The Regime - Dead Serious (1987)

This is a pretty odd demo. It's a mix of semi-technical thrash, neo-classical, and hair metal. Perhaps something like a mix of Motley Crue and Toxik with a Shrapnel-style guitarist. The vocalist sounds a lot like Vince Neil, but the music is more complex, even though the songs remain hook-heavy. The guitar work is really the highlight here. Sometimes his riffs are pedestrian and the songs are predictable, but usually they're a little more involved than was typical of the time. He really cuts loose during the solos, though. Unfortunately, this means that the solos don't fit the music at all. The best songs here are the 1.5 minute "The Reign" (thrash with guitar heroics at the end) and the neo-classical 1.5 minute "Etude #1", though both are more impressive technically than aesthetically. Surprisingly, I found the guitar solos better than the instrumentals. I probably would've loved this in 1987, but thankfully I'm a little wiser now.

Postscript: I listened to this before looking up the band's history. To my surprise, I already knew the lead guitarist -- Todd Salmonson (a.k.a. Todd Duane), who contributed one song to the awesome 1991 Shrapnel comp Ominous Guitarists from the Unknown.

Their MySpace page has two songs from this demo: "Ain't So Fuckin' Bad" and "Dead Serious".