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 I was a DJ for a christian radio station here in OKC for 5 years: KOKF 91FM - 90.9 FM. I was 16 years old when I started there. Unfortunately, the radio station was recently sold to another company and now it is called Air 1, which is a satellite station that broadcasts nationwide. Before the buy-out of the station, every night for 20 years during the overnight hours, KOKF had a metal format which normally ran from 11pm to 5am. The metal format was not playlisted which gave the nitetime DJ's the freedom to play anything and everything we wanted so long as what was being played was a christian band. It was the only radio station in America (and perhaps the world, even) for many years to have a nightly christian metal format which was unrestricted with regard to what could be played and what couldn't. As you can probably imagine, we played everything from Stryper and Whitecross to Mortification, Vengeance Rising, Living Sacrifice, Tourniquet, Deliverance, The Crucified, and Extol, etc. This list could go on forever! When I worked there - and again, I was only there for 5 years from 1995 to 2000 - I primarily worked the overnight shift on weekends. My former pastor of 8 years was Vern Marks. He was also a DJ at KOKF. He was the main "Nitetime 91" DJ that ran the show during week nights. Vern started War Club Ministries while working at KOKF, which basically was an outreach targeting those involved with the Punk, Metal, Hardcore, and Goth & Industrial scenes and subcultures. I was deeply involved with War Club as well. Anyone was welcome, but those were the types of kids we were targeting, because those type of kids are the one's that the traditional church turns a blind eye to and leaves behind. Aside from what we did with KOKF and War Club, I actually got my start with Eternal Decision, which is also based in OKC. 91FM and War Club Ministries pretty much started the whole scene in Oklahoma City. It was through those two ministries that everyone in the local christian metal scene met and got to know each other. I started out doing background vocals for Eternal Decision during live shows. I helped them out for only a few weeks so it was only a short term gig. From there, Vern Marks hooked me up with contact information for Brandon See. Brandon and I founded a band that was initially called Treacherous Death but later changed the name to Golgotha.
From there, I went on to my most successful musical endeavor. OBLITERATION was a Christian death metal band from Oklahoma City, OK who dominated the underground christian metal scene in Oklahoma and the southwest throughout the late 1990's. I also created a MySpace profile for the band which I run and maintain. It can be found here. The band was comprised of a handful of musicians who came from previous death metal bands, respectively, in the OKC area. The original band members are as follows: Richard (aka "Rikki") Puckett: Vocals David Campbell and I were bandmates in the above-mentioned band, Treacherous Death. Kevin Tubby and Bryan Nikkel were also bandmates in a previous band called Evisceration. Evisceration was a secular death metal band who was a crowd favorite at the local clubs and concert venues of the day. Greg Berger was a mutual friend of Dave and myself. Greg's brother Matt was one of the guitarists from Treacherous Death/Golgotha which is how we met and knew Greg. The disbanding of Golgotha and Evisceration was near to the same time, which made for great opportunities between some of the members of both bands. Kevin Tubby and Bryan Nikkel had rededicated their lives to God and renewed their faith and practice in Christianity. As a result, Dave, Kevin, and Bryan started playing together. The only thing that lacked was a vocalist and a bassist. Dave contacted me to inform me of the vacancy behind the microphone of this new band which was in the process of being born. I was introduced to Kevin and Bryan through Dave and got acquainted with them. After sitting in to check out a couple of practice sessions, I decided this new musical entity would be a perfect fit for me and accepted the offer to join the band. The last piece of the puzzle easily fell into place when Greg Berger entered the band, thus completing what would soon be known by many as OBLITERATION! In the Spring of 1997, OBLITERATION recorded an extremely rare four song demo at Premier Studio, owned by Kirk Campbell - the drummer of Eternal Decision. It was originally mentioned by Kevin Tubby to name the demo "Torn In Two" but was later decided that "Dying Age" would be a more appropriate name for the demo, given the content of the music. Soon after the release of the Dying Age material, OBLITERATION performed and shared the stage with the likes of Napalm Death, Living Sacrifice, Melchezidek, Eternal Decision, Frank's Enemy, Skinlab, and Exodus, among many other bands. We also played three Texas Rockfest's with the likes of Tourniquet and Extol along with several other national acts. OBLITERATION soon picked up a cult following worldwide as we began to receive fan mail from Europe. To this day, it is still unknown how our demo started "getting out there," especially taking into consideration the extremely limited number of units of the demo which were pressed. It is worth noting that this started happening BEFORE we were picked up for worldwide distribution as well as BEFORE Cross Rhythms Music created and released the "Chords of the Grave" compilation. The band's existence under the "OBLITERATION" moniker came to an end with my departure from the band nearing the end of 1997.
The guys retooled and renamed the band "Death List." Kevin Tubby was assigned to take over the vocal duties in addition to being the lead guitarist. Greg Berger also was soon to leave the band as well. They brought in a new bassist which made the lineup changes consist of the following: Kevin Tubby: Main Vocals and Guitar As "Death List," the band would eventually release their first and only full length album entitled, "Severed." Severed was picked up for worldwide distribution through Cross Rhythms Music (which is now Blastbeats Music). "Severed" was received well amongst fans nationally and worldwide but failed to garner the same praise and accolades by fans when compared to the OBLITERATION material. The band also took criticism in reviews from several magazines, including HM Magazine, as well as online music sites due to the controversial cover art of the "Severed" album. The artwork depicts a girl who has been decapitated, with the head lying in proper position above the neck with the rest of the body in a transparent body bag. It was somehow rumored that the artwork on the front of the cd insert was a true and real picture of a real decapitated girl. However, there is no truth to those rumors. It is indeed a true and real picture, but it is NOT a "REAL" dead girl who has been decapitated. It is uncertain how this rumor got started, but there is no truth to those accusations. I should know since I was the original vocalist of the band. Cross Rhythms/Blastbeats Music also put together and released a compilation entitled, "Chords of the Grave," which included the entire OBLITERATION demo. It also included several other significant and notable underground christian death metal bands such as Oblation and Disencumbrance. The "Chords of the Grave" compilation was a smashing success within the christian death metal scene worldwide and was well-respected within the underground secular death metal scene also. To this day, "Chords of the Grave" is widely viewed as perhaps the greatest christian death metal compilation in history.
I rejoined the band in the summer of 1998. We kept the name "Death List." Our last show came on November 28, 1998 in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. WE HEADLINED THE SHOW with national act and Solid State recording artist, Embodyment, as the opening act. Solid State Records is a division of Tooth & Nail Records. Due to several internal and family issues, Death List officially met its unfortunate demise in January of 1999. Below are just a few of the bands that OBLITERATION/Death List has performed with: Napalm
Death
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