Black Death (American band)
| Black Death | |
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| Origin | Cleveland, Ohio |
| Genres | Heavy metal, power metal |
| Years active | 1977–1984 |
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| Past members |
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Black Death are an American band who have been noted as the "first all-African-American heavy metal band". The group were also mentioned in Ian Christe's book Sound of the Beast: The Complete Headbanging History of Heavy Metal, and mentioned Rock 'n' roll and the Cleveland connection by Deanna R. Adams as "one of the only, if not the only, all-black metal bands in the country" in 1987.
Black Death was a nameless band in 1977 consisting of Greg Hicks, Phil Bullard, and Clayborn Pinkins. Then in 1978 they recruited Reginal Gamble ("Siki Spacek"). The Name Black Death was brought to the table by Hicks and Pinkins in 1979. That year Pinkins was shot and killed. Soon after Ed Goodan took over on bass. One year later Darrel Harris replace Goodan on Bass. The first recording was of one song called "Outcast" in 1980. The ABC sitcom, WKRP in Cincinnati, featured a character named Dr. Johnny Fever, that wore the bands t-shirt in numerous episodes. Appropriately titled, that song was only aired on Brian Sergents ("serge") local college radio show. The response from that song generated interest from Sergent to put the band in the studio. The second recording was in 1981 at Angel studios and to date has never been released. The third was a Demo recorded at Suma studios in 1982. Two songs were featured on "Cleveland Metal Compilation". The fourth recording to was the now classic debut LP that was released by Auburn Records in Cleveland Ohio. With only 2,000 LP's printed, it is a very sought after and hard to find release. In 2007 Bullard and Mike Green recruited Siki and formed a new group called "Mandrake". Soon after they parted ways with Siki due to his personal/substance abuse problems and recruited Greg Hicks on Bass.
In 2008, original Black Death drummer Phil Bullard died from cancer. After Bullard's death Mandrake recruited Dennis Fuldauer on drums, and also Ken Phillips on lead guitar. One year later Mandrake disbanded.
In early 2009 founding member of Black Death, Hicks and the remaining members of Mandrake (Fuldauer and Phillips) reformed Black Death with an all star lineup consisting of:
After Bullard's death, Hicks is the only remaining founding member that owns the copyright to the name, logo, songs and lyrics. "Black Death lives for you Phil", stated by Hicks proves that he continues the Black Death band and spirit in honor of his fallen brother.
Black Death's current line up performed as special guest on February 20, 2009, at the 88.7FM WJCU Radio Benefit Concert. The following April Black Death performed at the Dittigheim Indoor Open Air Festival in Cleveland, Ohio.
In 2010 the new line up of Black Death played their 25-year anniversary show in downtown Cleveland at Cleats Gateway. Just before the next appearance Black Death was on WJCU 88.7 John Carrol University Radio interviewed by Bill Peters on his "Metal on Metal" show Friday December 3.
On December 11, 2010 Black Death played The 2010 Iron Ingo Cleveland Indoor Air Festival at the Beachland Ballroom (hosted by Bill Peters and Auburn Records) to a standing room only crowd. The live response was overwhelming.
Currently Black Death is awaiting the release of a 2 cd re-issue of their material (with a date yet to be determined by Auburn Records), and is working on new material for a new Cd release and a full live DVD video from the Cleats and Iron Ingo shows. Which will be exclusively available on their website. The band's new official web site:
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