At War

Originally formed in 1984, Virginia-based rock trio At Battle featured Paul Arnold (vocals/bass), Shawn Helsel (guitar), and Dave Stone (drums). After circulating their Eat Lead demonstration, they documented two albums of natural, visceral speed metallic: 1986’s Requested to Get rid of and 1988’s Retaliatory Hit. Released from the small New Renaissance label and experiencing somewhat dicey creation quality, these quickly got dropped amid the glut of thrash metallic bands performing the rounds in the past — despite some rather great songwriting. Discouraged, At Battle broke up soon thereafter, when Helsel apparently moved on to some funk-metal-fusion direction.