We continue our series in February of focusing on contributions to the Christian independent music scene from our black brothers and sisters for Black History Month.
While heavy metal, and especially this form of ‘glam metal’ was dominated by people whose skin color resembles mine, Seventh Seal stood out from the crowd. They were a commercial metal band from Palmdale, California whose 5 members were all African American. Seventh Seal was truly an anomaly in this regard. While there are other heavy metal bands with black members, I can’t think of any others where the entire band was made up of black members *and* who played in this particular style.
The band released two demo tapes–Ruff Draff and Ruff Draff Too, both of which received positive reviews in the underground Christian metal press, but never achieved wider recognition. There is a rumor that the band signed to Mike Knott’s Blonde Vinyl Records but never released anything through them, due to the untimely demise of the label.
Special thanks to our friends at the Christian Tape Underground for some helpful background info on the band.