Let the Sword Descend (found Morriah demo tape; 1987)
Cover art of Let the Sword Descend.
Status: Found
Date found: April 28, 2016
Found by: thrashmettler
Morriah was a thrash metal band from Greenville, South Carolina. The band, consisting of Chief Spires on bass, Pete Hammoura on drums, Karl Sanders on guitar and Sonny Staford on vocals, was formed in 1983 and broke up at an unknown date. The band is notable due to the fact that after they broke up, Spires, Hammoura and Sanders went on to found one of the most popular brutal/technical death metal bands, Nile. The three have also played in several other metal bands of varying sub-genres throughout their careers. Nile was allegedly inspired to play death metal after Sanders was introduced to the genre by David Vincent from the band Morbid Angel, who are widely considered to be pioneers of the genre.
Morriah released at least one demo tape, called Let the Sword Descend, before their break up. The demo contained five songs, being sold via mail order for six dollars. It eventually became a rare release, with none of the tracks having surfaced online for years.
On February 2, 2014, three songs from Let the Sword Descend – "The Hatemongers", "Horror of Warfare" and "Marquis De Sade" – were made available by drummer Pete Hammoura via his ReverbNation page. A full rip, including the other tracks "Black River" and "Let the Sword Descend", was uploaded to metalarea.org by user J_Ason on April 28, 2016, after being recorded and shared to him by Discogs user thrashmettler.