INFORMATION PAGE
Click above to read the People Magazine review of Ludichrist's first album "Immaculate Deception."
Tape Jacket from CBGB's "Off The Board" Record Label - recorded at and released by CBGB'S in 1986 on vinyl and cassette, (Thanks to Hilly and Steve Mc Allister). Truth be told, although it was captured live at CBGB'S, this release was recorded during two weekdays while the club was closed for business so we were not playing for an audience!
The embarassing cover art for Ludichrist's first record. NO ONE in the band liked it, in fact we all pretty much hated it, but we had no choice. We had to use it because Combat Records (Relativity) had paid their "heavy-metal-album-cover-guy" money to paint it. Lots of purple and an inexplicably pissed off Christ dressed like a Grateful Dead groupie. Huh? And it is WAY too serious in tone. When I came up with the name Ludichrist I never imagined it would one day be accompanied by such wrong-headed art, and it stung to know it would be hitting stores looking like, to my eyes, a desperately cheesy heavy metal album.
Artwork from a 1986 record compilation. To hear this version of the Ludichrist song "God is Everywhere" CLICK HERE. To hear an unreleased recording of the Ludichrist song "Goverment Kids," recorded for a compilation that never materialized, CLICK HERE.
"Immaculate Deception" featured Joe Butcher on rhythm guitar, who had replaced Mark after he decided to quit the band. A strange coincidence was I had been friends with Joe years earlier (I remember seeing "Evil Dead" at the Hicksville twin theatre with him) but had lost contact. I did not recognize him when he first joined the band. This album also featured my friend Chuck Valle (who I had been playing with since the formation of my pre-Ludichrist band with Mark called "Intestinal Militia") who, tragically, was stabbed to death while he was the bassist for Murphy's Law. The only good I can extract from such a horrible thing is that Chuck got the chance to play with a band he truly loved there for a while. In fact, in the Ludichrist video clips you can download here, Chuck is wearing a Murphy's Law T-shirt. Noticing that made me smile. (an additional coincidence is that Joe Butcher is wearing an Millions of Dead Cops T-shirt, a band I loved and would play drums for 14 years later!)
click above to take a closer look at this collage from the "Immaculate Deception" LP.