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Formed in Los Angeles in 1983, Reign Of Terror was a bit of an anomaly within the greater LA punk scene — they declared themselves "Modern Metal" and played a punk/metal hybrid that wouldn't dominate the landscape until much later. Led by singer/guitar player Ed Danky (ex-Würm), with support from bassist Jesse Fixx (ex-Stains), and a young Japanese punk named David Ishiki on drums, the band played just a handful of gigs and left behind one incredibly rare 7” single and a track on Mystic’s “It Came From Slimey Valley” compilation LP. Perplexing punk and metal collectors alike (and decimating their wallets) for the past 35 years, Radio Raheem and Meat House Productions are extremely proud to present an official reissue of all known recorded material by Reign Of Terror. Unfortunately all three band members have since let this mortal coil, but with the help of SST/Black Flag’s Chuck Dukowski, and surviving family members, the single has been remastered and repackaged with unpublished visual material. 
Our take: Reissue of this SST-related giga-rarity (originals go for over a grand on Discogs) on the always-reliable Radio Raheem and the quickly-gaining-our-trust (hey, this is only their third release!) Meat House Productions. What’s the SST connection? Well, Reign of Terror’s label shared an address with SST, the bass player was in the Stains (the SST one, duh), and vocalist / guitarist Ed Danky was Chuck Dukowski’s bandmate in Würm. While I’m sure there are some SST / punk collectors out there who are interested in this record from that angle, I’m guessing a bigger part of the record’s value comes from how great of a metal record this is. With its lo-fi production and catchy yet powerful sound, Don’t Blame Me reminds me a lot of the earliest releases by Iron Maiden and Def Leppard and the legions of British bands who sounded similar to them. If this record had come out two or three years earlier, maybe Lars Ulrich wouldn’t have had to bother going to England to get his NWOBHM fix. There are three tracks, each of which sounds raw, immediate, and exciting. If you’re interested in the NWOBHM or underground early 80s metal I would strongly recommend checking this out. Or you can just wait until you get your hands on an original…