Public Access, Tampa Style

Back in 1988 I was just seven years old and busy listening to Duran Duran and watching He-Man cartoons. Unbeknownst to me, some 1,100 miles southwest of New Jersey something EVIL was brewing in Tampa, Florida. That something happened to be the death metal band Amon. Glen Benton, Steve Asheim, and the brothers Hoffman would later change their name to Deicide, but two years before releasing their legendary debut album on Roadrunner Records they were still struggling in obscurity and had only released one demo, "Feasting the Beast."

This piece of YouTube gold features Amon performing live in the studio on some public access television show out of Tampa. The video begins with a Barbara Walters look alike talking up this new breed of music called “death metal” that’s being spawned in Tampa and how the artists are “stars” across the ocean, but struggling to find an audience here at home. Next is a short David Vincent interview clip where he expounds upon the boundarylessness of death metal followed by a short Glen Benton interview clip where he talks about how he’s been burning a cross into his forehead for over a year. And then finally, the main event! Some dork in a tuxedo and bowtie that looks like a cross between "Mean Gene" Okerlund and Robert Crumb sweating bullets introduces the band and they break into a furious rendition of “Sacrificial Suicide.” Note the ridiculous outfits the band is wearing replete with spikes, chest plates, and shin guards. Behold a piece of death metal history…