Awesome! List is updated.

If anyone wants to add them: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmM73R7Y4CY

(edit: they've been added)

All 3 of these bands are allegedly from Italy and each released at least one demo in the '80s according to the 2007 version of a list made on a website (unsure the spelling, something like StellaStrano). No other info known right now. Misspellings possible. Rainmakers isn't the more recent Iron Maiden cover band from Italy, The Rainmakers.
Needs research. - Metha
Needs research. - Rainmakers
Needs research. - Sacrifice

(added to the list)

Strillostrano

http://www.strillostrano.eu/
http://strillostrano.blogspot.com/
https://www.facebook.com/strillostrano/

Thanks, that's it. Here's an archive of the old site from a couple of weeks after those bands were added, just in case something more can be found:
https://web.archive.org/web/20071209220 ... m/home.htm

Needs research. - Nightlife
Location: Mestre (Venice), Veneto, Italy
Description of genre: Metal
Discography: "Breathless" demo 1985 - https://imgur.com/dWglnIK
Needs research. - Cherry Wine
Location: Como, Lombardy, Italy
Description of genre: Power Metal
Discography: Demo 1990 - https://imgur.com/dWglnIK
(the other tape in the picture, Frontiers is described as hard rock)

Added.

Excellent. The list is caught up to here ------------------------------------

Needs research. - Occoult Raas
Genre: Depressive Black/Doom Metal/Ambient?
Location: Russia
Members:
https://www.metal-archives.com/artists/Sverd/511851
https://www.metal-archives.com/artists/Mortis/511848
https://www.metal-archives.com/artists/Zoil/511869

Apparently released a bunch of things in the late 00s/early 10s. For none of which I can't find VR or even a working download to listen to it.
Greyness Walk (2008):
http://russian-blackmetal.blogspot.com/ ... -2008.html

Himmel I Mørket (2008):
https://www.last.fm/de/music/Occoult+Ra ... %C3%B8rket
http://russian-blackmetal.blogspot.com/ ... t2009.html

Shadow In Morke (2010):
https://rateyourmusic.com/release/album ... _in_morke/

Thanks for providing that additional link. From what I could tell there isn't verification of a release, but I didn't translate the whole page. If there is one, feel free to submit them.

-del-

In addition, this nonsense should be removed from the description: https://www.metal-archives.com/bands/%D ... 1%82/14684

I have no idea who came up with this nonsense, it all looks more like a cheap promotion. August were NEVER "real metal", they were an AOR band that flirted with metal and hard rock from their first days but never completely slipped into them. Many metalheads openly hated them, so much so that they were not shy about saying it to their faces.

Is anyone else familiar enough with that band to be able to determine whether or not they are "one of the pioneers of Russian heavy metal", as the note says? That statement has been there since version 1 of the site, so over 10 years. I tagged a couple of people in a report whose opinions would be nice to have. The post got me thinking about how sometimes band members (and fans) write stuff in biographies / additional notes on here that are a stretch of the truth. In this thread there have been some searches added just now, where statements similar to this (mentions of pioneering, and being the first to be or do something) can be fact-checked, if anyone cares to look into them and make corrections as needed (toward the top at this link, just a few down) -
viewtopic.php?f=17&t=134500&p=3027634#p3027634

Full discography:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvpk6QNk4_o
https://avgustrock.ru/discography

It depends on what is considered "heavy metal". Legion and Zemlyane recorded their first demos in 1978, but this is what is now probably called "proto-metal". The Kakadu were probably the first real band associated with metal. Much of what Atlas recorded in 1980 was very heavy for the time, in the vein of early Rainbow.


Here is an example of another early band:
https://www.mediafire.com/file/odxzus4hbto0cdd/%25D0%2594%25D0%25B5%25D0%25BD%25D1%258C_%25D0%25B8_%25D0%2592%25D0%25B5%25D1%2587%25D0%25B5%25D1%2580_-_%25D0%259C%25D0%25B5%25D1%2588%25D0%25BE%25D0%25BA_%25281980%2529.mp3/file
https://www.mediafire.com/file/hbdhei21m79qahx/%25D0%2594%25D0%25B5%25D0%25BD%25D1%258C_%25D0%25B8_%25D0%2592%25D0%25B5%25D1%2587%25D0%25B5%25D1%2580_-_%25D0%25A4%25D0%25BB%25D0%25B0%25D0%25B3_%25281980%2529.mp3/file

Could be this band?
https://www.discogs.com/artist/10966865-Fair-Warning-18

(someone is selling both tapes for 100+ bucks, haha)

It's possible. Those guys are in the research list, as well (Mount Carmel, Illinois - band members: Steve Tharp (vocals), Troy Wright (bass), Jake Martin (guitars, vocals), DJ Campbell (guitars, vocals), Chris Martin (drums). There's another closer to New York, also a xtian band, from New Hampshire, that released "The Other Side" 3-song demo (1990) - different New Hampshire Fair Warning than the one that did "Stand Up and Shout" in 1994. It's such a common name, and of course always possible they traveled from another state to play the gig. $100+ for tapes like that have sadly been becoming the norm these days. There are still some people that will sell at a reasonable price even when they know how rare it is.

