Thrash/Speed Metal Band - Détente

In the late 70s Dennis Butler, Fred Rascon and Rick Hartwell go to the same high school, El Cajon Valley High (in San Diego). Dennis and Fred live next door to each other and are best friends. Fred is a naturally gifted guitarist, and he gives Rick pointers for playing bass in exchange for motorcycle driving lessons. 'In 1977/78 Dennis started saving up for a drum kit,' Rick remembers. 'Eventually a band formed with a female lead singer. Dennis met this girl, Dawn Crosby, and she had a guitarist friend named Eric. So Dennis, Eric, Dawn, and I started a band called Majesty, with Fred making guest appearances and giving us music support. We played a few gigs in the weekend, on parties, and senior ditch day kinda stuff. Mostly covers of Black Sabbath, Zeppelin, Ramones etc., with maybe one or two original songs. Dennis and Dawn got involved quite soon, which was a volatile relationship. The band grew popular and we were getting gig invites outside of our local area.'

Early 1980, Rick has to quit the band in order not to flunk school. Dawn is active in the London, England band First Attack before both she and Dennis pop up in Allies by mid 1983. In 1984, with the demise of Allies, Dennis and Dawn form a new band called Détente, with Jim Tutone on guitar and Rob Farr on bass.

In April, Détente record their first demo, a three-track effort that includes tracks such as "Shattered Illusions" and "Vultures in the Sky". Song themes primarily revolve around the atrocities of society as opposed to inner horrors that would surface in later recordings. Although Jim Tutone was the principal author of both "Vultures in the Sky" and "Shattered Illusions", it's not him that's on that first demo. Fred Rascon replaces Jim on guitar after both Tutone and Farr leave the band because of a big argument with Dawn. Fred leaves later, too. But Dennis and Dawn persevere, and through adverts in music magazines they attract the attentions of Caleb Quinn (guitar), Ross Robinson (guitar) and Steve Hochheiser (bass). Steve has been on stage before with Lizzy Borden.

'We started to play the club circuit in L.A. a few weeks later, which were the band's first gigs,' Steve Hochheiser recalls from these early days. 'Ross and I wrote the music to "Losers", "Widows Walk" and "Blood I Bleed" around that time.' This is also the line-up that records the second demo, which includes "Shattered Illusions" and "Vultures in the Sky" from the first demo, coupled with "Holy War" and "Widows Walk". This demo tape results in a lot of interest from record labels, including Combat, Noise, Music for Nations, Metal Blade and Roadrunner. A record deal is made with Metal Blade (US) and Roadrunner, the latter because the band reckoned they would be more successful in Europe. A rough version of "Widows Walk" is put on Metal Massacre VII (Metal Blade, 1986), even though, so Steve claims, 'we hated Brian Slagel' [boss of Metal Blade].

Détente play a lot of gigs in the Bay Area until they are banned after a riot breaks out at a gig with Megadeth and Dark Angel. 'Dawn and Dennis had bad feelings towards Dave Mustaine and Dave Ellefson of Megadeth,' Steve remembers, 'they lived together at the same place, where the Dave twins ran up a huge phone bill, refusing to pay for it after they took off.' At this gig, Dawn starts pelting Megadeth with filled beer cans, which ends in a riot. After that, gigs in L.A. are almost impossible to get.

Later that year, the band record "Recognize no Authority". They choose Dana Strum for a producer, due to the fact that he has good contacts with a top recording studio in L.A. called Baby O's. 'We paid him a third of our US$ 12,000 recording budget,' Steve says, 'Dana was an expert at scamming the studio for time. The band always started recording at 10 PM and usually finished at 7 AM, to avoid studio management. We would slip the nighttime workers a twenty each so we could borrow outboard equipment from the other artists (outboard gear from Michael Jacks