The Past That Says Present

(Roxx Records – 2025)

The people at Roxx Records are doing a great job rescuing old albums or material lost in time, remastering them and putting them back in value. This is the case of Martyr, an old underground band from California, USA, which later became the foundation of the better known Betrayal, back in the ’90s. Martyr never released an official album, only demos on cassettes and a compilation CD. Now thanks to Roxx Records, we can approach in “Once Upon A Tale” to part of their forgotten history.
This album is a compilation that tries to rescue the best of Martyr in its short and intense history. It is a work that includes 10 songs, extracted from the demos “Imminent Warfare” from 1988, “Frantic” from 1989, and other demos of the band that were going around, before several of its members became known as “Betrayal”, a band that did release in the ’90s, but that of course, is another story. Between song and song, we will notice the participation of people, more or less known in the environment, who collaborated with the band, as are the cases of Jimmy P. Brown II of Deliverance, Josh Kramer of Saint, among others.

These old Martyr songs have that magic, so ’80s, so underground. This is really a material that should not go unnoticed for those who like raw Thrash Metal. Beyond the dry and cutting that Martyr may seem, it should be noted that between each track, there are small hidden musical gems.
To begin to break down “Once Upon A Tale”, and as a first question, we have to say that Martyr’s thing went through the Thrash Metal of the old school, that of the ’80s. There is a polished mix between the stripped down and violent sound of Slayer with a bit of Anthrax and maybe even Exodus. Among the older material, as in the cases of “Imminent Warfare” (with Josh Kramer on vocals) or “Frantic” (with the participation of Jimmy P. Brown II on guitar), is where you can most notice that tendency towards a more virulent Thrash Metal, even “Impiously Derange” goes that way, but in “War Circus”, we find a much more elaborate composition, even with a sound much closer to the most classic Heavy Metal while “Fallen Deceived” shows the more Anthrax side of the band. “Plead The Blood” is a prehistoric piece with an intricate play of guitars and plucks, which open the door to one of the best tracks of Martyr and of this album of course.
“Escaping The Altar” is an excellent piece of just over 10 minutes, that if it could have been recorded and worked on in a studio, it would be serious stuff. Still, this demo version gives us a taste of where Martyr was aiming for and what they could have achieved if they had gone ahead. With “When Darkness Reign” (which according to Ladislao Prado was originally called “Winds Of Death”), we find that tight, dry and cutting Thrash Metal that Martyr would be known for. It could clearly be the band’s most self-referential track. Meanwhile, “American Holocaust”, a song that had never seen the light (as well as “Truth”), has a Hardcore influence, with a catchy riff. Precisely “Truth”, the song that closes this compilation work, has a lot of hook and is possibly the link between Martyr and what would come later with Betrayal.
Martyr offers, among its songs, a varied repertoire, not exempt of blast beats and all the characteristics that make the old and beloved Thrash Metal of the ’80s. The level of the compositions places Martyr in one of those cases in which it is not understood how they did not manage to record and release an album. Fate perhaps.

For the purists of the sound, it is necessary to warn that this is a compilation work that does not pretend to be the summum of the sound, far from it. We are talking about the rescue of historical material (almost all demos), and yet a great job has been achieved making Martyr sound rough, heavy and definitely thrasher, and we think that’s fine; the album has to sound that raw because that’s what Thrash Metal is also about. Mastered by Rob Colwell, “Once Upon A Tale” is really worth it, especially to get closer to the historical material of a band that was a bit forgotten with the passing of time.
The physical edition has a lot to say. First of all, it has a cover made up of several of the handmade flyers that the band used to hand out at their shows, and it doesn’t get any more under the radar than that. The booklet contains information about Martyr, pictures and the band’s history told by Chris Ackerman, as well as the lyrics of the songs. It really is a great edition that lives up to what a band like Martyr meant.
Is it too much to ask for Martyr to be reborn as a band, at least for some live performances? It would be a great revenge, especially for those (like us) who never had access to their music, and now we are left with the desire to hear these songs played live.
To get this album (both on CD and Vinyl) you can check at https://roxxproductions.com