Bloodbath S.A.F.

Originally formed in Sept. 1986 when Kenny Szenborn & Chris "Willy" Williams split from a cover band they were in to form an original act. After several months of writing & seeking out new members, they recruited bassist Mark Fetterolf & officially became Dementia. Their press kits from the early '90s cite this period's early influences as Exodus , Kreator & Destruction . In May 1988, they recorded Plead or Bleed in a four-track basement studio & soon after began playing their first live shows around the Youngstown, Ohio area. After several gigs, they decided they needed a second guitarist, and soon recruited guitarist Rick Schobel, a high school friend of Williams. In Feb. 1989, this lineup recorded Grounds for Violence , this time with a much higher production quality thanks to twelve-tracks at Syndicate Sound Productions . It was during the recording when the band decided to change their name to Bloodbath, with their promotional material stating the name change came because they "felt the name was better suited to their mayhemic style of music". With the name change & release of Grounds... , they played their first shows in other parts of Ohio such as Cleveland & received radio play, press coverage & reviews from local & national publications such as U.S. Rocker, Heavy Metal Demolition, The Iron Planet, The Patrol & others. As their career was starting to take off, however, Fetterolf left the band. They soon recruited the bassist from they cover band they previously played in, "Ded" Edd Milich. Shobel then left the band in 1991, shortly before the recording of Erase Your Face , but the recruitment of John Saletra kept the recording schedule in hand. It's around this time that Bloodbath affixed "S.A.F." to its name, only to avoid confusion with the California Bloodbath . What "S.A.F." stands for hasn't been revealed. After the release of Erase Your Face , they received more positive press, more radio play & played larger shows than ever before. This was short lived, however, as within a year of the release of the 1991 effort, the band would split up.