driscoll had both been in Ronnie James Dio’s Elf as well as recording the legendary first album for Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow. Keyboarder Mickey Lee Soule completed the trio of ex-Rainbow members in Bible Black. Musically, Bible Black’s first three-track demo (from 1981) was indeed pretty varied. “That’s because we were not sure what we were going to be,” says Andrew MacDonald. “I called up Eric [Adams, future Manowar singer], or Louis [Marullo] as he was known back then, because we didn’t have a singer. It was just the three of us: Craig, Gary and me. He jumped at it because these guys were really well known in our area. So he came in and did the demo.” For the second demo (four tracks, recorded in early 1982 and produced by Jeff Glixman) Eric Adams was replaced by Jeff Fenholt. Fenholt had played the leading role in »Jesus Christ Superstar« on Broadway, later became the singer for Joshua, recorded Christian gospel music and eventually ran his own religious TV show. “Not much later our new manager put together a showcase for us at the Ritz in New York, and three major companies were there, also Gene Simmons and lots of other famous people,” explains original guitarist Andrew MacDonald, “but unfortunately we didn’t get signed.” Bible Black recorded two more demos, the last one included a young Joey Belladonna on vocals, before calling it quits in 1983. »The Complete Recordings« collects all four demos by Bible Black for the first time ever on glorious vinyl (including an exclusive bonus 7” single).
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