COUNTRY: US
YEAR: 1988
STAND-OUT TRACK(S): Chemical Sin, Wasteland, Terrorist
Final Assault was one of the earliest metal bands to emerge from the Corpus Christi, Texas area. An aborted 1987 attempt to relocate the band to California while signed to Azra / Iron Works Records nearly signaled the end for Final Assault. Vocalist Alex Robles, upon his return to Texas, discovered that only guitarist Ruben Vela had the desire to continue. With the recruitment of Ruben's brother David Vela on drums and Alex Beltron on bass a new version of Final Assault was assembled and a second demo entitled The Second Coming was recorded. This lineup was to be very short-lived with only a handful of shows ever performed. The 1988 Final Assault demo is exceedingly rare even compared to the 1985 demo with no widespread distribution and only a few copies handed out to friends and local Corpus Christi fans.
OPINION: There are some really amazing tracks here, and a giant step up from their 1985 debut demo tape. Probably one of my favorite US metal demo tapes from the 1980’s. I get some early Helloween vibes, especially the singer who reminds me a lot of Michael Kiske.
This is a prime example of a band that should have been able to put a record out, but the members probably didn’t look female enough and played pop-hard rock a’la Poison for them to get signed…
You can listen to one track here and then the entire demo on YouTube