Needs research. - Eric A. Peterson
Location: Chesterfield, Missouri, US
Listed genre: Heavy Metal/Thrash (members come from technical speed/power metal band Holy Sceptre)
https://www.metal-archives.com/artists/ ... son/357566
https://www.metal-archives.com/artists/ ... ach/357568
Discography: "End All" demo cassette (year unknown; track listing: Insanity Prevails/ The Atheist/ Respectfully Decline/ Evilution/ Force of Habbit/ Catacomb of Souls)
https://www.ebay.com/itm/225587762077
Backup image: https://imgur.com/vhrKdTX
https://imgur.com/erMQP1M (full credits)

Needs research. - Radiaator
Location: Tartu, Estonia
Genre: Heavy Metal
Members: Unknown
Discography: 6-song recording (1990)
https://www.youtube.com/@13ichM/search?query=radiaator
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWI36XLRbww

(both added to the list)

Needs research. - День и Вечер
Location: USSR (Rostov-na-Donu)
Listed genre: Hard Rock, Prog Rock (1st days), Heavy Metal, Prog Rock (early), Hard Rock, Prog Rock (later) (known as Там! Нет Ничего from 1988)
https://www.discogs.com/ru/artist/92065 ... 0%B3%D0%BE

https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%A2%D0%B0%D0%BC!_%D0%9D%D0%B5%D1%82_%D0%9D%D0%B8%D1%87%D0%B5%D0%B3%D0%BE

Okay, their discography is a mess.

Apparently, they, like "Zemlyane", released not albums, but compilations with recordings from different sessions.

Many of them also actually include later records than the years indicated.

Anyway, in 1980-1983 they made a number of records consisting of metal mixed with progressive rock. Their later recordings are either soft prog rock merging with AOR, or traditional hard rock.

https://vk.com/music/playlist/111270982_77279171_90a92a567d367f676a (Mostly still prog rock, but a couple of tracks are good melodic metal - then in the USSR very few played like that.)
https://heavymetalrarities.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=55086&hilit=%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BD%D1%8C+%D0%B8+%D0%B2%D0%B5%D1%87%D0%B5%D1%80 (In fact, it also apparently actually includes softer recordings from 1979 and 1984-1985.)

(added to the list)

Needs research. - Josie Sang
Location: New York, US
Genre: Heavy Metal (?)
Band members: https://www.metal-archives.com/artists/Mike_DiMeo/5002 (vocals), John Melendez (guitars - a.k.a. 'Stuttering John', who was later part of the Howard Stern show)
Discography: Demo 1990 (cassette) https://imgur.com/voV0Jkw
Compilation appearance: https://www.discogs.com/release/1139944 ... Collection

(added to the list)

Needs research. - MotoFury
Location: Los Angeles, California, US
Genre: Metal (?)
Band members: https://www.metal-archives.com/artists/ ... rete/68613
https://www.metal-archives.com/artists/ ... oval/15462
https://www.metal-archives.com/artists/ ... hell/31996
Discography: Self-titled demo (1997, cassette; track listing: Decapatron/ Dogtown/ Godzilla/ Desolation Man)
https://imgur.com/3W71iCb

(added to the list)

And added.

Cool - removing from the list.

An affordable(?) copy showed up on Discogs, shipping from the US: https://www.discogs.com/sell/item/2043869078

I might pick it up. Have asked for the sound sample that's offered in the listing. It's from 10 years after the excellent Blind Illusion demo that Bill Ticson was on, so not sure what to expect from these guys.

