Beehler? Yeah, you heard right! Dan Beehler ex-Exciter skin basher and screamer is back with a new project featuring Sean Brophy and Scott Walsh on guitars, and the mighty Allan Johnson (ex-Exciter) on the bass. It’s been a long time, and after having the honour and pleasure to listen to the 2002 and 2003, 4 track demos, I’ve been wondering what the metal world out there has been missing out on the past 10 years. I’ll tell you what, a brilliant, talented and inspiring musician, that’s what they’ve been missing out on, and these days; musicians like Dan Beehler are hard to come by. The opening track for the 2002 demo, Fubar, hits you like a ten-ton hammer from the first moment you listen to it. It’s loud, fast and furious with some great guitar work from Brophy and Walsh and a much more mature vocal performance by Beehler than in the past. He introduces high and low notes at the right time and place, and yes, he can still skin a large water mammal at fifty paces. One Foot In Your Grave is another very powerful and fast paced track that has some awesome guitar riffs and leads accompanied with some very powerful drumming and vocals from Dan. The demo’s 3rd track Destroy is a very Exciter orientated track that could almost have come straight out of the album ‘Kill After Kill’, with all the trimmings. Definitely a future headbanging favourite. Violence and Force is the 4th and final track for the 2002 demo, and is pretty much as faithful as it gets to the original. It rocked then, and it rock’s now.

The 2003 demo. Well, if you’re expecting the review to follow on from the above, forget it. Beehler, has moved on to the ‘millennium era’ with this latest barrage of awesome tracks on offer. There is a noticeably different vibe and atmosphere to your ears as soon as you’re up against the opening track Used Bitch, which attacks you instantly with the explosive Beehler drumming and brilliant bass work from Allan. Even the vocals sound different, with some mild sound effect introduced that blends the whole track so beautifully together. Explosive guitars, thundering drumming and awesome fills from the bass player. Dear me……….bring it on boys! Psychotron (track 2), has a great groove to it, and if I didn’t know it was Dan Beehler singing, I’d be wondering who the hell is this awesome singer that sounds almost like Rob Halford. There you go, I said it. Yes it sounds like a mixture of Judas Priest and the heavy grooves of Halford’s Fight project. Love It!!! What amazes me is the quality of this demo. It’s almost as you could near press it the way it is. Another Day In The Grind is another fast and furious track with the double bass drumming going berserk, great guitar work and slight vocal effects that make the track sound very millennium-ish. Draggin’ The Swamp is the 4th and last track of the 2003 demo, and one of my favourites. Introduced beautifully, to begin with, by Allan’s bass work, it fires up with the pounding and rhythmic drumming of Beehler and introduces you to the talented guitarists leading the way so fluently into the track, not to forget the dark lyrics that would inspire every metal- head… ‘out there’. So there you have it! I think that the combination of both demos, have something to offer to the likes of all types of audiences out there that are into some heavy tunes.

Rating: 10 out of 10