Betrayel

BETRAYEL formed in Fresno, CA in 1985 with Chris Campise on bass/vocals, guitarists James Carter and James Johnson, and Arlie Patton on drums. Influenced by the burgeoning sounds of Metallica, Exodus, and Slayer, BETRAYEL quickly announced their primal thrash metal fury by opening their debut demo—1986’s Helpless Souls—with a bold mission statement: “Attention posers: prepare to die!”

The following year found the group appearing on Godly Records’ Raging Death compilation alongside early incarnations of future greats Atheist (as R.A.V.A.G.E.) and Obituary (as Xecutioner), before work ensued on a second demo: Death Shall Overcome. BETRAYEL then secured its highest-profile appearance to date in 1990 with the opening track on Metal Blade’s Metal Massacre Ten compilation, all the while respectfully maintaining their singular focus on intense, raging thrash.

Even early on, BETRAYEL had opened for names such as Anthrax, Death Angel, Overkill, etc.; and would go on to share the stage with a huge number of impressive acts such as Autopsy, Dark Angel, Kreator, Lääz Rockit, and Voïvod. Having amassed an impressive cache of songs that had yet to be recorded, the band was prepping to sign with Mechanix Records, before management issues saw BETRAYEL passed over for  Vio-lence instead. By the end of 1990, BETRAYEL was finished.

Finally, almost three decades after the fact, Divebomb Records is proud to grant BETRAYEL’s recordings a long overdue discography collection: Death Shall Overcome. The 20-song CD includes tracks from the Helpless Souls and Death Shall Overcome demos, the Raging Death and Metal Massacre Ten compilations, plus eight previously unreleased live cuts recorded in 1988. Fully remastered by Jamie King at The Basement Recording, the disc is housed alongside an extensive booklet loaded with archival photos/flyers and a retrospective interview with the band. For the fans, by the fans!

BETRAYEL’s complete discography surfaced through Divebomb Records as a 20-song CD back in 2018. Then, something interesting happened: renewed enthusiasm for the material found all four original members—Chris Campise on bass/vocals, guitarists James Carter and James Johnson, and Arlie Patton on drums—reuniting to work on new music for the first time in over three decades! The group notes, “We decided to get together and write some new songs, and we are proud of the results. We rehearsed for three months and the next thing we knew we were at American Made Studios recording with Marc Kapetan, who did a great job capturing the energy and spirit of the band. He worked us pretty hard, but after 32 years we needed the push. We ended up with seven new songs and two tracks from 1989, which were the last two songs BETRAYEL ever wrote. And, of course, we had to redo the classic ‘Helpless Souls’ from 1986.”

Recording took place from February to April of 2020, coincidentally in the same building that formerly housed A.I.R. Studios, where BETRAYEL laid down their very first recordings in 1986. The resulting 10-song, 33-minute album—Offerings—truly harnesses the power and crunch of that legendary ’80s thrash essence, about which the members state, “Once we got together and started jamming, it just felt right. We’ve always had that something special, and the songs just kind of rolled out and were great from the start. For some reason, this combination of personalities just works—all the different influences and styles make for an interesting stew of molten metal. We really didn’t even think about anything except making sure we had strong material, so our fans that are still with us wouldn’t feel cheated or disappointed. We captured lightning in a bottle with these songs, and can’t wait to unleash this album onto the masses!”

Offerings is due for release on Friday the 13th of November, 2020—once more through Divebomb Records. As parting words, BETRAYEL puts forth, “It’s amazing to us that anyone even gives a shit about our demos from 1986/1987. Just the fact that anyone even remembers totally blows us away, so it is our pleasure to put this new album out. Hopefully we can get out there and do some touring so we can meet all your beautiful faces. Long live metal!”