Since the http://www.imgur.com site is in the process of purging uploaded images that didn't come from a registered account, if anyone is interested in saving ones from this thread that may potentially be the only verification of release available online (and may include information that can't be found later), here is a way that they can be found:

search.php?st=0&sk=t&sd=d&sr=posts&keywords=%2Aimgur%2A&t=104654&sf=msgonly&ch=-1 (have to be logged in for it to work)

Going to take care of the ones from my own posts, and will reupload when advised what the best way to save images will be going forward. viewtopic.php?f=3&t=138985
(edit 5/29: just registered an account at www.imgur.com since there was no other suggestions - hopefully no more images will be lost. Still strongly suggest an internal option for uploading pictures of covers when full track listing / year isn't known)

Needs research. - Jealous Bitch
Location: New York, US
Genre: Heavy Metal
https://www.thelastexit.org/new/templat ... rplay-2002
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDQiXfVa0rk

Needs research. - Headworm
Location: St. Louis, Missouri, US
Listed genre: Death Metal/Grindcore
Members: Chris Kenyon: drums, guitars, vocals, Bryan: guitars, misc. noise
Discography: "Heinous Manifestation of Inner Turmoil" cassette single (1995 - recorded on September 16th that year)
eBay: https://www.ebay.com/itm/225595195371
https://imgur.com/a/hwUx18U

(added to the list)

Needs research. - Threshold
Location: Woodbridge, Connecticut, US
Genre: (would guess something like thrash/groove metal with hardcore elements from the context clues)
Members: Jason Ward (drums), Chris Strenkert (bass), Ben Berkowitz (guitars, samples, vocals)
Discography: "Cage" cassette (1993; track listing: Hymn of Blood/ The Shocking/ Claw/ Hymn of Flesh/ Gateway/ Foreshadow/ One God/ Theme/ Beyond the Symblot/ We Are Dying/ Dream Sequence
https://imgur.com/a/QAXtaTk

(added to the list)

Needs research. - ShadowLands
Location: UK
Listed genre: Heavy Metal
Band members: https://www.metal-archives.com/artists/ ... tin/136402 (guitars)
https://www.metal-archives.com/artists/ ... ton/876053 (vocals)
Marcus Gardner (guitars)
Dave Moore (bass)
Steve Sprason (drums)
Discography: "Cold Nights" 7" (1986, Pharaoh Records, PR-002)
Discogs: https://www.discogs.com/release/2273329 ... old-Nights (1 for sale in the UK)
(only other known release on Pharaoh Records: https://www.metal-archives.com/albums/S ... eels/49867 )
https://nwobhm.com/shadowlands/

(added to the list)

Needs research. - No Mercy
Location: San Fernando Valley, California, US
Genre: Progressive Metal/Rock (?)
Band members: https://www.metal-archives.com/artists/ ... rey/248672 (guitars), Casey (lead vocals), Brian Montrey (lead guitars/backing vocals), Johnny G. (guitars/backing vocals), and Bobby Stanisha (bass, backing vocals).
Discography: Demo 1993 (track listing: I Want It All/ Number VII/ We the People/ No Mercy)
https://imgur.com/a/0SBo3QZ
https://imgur.com/a/dvdYiz3

(added to the list)

Formed in 1984.

--------

https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9C%D0%B8%D1%80%D0%B0%D0%B6_(%D0%B3%D1%80%D1%83%D0%BF%D0%BF%D0%B0)

- The idea of the project, which later received the name "Mirage", came to me and Andrei Lityagin at the beginning of 1985, - Valery Pavlovich began his story from afar. - I was then a student of the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology and organized evenings at my institute with the participation of "Sunday", "DDT", "Kino", "Bravo" and other rock bands. And he met Lityagin, who studied at the Moscow Aviation Institute, through musician friends - guitarist Sergei Proklov and vocalist Mikhail Kirsanov. They were fans of hard rock and participated in the group "Heavy character" in the spirit of Ozzy Osbourne and "Black Sabbath". And in parallel, they created the group "Zone of Activity", attracted Lityagin as a keyboardist and tried to make progressive electronic music that was becoming fashionable.

But in the process of these attempts, their commercial failure became clear to me. I arranged a trial concert "Zones of Activity" in the Phystech club. But he was not successful. “You see, all this is interesting only to a narrow circle of connoisseurs,” I shared with Lityagin. “And if we want to appeal to the broad masses, we need to focus on the tastes of disco-goers.” And he suggested that he do something more pop, only that it was music at the level of a modern "firm", and not the Soviet stage that was not lagging behind by 10 years.

We watched on video the latest recordings of Western music TV channels that my friends brought from abroad. From there we chose current trends that have not yet reached our discos. And Lityagin sketched out the music and text of the trial song "Snowman".

Since I insisted that a girl should sing, like Aguzarova in the Bravo group, Andrey attracted his acquaintance from student parties, Margarita Sukhankina, to record. And this song with her vocals was given along with the album "Zones of Activity" to Andrey Lukinov - the current director of the center Igor Matvienko - and his partner Igor Vasiliev, who replicated and distributed tapes with musical novelties.

