Allegiance (Australian band)
Encyclopedia
Allegiance was an Australian thrash metal group. They formed in 1990 in Perth
, Australia and disbanded in 1997. They released two studio albums, D.e.s.t.i.t.u.t.i.o.n in 1994 and Skinman
in 1996. They built up a loyal following, won numerous awards and toured with some of the biggest names in heavy metal at the time.
In 1991 they headed into a small studio to record a demo with $250 that they had saved up from live shows. Make The Pledge was released in October and although it was rough, the straight forward thrash metal sound helped it go on to sell 2000 copies. The next month Allegiance won one the 'Most Popular' band award at the local WA music industry awards.
In February 1992, Allegiance played at the annual 'Bindoon Rock' outdoor concert festival for the first time to a crowd of 10 000 people. In March, they released their second demo 'Torn Between Two Worlds'. The recording featured improved production and song writing, which demonstrated the bands progress. This demo went on to sell over 3500 copies, won the 1992 local industry award for most popular WA cassette and praised as one of the most impressive demo tapes of 1992 by many major magazines, fanzines and radio shows as widely as places like Japan, Argentina, Poland, Greece, Lithuania, Germany, Canada, USA and the UK.
In July Allegiance won the state final of the 'Yamaha Rock' competition and flew to Melbourne to represent WA in the Australian final. They competed against 7 other top unsigned acts and won the competition. The event was broadcast nationally on MTV.
The band headed to ABC studios in August to put together a few demo tracks. 5 songs were recorded live in the studio in one take with very few overdubs. These songs were released as a demo in October entitled Studio Live. It was limited to 500 copies, sold out in one day and is now a highly sought after collectors item.
In September, Allegiance performed a powerful show at the 'Australian Metalfest' at the Hordern Pavilion in Sydney with the track 'Twisted Minds' featured on the CD sampler. Reviews stated Allegiance to be the most impressive bands on the bill which helped to establish their reputation as a formidable live act outside their home state.
At the end of the year, some of their tracks were selected for inclusion on the Def Records Australia Metal compilation and local talent showcase The Western Front compilation CD’s. Allegiance was voted the 9th best Australian band and 5th best new band in Hot Metal Magazine's annual readers poll. The band once again ended the year by winning the most popular band award at the '92 WAMI awards.
In 1993, Allegiance continued their upward spiral with yet more touring including a second appearance at the annual 'Bindoon Rock' festival, performing in front of 15,000 people at the national Big Day Out
Festival as well as touring nationally with big name artists such as Kreator
and Fear Factory
which furthered their reputation as Australia's leading heavy metal band. Allegiance also had tracks included on the Roadrunner records Australasian compilation RedRum and Studio 52's While My Guitar Gently Kills Your Mother and Polygram heavy metal promotional cassette.
Legendary Judas Priest
front man Rob Halford
took a keen interest in the band with statements in the international metal press claiming Allegiance to be a dynamite band. His management company EMAS were managing the band helping increase international exposure.
's band Fight
and also placed in 10 different categories in the HM Magazine readers poll, including 10th best band of all time! In April, Allegiance secured an Australasian deal with the ID Phonogram label. Their debut album D.e.s.t.i.t.u.t.i.o.n was recorded in Australia by American producer Dave Pinsky. They met Dave whilst playing with the Beastie Boys
whom he was working with at the time. The album was mastered in Holland by Attie Bauw who has worked with artists such as Fight and Judas Priest
.
In May, D.e.s.t.i.t.u.t.i.o.n was released and although it received no mainstream radio or video exposure, it went straight into the W.A. mainstream ARIA chart at #1 and remained in the top 5 for 3 weeks. The band continued touring with their very successful 'Destitution' headline tour taking in all capital cities and then touring nationally with Australian hard rock band The Poor
. The D.e.s.t.i.t.u.t.i.o.n album topped nearly every metal chart in the country and has been one of the best selling, home grown, hard music releases in many years.
In July, Allegiance appeared on the cover of HM magazine. D.e.s.t.i.t.u.t.i.o.n started to receive amazing reviews in the overseas metal press including an impressive KKKK review in the famous UK publication, Kerrang!
. They also shot two music videos which aired on several music video programs.
In November the band recorded Time To React – Live!, a special live recording at the ABC's JJJ
studios to an audience of die hard Allegiance fans. It contains no overdubs and shows the uncompromising raw power of the band in the live environment.
1995 was a busy year for Allegiance with the release of Time To React – Live! and touring big names such as Slayer
, Biohazard
, Machine Head
and Channel Zero. They also appeared at the Big Day Out
concert festivals in both Australia and New Zealand. At this stage, Allegiance were the undisputed biggest metal band in the country.
