VILLAIN with CARL ALBERT

Although VILLAIN is known as a real 80s Bay Area act, the roots of this truly underestimated band are to be found in Modesto, a mid-sized town located about 100 miles from San Francisco. Around 1984 guitarist LEON SMITH and a couple of friends decide to form a cover band. Gigging around Central Valley, California, they mostly interpreted IRON MAIDEN, JUDAS PRIEST and THIN LIZZY material, as well as the odd QUEEN tune. Later on bass player TOMMY SISCO joins the band - not yet aware he would be destined for greater thins in another band. More and more VILLAIN also started to write their own material.

In 1985 the combo decides to gently nudge singer KENNY LEA out of the band, seeking a vocalist more suitable for the heavy, yet melodic songs, written by SMITH and his band-mates.

Guitarist GREGG NOLL and drummer ROB QUILLEN soon propose CARL ALBERT, a singer who possessed an impressive set of pipes, and with whom they had spend part of their puberty in Sonora, a mining town in the center of California. In the meantime CARL had moved to Oakland where he was a member of the RUFFIANS. The four VILLAINS went to check out ALBERT at a RUFFIANS’ concert in Wolfgang’s club in San Francisco. It was more obvious than ever that this was the vocalist VILLAIN needed to take the band to higher levels. They managed to convince him to join them at the Pyramid studios in Sacramento and record three tracks for them. After hearing the final mix CARL no longer had any qualms of abandoning the RUFFIANS and becoming a fulltime VILLAIN.

By then the Bay Area music was flourishing and one class act after another emerged on the scene. VILLAIN soon re-entered into the studio to cut another four tracks, which, with the three already in the can, were to be their debut album. TAMBRE BRYANT of RELENTLESS RECORDS heard the material and offered them a deal – later she would also become their manager. Towards the end of 1986 ONLY TIME WILL TELL was released. VILLAIN’s first album would sadly also turn out to be their last. Due to innumerable problems between management, label and artist, VILLAIN rapidly fell apart at the seams. Bass player DAVE STAR of VICIOUS RUMORS had designs on CARL ALBERT and managed to convince the latter to join this band after a one-time jam session during which they also wrote DIGITAL DICTATOR. And the rest is history! Later, in 1993, TOMMY SICSO, another ex-VILLAIN, would also join VICIOUS RUMORS, this time in order to replace… DAVE STAR.

With CARL "ACE" ALBERT in their ranks VICIOUS RUMORS quickly became a leading, worldwide exponent of Bay Area Thrash Metal. The vocalist’s promising career was however brutally and tragically cut short when he became the victim of a car accident and lapsed into a coma from which he would not recover. His early death at the same time immortalized his persona.

The official compact disc release of ONLY TIME WILL TELL in Europe is a suitable homage to a vocalist who never failed to excite me and make my musical heart pound just a little faster.

Rest In Peace brother.

Mario Mortier
15 April 2003

TAMBRE BRYANT, then co-owner of management company L&L PRODUCTIONS, founded RELENTLESS RECORDS in 1986, as a vehicle for the release of records by VILLAIN and AGRESSION.

L&L PRODUCTIONS was one of the first outfits to manage metal bands and book them into clubs around the San Francisco area, and organize concerts in halls, at fairgrounds, as warehouse parties, and anywhere else they could get away with. They booked acts such as MEGADETH, WARNING SF, ULYSES SIREN, VICIOUS RUMORS, BLIND ILLUSION, BROCAS HELM to name but a handful, in Clubs like THE MAB, THE STONE, and RUTHIE'S INN.

CARL ALBERT'S VILLAIN debut album ONLY TIME WILL TELL was also the first ever long-playing to be released by RELENTLESS, and SECRETARY SRUT, by AGRESSION was the first single. Both records have become sought after collector’s items, not only due to their musical quality, and in case of VILLAIN, the presence of CARL ALBERT, who later moved on to become the legendary vocalist with VICIOUS RUMORS, a band where he replaced GARY ST. PIERRE, but also because of what TAMBRE later described as "The Curse of RELENTLESS Records".

AGRESSION playing a show in Fresno lived up to their name by thoroughly trashing a hotel room in true LED ZEPPELIN style. BRYANT was given the choice to pay for the damages, or be marched of to jail. During the course of their rapid disintegration members of VILLAIN busted into the label-owner’s house and stole all the complete inventory of VILLAIN albums. After a number of phone calls only a limited number where recovered, and TAMBRE BRYANT later distributed copies to everyone present at CARL ALBERT’S funeral. In the meantime the SONIC ARTS facilities had closed, and the original masters where stolen. The final remaining batch of stock was destroyed and recycled by a storage company who never bothered to query TAMBRE about this. But the biggest curse for RELENTLESS has no doubt been the endless army of companies and individuals that have bootlegged and otherwise illegally duplicated and sold the VILLAIN album for illegitimate gain. Fed up - TAMBRE BRYANT finally decided to revive the label in 2002, and released ABOVE THE ASHES, an album by ULYSSES SIREN, a band she also already managed in the 80s, and which features JON TORRES, previously with LAAZ ROCKIT, and currently with both WARNING SF and ANGEL WITCH.

During the negotiations between TAMBRE BRYANT and myself, which led to MAUSOLEUM RECORDS signing WARNING SF and later ANGEL WITCH, I learned of the existence of ONLY TIME WILL TELL, and of course jumped at the opportunity to release an official compact disc version of this exciting, rare and sought after album in Europe. Any aficionado of Eighties Bay Area Thrash Metal will value this album, and the rare photographs featured in the accompanying booklet will particularly delight the CARL ALBERT fans.

Alfie FALCKENBACH
May 2003