Their verdict was as follows: “Everything as a whole is somehow not very good, but the song“ Bigfoot ”is interesting. You need to work in this direction." Because they had connections with musicians and with hardware speculators, they signed up to help us technically. We found a multi-channel tape recorder and the necessary tools from someone. No financial terms were mentioned. For that, we just had to give them the finished album.

The process of its creation turned out to be quite long. Lityagin mastered the equipment for six months and by the end of 1985 he had prepared music for six songs. Some of the lyrics were written by me. But then we decided that it didn’t roll, and threw all the material in the trash. “Either it has to be super cool, or it doesn’t have to be!” - we argued maximalistically. And almost the whole of 1986 was devoted to working on new songs.

Guitar riffs and washed down a la Ritchie Blackmore played for us by Sergey Proklov. This is how the signature feature of the project arose - a combination of eurodance with a rock guitar. And the already proven Margarita Sukhankina was invited to record vocals. With her participation, we made three of the most shocking songs - "Stars are waiting for us", "Video" and "This night". And then she suddenly refused to cooperate with us.

As it turned out, her teacher from the conservatory, who gave her classical vocals, immediately determined by the changes in her voice that she sang pop music and threatened her with expulsion if she continued to do so. “I don’t want to ruin my career because of your amateur performance,” Rita told us. “Forget that I participated in your project, and never tell anyone about it!”

We had to hastily look for a new soloist. Having walked around all sorts of singing circles and jazz studios, we found Sveta Razina. We tried to write it down. But her voice seemed to us excessively harsh. And it was necessary that the new soloist did not differ much from Sukhankina. “I have a girlfriend who sings like that,” Sveta said. And she brought Natasha Gulkina to us, who, having resisted a little, sang the remaining five songs.

However, from this it turns out that Proklov was no longer in the band in 1985. And the album may have been recorded already without him (but this is not certain). Despite the fact that the "Heavy character" itself existed at least until 1988 inclusive. On later recordings, the vocals are the same.

However, according to Wikipedia, Proklov participated only in studio recordings. So he could well continue to play in his band.

Needs research. - King
Location: Japan
Listed Genre: Thrash Metal
Band Members: Kouichi (Bass); Junichi (Drums); Akio (Lead Guitar) Kenichi (Rhythm/Vocals)
Discography: ‘Bigman’(Demo tape, 1987, Track listing: Disorder/Bigman/Beathead/M.T.H.(live))
Pictures: https://jp.mercari.com/item/m87170060824

'King' has been added to the list. Thank you, Slon, for all of that additional information. I put a link on the original post to what you've shared. Anytime you feel that there is enough information that a band can be submitted, don't hesitate to do so.

Bought.

Greyness Walk (their debut demo) is acceptable Lo-fi black metal in the vein of early Burzum, whereas that Shadow in Morke (their debut album) is predominantly 98% ambient. Here are the links:
https://www.mediafire.com/file/e8hnlndr ... D.rar/file

https://www.mediafire.com/file/hkg5xf7o ... D.rar/file

Here the other releases of this project or band, probably ambient too:
Occoult Raas - Softness of Feelings (Part I) [EP] (2011)

Occoult Raas - My Is Exorcism [EP] (2011)

Occoult Raas - Softness of Feelings (Part 2) [EP] (2012)

Needs research. - FireBall
Location: Unknown
Listed genre: Thrash Metal/Hardcore
Discography: "Recurance" cassette (year unknown; track listing: Cancer/ Devil's Dance/ Fortress on Morbid Hill)
https://imgur.com/a/uTRpKcs

(added to the list)

Needs research. - Battle Cry
Location: Colorado, US
Genre: Power Metal
https://ourstage.com/profile/battlecryband
https://bravewords.com/news/battle-cry- ... ce-bassist
It sounds like their nucleus was these two members:
https://www.metal-archives.com/artists/ ... etz/995966
https://www.metal-archives.com/artists/ ... ane/655070
- wondering if the CD was ever released as planned (on December 10th, 2006 they projected a January 1st, 2007 release).

Needs research. - Heather's Gone
Location: US
Listed genre: Heavy Metal (wouldn't be surprised if there's some or a lot of hard rock also present)
Band members: Bass – Mark Cady
Drums – Kevin Catron
Guitar, Vocals – Andy Grush
Discography: Self-titled demo (1991, cassette)
Discogs: https://www.discogs.com/release/2725969 ... thers-Gone

(both added to list)

Too core. - With Death Comes Life (Metalcore, Canada)