In 1996 the band started work on their next album, Skinman
. The album title was inspired by the tragic suicide of a member of Allegiance's road crew whose nickname was "Skinman". It was recorded in Western Australia on 48 track digital and was produced by John Villani who handled their debut. The album showed a progression in Allegiance's sound but still retaining raw power that made them popular in the first place. It was released in November through the Mercury label and debuted on the ARIA
charts at #11.
In 1997 the band was continuing to tour, playing shows and festivals with many big name international bands. However, tension between band members began to arise and while shooting a video for the track "Give Yourself" from the Skinman album in late '97, Dave Harrison left the group. Allegiance disbanded soon after.
In November 2000, Allegiance did a massive "one-off" reunion concert in Perth and showed that the band's popularity hadn't dipped over the years. In 2003 Allegiance returned with another re-union for the 'NYE Kikstart' concert and were also inducted into the Western Australian music hall of fame. Then in 2004 Allegiance re-united once again to play with Kiss
at the WACA
.
Perth, Western Australia
Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia and the fourth most populous city in Australia. The Perth metropolitan area has an estimated population of almost 1,700,000....
, Australia and disbanded in 1997. They released two studio albums, D.e.s.t.i.t.u.t.i.o.n in 1994 and Skinman
Skinman
Skinman is the second full-length album by Australian Thrash metal band Allegiance, released in 1996. The album was produced in Perth, Western Australia by John Villani.-Track listing:#"Ripped To Shreds" - 3:42#"Face Reality" - 2:53...
in 1996. They built up a loyal following, won numerous awards and toured with some of the biggest names in heavy metal at the time.
Pre-1994
In 1990 Allegiance formed with Dave Harrison, Tony Campo, Conrad Higson, John Mihos & Steve Hidden as the original line-up. Their music was much heavier than anything around at the time and after doing as many shows as they could, they built up a loyal local following. After a few months of touring, the line-up wasn't working out so a few changes were made. Conrad, who originally was the drummer switched to lead vocals replacing John Mihos, Glenn Butcher replaced Dave Barry on drums and Jason Stone replaced Steve Hidden on guitar. This line-up remained the same until the band's demise. The band's first award came at the West Australian Music Industry Awards where the band won the public choice award for 'Most Popular New Band'.In 1991 they headed into a small studio to record a demo with $250 that they had saved up from live shows. Make The Pledge was released in October and although it was rough, the straight forward thrash metal sound helped it go on to sell 2000 copies. The next month Allegiance won one the 'Most Popular' band award at the local WA music industry awards.
In February 1992, Allegiance played at the annual 'Bindoon Rock' outdoor concert festival for the first time to a crowd of 10 000 people. In March, they released their second demo 'Torn Between Two Worlds'. The recording featured improved production and song writing, which demonstrated the bands progress. This demo went on to sell over 3500 copies, won the 1992 local industry award for most popular WA cassette and praised as one of the most impressive demo tapes of 1992 by many major magazines, fanzines and radio shows as widely as places like Japan, Argentina, Poland, Greece, Lithuania, Germany, Canada, USA and the UK.
In July Allegiance won the state final of the 'Yamaha Rock' competition and flew to Melbourne to represent WA in the Australian final. They competed against 7 other top unsigned acts and won the competition. The event was broadcast nationally on MTV.
The band headed to ABC studios in August to put together a few demo tracks. 5 songs were recorded live in the studio in one take with very few overdubs. These songs were released as a demo in October entitled Studio Live. It was limited to 500 copies, sold out in one day and is now a highly sought after collectors item.
In September, Allegiance performed a powerful show at the 'Australian Metalfest' at the Hordern Pavilion in Sydney with the track 'Twisted Minds' featured on the CD sampler. Reviews stated Allegiance to be the most impressive bands on the bill which helped to establish their reputation as a formidable live act outside their home state.
At the end of the year, some of their tracks were selected for inclusion on the Def Records Australia Metal compilation and local talent showcase The Western Front compilation CD’s. Allegiance was voted the 9th best Australian band and 5th best new band in Hot Metal Magazine's annual readers poll. The band once again ended the year by winning the most popular band award at the '92 WAMI awards.
In 1993, Allegiance continued their upward spiral with yet more touring including a second appearance at the annual 'Bindoon Rock' festival, performing in front of 15,000 people at the national Big Day Out
Big Day Out
The Big Day Out is an annual music festival held in several cities in Australia and New Zealand in late January. It started in Sydney in 1992, spread to Adelaide, Melbourne and Perth by 1993, with the Gold Coast and Auckland joining in 1994...
