Description
HELSTAR from Houston, Texas, are one of the most important US Power Metal bands of all time. From 1984 to 1989, the band around masterminds James Rivera and Larry Barragan released four legendary classics, timeless masterpieces of technically top-class US Metal. In 1990, HELSTAR put out a self-titled four track demo tape of the same quality as their previous four albums, but did not succeed in obtaining a new record deal with that. This finally resulted in the departure of founder and main song writer Larry Barragan and James Rivera attempting a new start under the name of VIGILANTE. That ‘new’ band released a phenomenal six track tape around 1993, which, in the prime of Grunge and Crossover, didn’t stir too much interest from record companies either, until in 1995 an album called ‘Multiples Of Black’ was released, once again under the guise of HELSTAR. The album had a number of really good songs, but since it was very badly produced and far from any trends, it went largely unnoticed and was soon forgotten, and the band split up. Thus, the two demo tapes from the early Nineties have remained unreleased until now, and since these ten tracks form an album that is nothing but the only real successor to ‘Nosferatu’, we decided to release them together on CD for the first time. It’s simply impossible to highlight any single tracks from ‘The James Rivera Legacy’, because all songs are equally brilliant high-class US Metal.
HELSTAR have just come to life again to deliver a few incredible live performances at 2001’s ‘Bang Your Head !!!’ festivals at Houston/Texas and Balingen/Germany which can be seen as good omens for their resurrection ‘ the HELSTAR is ready to burn again !!!
