Grim Reaper - Fear No Evil
Grim Reaper was one of my very favorite metal bands of the eighties. Sure, Steve Grimmett had the tendency to wail off-key (particularly on their debut album See You In Hell), but the British power metallers were one of the minor league players of the eighties scene who broke out just a smidge between their best album Fear No Evil and their final one, Rock You to Hell. It was their guitarist Nick Bowcott who was the glue and the shining star of the Reaper. His solos were second to none and he used to have a guitar clinic column in Circus magazine. Sad that the only time I ever got to watch him perform live was a few years ago at the Starland Ballroom in New Jersey the night they filmed Anthrax's Alive 2. Unfortunately Nick was doing a Dimebag Darrell tribute to samples generated from a laptop. Nick was Darrell's roadie in Pantera's glory days, which, no disrespect intended to Darrell whatsoever, but Bowcott's relegation to roadie was just wrong on all accounts. Ditto for the fact only myself and one other person I saw at the Starland knew who Bowcott really was, though nowadays you can win over any crowd just mentioning Dimebag's name, much less accurately cutting his riffs and solos.
If anyone speaks heavy metal Halloween upon immediate contact, it's Grim Reaper. Both See You in Hell and Fear No Evil are amongst the decade's more memorable album covers. I had a t-shirt of this one and I wish I'd had the foresight back then to know I would've needed to order an XXL since it was one of my favorites and ultimately shrunk to the point of unusability. Hmm, eighties concert shirts that shrunk quickly to the point of unusability... Coincidence?
Labels: Grim Reaper
posted by Ray Van Horn, Jr. at
5:37 AM
7 Comments:
I love Grim Reaper, even the Rock You To Hell album had a few good tracks. I've got a bunch of their early demos. Great stuff.
Steve's vocal work on Onslaught's In Search of Sanity is great too.
Are you sure about the Pantera roadie thing? The only things I've ever know Nick to do outside of Grim Reaper was the guitar columns and being a rep for Marshall amps for about 20 years now. Interesting.
Bowcott had a band called Barfly after Grim Reaper and it said that in the part about him in his guitar column for Circus. I don't think they ever got signed though. This site said he played some shows with Joey Belladonna's band earlier this year.
http://www.metallian.com/grimreaper.php
Your XXL t-shirt comment is hilarious! I can't tell you how many t-shirts I have in a bin in the basement that just don't fit. We were smaller and the shirts were cut different. In the summer when I'm thinner, I can fit into only the largest shirts I had in high school, but most of them are just saved for posterity. Maybe my kids will wear them!
I'd be happy to stand corrected if Nick wasn't a roadie, but I was positive he mentioned that onstage, at the very least saying Dime was one of his closest friends. You're right about Onslaught and I really liked Rock You to Hell, even if it's a bitch to find on CD
I forgot all about the Barfly story. Joey's band right now are all youngsters, if it's the same lineup that opened for Doro right after the 'thrax reunion...maybe Nick and Joey oughtta collaborate
Bob, I sadly got rid of all of my eighties shirts and wish i'd had the patience to hold onto them, albeit I have a vintage Bullet Boys shirt in the closet I can't get on me, even as an XL...the fabric is so thin it'll rip...man, were we exploited back then!
I used to go to school with Nick and we became firm friends. He was then, and is now, probably one of the finest metal guitarists I have had the pleasure to meet.
Grim Reaper are not power metal dude they're NWOBHM get your facts straight.
anonymous (the most recent one)-I believe Ray used "power metal" as a general term and he was not implying that Grim Reaper played European style power metal or old style American power metal (although they were not far off from that second one). So lighten up.
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