Festival as well as touring nationally with big name artists such as Kreator
Kreator
Kreator is a thrash metal band from Essen, Germany, formed in 1978, but formalized in 1982 under the name Tormentor. They originally performed a speed metal style with Venom influences. Their style of music is similar to their compatriots Destruction and Sodom, the other two big German thrash metal...
and Fear Factory
Fear Factory
Fear Factory is an American industrial metal band. Formed in 1989, they have released seven full-length albums and a number of singles and remixes. Over the course of their career they have evolved from a succession of styles, as well as steadily pioneered a combination of the styles death metal,...
which furthered their reputation as Australia's leading heavy metal band. Allegiance also had tracks included on the Roadrunner records Australasian compilation RedRum and Studio 52's While My Guitar Gently Kills Your Mother and Polygram heavy metal promotional cassette.
Legendary Judas Priest
Judas Priest
Judas Priest are an English heavy metal band from Birmingham, England, formed in 1969. The current line-up consists of lead vocalist Rob Halford, guitarists Glenn Tipton and Richie Faulkner, bassist Ian Hill, and drummer Scott Travis. The band has gone through several drummers over the years,...
front man Rob Halford
Rob Halford
Robert John Arthur "Rob" Halford is an English singer-songwriter, who is best known as the lead vocalist for the Grammy Award-winning heavy metal band Judas Priest. He is nicknamed the "Metal God" as a tribute to his influence on metal, and after the Judas Priest song of the same name from 1980's...
took a keen interest in the band with statements in the international metal press claiming Allegiance to be a dynamite band. His management company EMAS were managing the band helping increase international exposure.
1994-1997
In March 1994, Allegiance toured nationally with Rob HalfordRob Halford
Robert John Arthur "Rob" Halford is an English singer-songwriter, who is best known as the lead vocalist for the Grammy Award-winning heavy metal band Judas Priest. He is nicknamed the "Metal God" as a tribute to his influence on metal, and after the Judas Priest song of the same name from 1980's...
's band Fight
Fight (band)
Fight was an American heavy metal band assembled by Judas Priest frontman, Rob Halford, after his departure from that band in 1992. He took with him from Judas Priest and Racer X drummer Scott Travis, though Travis also continued to drum for Judas Priest...
and also placed in 10 different categories in the HM Magazine readers poll, including 10th best band of all time! In April, Allegiance secured an Australasian deal with the ID Phonogram label. Their debut album D.e.s.t.i.t.u.t.i.o.n was recorded in Australia by American producer Dave Pinsky. They met Dave whilst playing with the Beastie Boys
Beastie Boys
Beastie Boys are an American hip hop trio from New York City. The group consists of Mike D who plays the drums, MCA who plays the bass, and Ad-Rock who plays the guitar....
whom he was working with at the time. The album was mastered in Holland by Attie Bauw who has worked with artists such as Fight and Judas Priest
Judas Priest
Judas Priest are an English heavy metal band from Birmingham, England, formed in 1969. The current line-up consists of lead vocalist Rob Halford, guitarists Glenn Tipton and Richie Faulkner, bassist Ian Hill, and drummer Scott Travis. The band has gone through several drummers over the years,...
.
In May, D.e.s.t.i.t.u.t.i.o.n was released and although it received no mainstream radio or video exposure, it went straight into the W.A. mainstream ARIA chart at #1 and remained in the top 5 for 3 weeks. The band continued touring with their very successful 'Destitution' headline tour taking in all capital cities and then touring nationally with Australian hard rock band The Poor
The Poor
The Poor are an Australian hard rock band that formed in the mid-1980s in Darwin, Northern Territory. They released a debut album titled Who Cares on 15 March 1994 on the Sony label. Who Cares debuted at #4 on the Australian albums chart...
. The D.e.s.t.i.t.u.t.i.o.n album topped nearly every metal chart in the country and has been one of the best selling, home grown, hard music releases in many years.
In July, Allegiance appeared on the cover of HM magazine. D.e.s.t.i.t.u.t.i.o.n started to receive amazing reviews in the overseas metal press including an impressive KKKK review in the famous UK publication, Kerrang!
Kerrang!
Kerrang! is a UK-based magazine devoted to rock music published by Bauer Media Group. It was first published on June 6, 1981 as a one-off supplement in the Sounds newspaper...
. They also shot two music videos which aired on several music video programs.
In November the band recorded Time To React – Live!, a special live recording at the ABC's JJJ
Triple J
triple j is a nationally networked Australian radio station intended to appeal to listeners between the ages of 18 and 30. The government-funded station is a division of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation...
studios to an audience of die hard Allegiance fans. It contains no overdubs and shows the uncompromising raw power of the band in the live environment.
