Music Existence Because of Music, We Exist
It was 30 years ago that JESTERS OF DESTINY‘s Fun At The Funeral debut was released on the short-lived Metal Blade subsidiary, Dimension Records. A year later, they released the all-covers record In A Nostalgic Mood, after which the band was unceremoniously hacked from the Metal Blade stable and, unable to land another deal for their third album, No Laughing Matter, they quietly disappeared, with all the main participants going on to other pursuits.
All these years later, on April 7th via Ektro Records, JESTERS OF DESTINY are back with The Sorrows That Refuse To Drown, an all-new record of the kind of hard rock/metal that only they made. This poses the question: Why? Bruce Duff and Ray Violet, the co-band leaders and production team behind everything the band recorded, are as perplexed as everyone else. The Sorrows That Refuse To Drown is available for pre-order HERE.
Today the song “Fire In The Six Foot Hole” is being premiered exclusively via Clrvynt. Get a first listen HERE.
In the subsequent years from the original days of the JESTERS, Bruce went on to play with the Streetwalkin’ Cheetahs, Angus Khan, the Adz (Adolescents), Jeff Dahl, and producing the likes of Prima Donna and Thor. Ray produced God Lives Underwater, Tim Harrington (Masters of Reality), Rozz Williams, and engineered R&B legends the Temptations, Shalamar, and By All Means. Both always held the JESTERS as a high point in their careers, certainly creatively if not commercially. Indeed, the JESTERS might have been just a bit ahead of the curve. According to Wikipedia and Allmusic.com (and even a Creem Metal interview from the band’s own time),JESTERS OF DESTINY were quite possibly the first “alternative metal” band. Ray and Bruce always wondered, “What exactly is ‘alternative metal,’ anyway?”
The Sorrows That Refuse To Drown is being issued on vinyl, and digitally on CD and download/streaming. The vinyl and digital versions are different from each other. The CD has different mixes of two of the songs, and three songs not on the vinyl, including a cover of John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s “Two Minutes Silence”. “It took some work for us to get that one just right,” confirms Ray.
https://soundcloud.com/ektrorecords/jesters-of-destiny-ladies-of-runyan-canyon
