POWERMAD – This Speed Metal meets Thrash Metal band formed back in 1984, hailing out of the great state of Minnesota. In 1986, Powermad released their self titled and debut EP on Combat Records. In 1988, Reprise Records picked up Powermad, releasing their EP – The Madness Begins… and this is the very EP that I found hiding in an antique co-op mall just yesterday!! (See pics of it below). Whoa. Whoa again, is how I first felt upon gazing my eyes upon this Heavy Metal super find! It’s Powemad… I thought to myself, thinking, can this be really happening? I am looking at and holding the vinyl EP copy of The Madness Begins…!?!
ANTIQUE STORES F’N ROCK.
In Metal summary, as you can tell, I was extremely psyched out of my mind about this Heavy Metal find… and I still am. I paid a meager – $6 for this Powermad gem! Six dollars! The total condition of this Powermad EP is in excellent to near mint too! The top right and bottom corners of the album jacket are the only areas that show a tad of wear. Otherwise, the original gloss on both sides of the album jacket still literally shines on it!
The original circular sticker is on the front side as well. The text printed on the circumference of the circle sticker reads: “Powermad Specially – Priced Mini – LP”. Specially priced alright, only six dollars, after more than two decades after it’s initial release… and it’s super, super, rare!! The inside text on the circle sticker reads: “Warning: Due to the intense nature of this music, neck braces may be required”. That’s vintage stuff… Old School.
There are four songs on this EP, all four are Thrash Metal and Old School too. Upon my first handling of the actual vinyl record itself, I could not believe there were no visible signs of it ever being handled! (Unless someone really, really took great care of it in the past). Once I dropped the turntable needle down on this POWERMAD EP to play, the sweet sound of analog filled the air, with not a crackle or pop. Take my word for it, these songs are incredibly worthy of multi-multiple listens on a regular basis.
Terminator is the opening track, it begins with thunderous drum beats in unison with vintage, heavy riffs that tell me immediately I’m in for a Metal treat. This song sizzles and then explodes into Thrash Metal glory. Joel Dubay on lead vocals has a coherent delivery, only watch out for his screach… he can hit the high note without any trouble and it’s superb. Hunter Seeker is faster than Terminator, it kicks right in where Terminator left off. This song is a rifftastic display of Old School Thrash Metal – period. I find this song rips, tears and burns each and every second… give me more POWERMAD please.
Gimmee Gimmee Shock Treatment is the shortest song on this EP and it offers up some heavy grooves to go along with the Thrash. This is a Ramones cover song, a Thrashtastic version at that. It blisters along with all the fury one could wish for from a quality, late 1980’s Thrash Metal Band. Credible stuff. Blind Leading The Blind opens up with a spoken word, to the best of my Metal ears, it goes like this: “Your gonna do some praying for me now boy”. The voice of this spoken word sounds like an eerie backwoods hermit that you might bump into at a remote, country keg party. The backing, (gang), vocals on this song just screams Old School. Blind Leading The Blind is by far and large, the fastest song on this EP. Unreal great.
POWERMAD, as they appeared on their 1988 EP – The Madness Begins…
Joel Dubay – lead & backing vocals, rhythm & lead guitars
Todd Haug – lead & rhythm guitars, backing vocals
Jeff Litke – bass guitar, backing vocals
Adrian Liberty – drums & backing vocals
Track listing & running times for the Powermad EP – The Madness Begins…
Side One:
Terminator (4:20)
Hunter Seeker (2:52)
Side Two:
Gimme Gimme Shock Treatment (1:45)
Blind Leading The Blind (4:23)
Here is what the front cover of my POWERMAD Vinyl EP looks like:
Man, I couldn’t have asked for this POWERMAD EP to be in any better condition than this! You can see how it still bestows the original gloss on these front and back covers.
Here is what the back cover of my POWERMAD vinyl EP looks like:
POWERMAD, from left to right on this back cover:
Todd Haug, Joel Dubay, Jeff Litke, Adrian Liberty
* POWERMAD – The Madness Begins… was released in 1988 on Reprise Records.
* POWERMAD released their only full length album in 1989 – Absolute Power, on Reprise Records.
This is what the album cover looks like for Absolute Power:
I don’t own a copy of Absolute Power… yet. I will find one though, preferably on vinyl… you betcha.
* The 1986 self titled POWERMAD EP on Combat Records was released as part of the Combat Boot Camp Series, showcasing a heavy band’s demo.
Stone.
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