1995 was a busy year for Allegiance with the release of Time To React – Live! and touring big names such as Slayer
Slayer
Slayer is an American thrash metal band formed in Huntington Park, California, in 1981 by guitarists Jeff Hanneman and Kerry King. Slayer rose to fame with their 1986 release, Reign in Blood, and is credited as one of the "Big Four" thrash metal acts, along with Metallica, Megadeth and...
, Biohazard
Biohazard (band)
Biohazard is a band originally based in Brooklyn, New York. They are acknowledged as one of the earliest bands to fuse hardcore punk and heavy metal with elements of hip hop. The original lineup consisted of Vocalist/Guitarist Billy Graziadei, bassist/vocalist Evan Seinfeld, guitarist Bobby Hambel,...
, Machine Head
Machine Head (band)
Machine Head is an American heavy metal band from Oakland, California. Formed on October 12, 1991, the group was founded by Robb Flynn and Adam Duce. There have been 4 member changes since their inception. The current lineup of the band comprises Flynn , Duce , ex-Vio-Lence guitarist Phil Demmel ,...
and Channel Zero. They also appeared at the Big Day Out
Big Day Out
The Big Day Out is an annual music festival held in several cities in Australia and New Zealand in late January. It started in Sydney in 1992, spread to Adelaide, Melbourne and Perth by 1993, with the Gold Coast and Auckland joining in 1994...
concert festivals in both Australia and New Zealand. At this stage, Allegiance were the undisputed biggest metal band in the country.
In 1996 the band started work on their next album, Skinman
Skinman
Skinman is the second full-length album by Australian Thrash metal band Allegiance, released in 1996. The album was produced in Perth, Western Australia by John Villani.-Track listing:#"Ripped To Shreds" - 3:42#"Face Reality" - 2:53...
. The album title was inspired by the tragic suicide of a member of Allegiance's road crew whose nickname was "Skinman". It was recorded in Western Australia on 48 track digital and was produced by John Villani who handled their debut. The album showed a progression in Allegiance's sound but still retaining raw power that made them popular in the first place. It was released in November through the Mercury label and debuted on the ARIA
Australian Recording Industry Association
The Australian Recording Industry Association is a trade group representing the Australian recording industry which was established in 1983 by six major record companies, EMI, Festival, CBS, RCA, WEA and Universal replacing the Association of Australian Record Manufacturers which was formed in 1956...
charts at #11.
In 1997 the band was continuing to tour, playing shows and festivals with many big name international bands. However, tension between band members began to arise and while shooting a video for the track "Give Yourself" from the Skinman album in late '97, Dave Harrison left the group. Allegiance disbanded soon after.
After the break-up
Fans were not happy with the break-up of the band so the legacy of Allegiance continues on to this day.In November 2000, Allegiance did a massive "one-off" reunion concert in Perth and showed that the band's popularity hadn't dipped over the years. In 2003 Allegiance returned with another re-union for the 'NYE Kikstart' concert and were also inducted into the Western Australian music hall of fame. Then in 2004 Allegiance re-united once again to play with Kiss
KISS (band)
Kiss is an American rock band formed in New York City in January 1973. Well-known for its members' face paint and flamboyant stage outfits, the group rose to prominence in the mid to late 1970s on the basis of their elaborate live performances, which featured fire breathing, blood spitting,...
at the WACA
WACA Ground
The WACA is a sports stadium in Perth, Western Australia. WACA are the initials of its owners and operators, the Western Australian Cricket Association....
.
Studio albums
- D.e.s.t.i.t.u.t.i.o.n (PolygramPolyGramPolyGram was the name of the major label recording company started by Philips from as a holding company for its music interests in 1945. In 1999 it was sold to Seagram and merged into Universal Music Group.-Hollandsche Decca Distributie , 1929-1950:...
, 1994) - SkinmanSkinmanSkinman is the second full-length album by Australian Thrash metal band Allegiance, released in 1996. The album was produced in Perth, Western Australia by John Villani.-Track listing:#"Ripped To Shreds" - 3:42#"Face Reality" - 2:53...
(MercuryMercury RecordsMercury Records is a record label operating as a standalone company in the UK and as part of the Island Def Jam Motown Music Group in the US; both are subsidiaries of Universal Music Group. There is also a Mercury Records in Australia, which is a local artist and repertoire division of Universal...
, 1996)
Demos and Live
- Make The Pledge (Demo, 1991)
- Studio Live (Demo, 1992)
- Torn Between Two Worlds (Demo, 1992)
- Time To React – Live! (ID PhonogramPhonogram RecordsPhonogram Records was started in 1962 as a joint venture between Philips Records and Deutsche Grammophon. In 1972, Phonogram was merged with Polydor Records into PolyGram....
Live, 1995)