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Megattack - Raw Delivery
1. Never Surrender 2. Good Girls 3. Whisper In The Dark 4. Talk To Me 5. Kids Rock 6. Stay With Me 7. Carry On 8. Make It Rock 9. Love Machine |
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Megattack - Street Life
1. Street Life 2. Rock The Town 3. Bad Enough 4. Out Of Touch 5. Poison The Love 6. Save The Nations 7. Earthshaker 8. Action 9. Are You Alone Tonight? (Bonus Track) |
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Parrish Hultquist (ROXX, EQUINOX, WOLFGANG) was considered a guitar prodigy of the 80’s hard rock and metal scene of Salt Lake City Utah. Parrish recorded 2 songs with his band EQUINOX before teaming up with Dana Freebairn (TERRA, TYTON, TERRIFF, FREEBAIRN, D.F.M.) in the band MOVIESCREEN. MOVIESCREEN released one album on cassette in 1984 and the band disbanded in 1985. Parrish had gained major local accolades as the premier guitarist in the area and he wanted to take his musical career to the next level. Parrish began to seek the best of the best musicians in the area with the goal in mind to create a Salt Lake City supergroup. Parrish first reached out to his best friend Bryan Sorenson (MANNEQUIN, MOVIESCREEN, CHAMPANGE, WOLFGANG) who was an incredible drummer. Parrish and Bryan practiced in Bryan’s room for a month getting a few songs underway as well as deciding on which other musicians they wanted to bring into their new band. Parrish reached out to his friend and bassist extraordinaire Patrick Carter (TURBO, NETWORK, LIXX) who was also quite a crowd-pleasing showman. Patrick was on tour on the east coast, but saw the potential of this new band and quickly returned back to Salt Lake so the project could move forward. Parish asked Patrick what he thought of the name MEGATTACK for the new band. Patrick loved it and Salt Lake’s supergroup was born.
Now it was time to bring in a vocalist and frontman and Parrish knew exactly who he wanted to fill the spot. Rick Jackson’s (SLYDER, WIZARD, RAGDOLLZ, HARI KARI, ASPHALT JUNGLE) band THE JACK had been Salt Lake City’s top act for several years before Rick disbanded it. Rick was arguably Utah’s best and most famous vocalist at the time and Parrish was deadest on bringing him into MEGATTACK. Bryan had played with Rick before in MANNEQUIN, so when he was approached with the idea, Rick was eager to start a new band and quickly joined the ranks. Early in 1986, MEGATTACK recorded the songs “Earthshaker” and “Action” at Audio Vision Studio. But there seemed to be something missing in the sound that Parrish was striving for. He usually played in bands with himself as the only guitarist largely due to the fact that the others just weren’t in his league and couldn’t compete or keep up with his enormous talent. But Parrish really wanted to write and play songs with 2-part guitars. Coincidentally, (if you believe in coincidence) there was a new young guitarist on the scene who was beginning to attract a lot of attention not only for his skillful guitar playing, but for his songwriting ability as well. Jay Gough (OBSESSION, LOFTEN, DARK HAVEN, VICE, ENGINEERED SOCIETY PROJECT) was writing songs and playing guitar in the band VICE at the time. Bryan knew Jay from seeing him play with the band OBSESSION and took Parrish to a VICE gig to see Jay play. Partway through the show, Parrish turned to Bryan and said, “That’s the guy.” VICE actually rehearsed right next door to MEGATTACK at the Murray warehouse so when VICE took a break one night, Bryan and Parrish had the opportunity to approach Jay and ask him if he’d like to complete the supergroup by joining MEGATTACK. Jay had always admired Rick Jackson’s talent and being offered a spot to actually play in a band with Rick was just too good to refuse so he went back into the VICE rehearsal space to break the news to them that he had just quit VICE and joined MEGATTACK. Jay, who also went by the stage name “Jake Ozlo,” added another dynamic guitar to the band as well as some very polished songwriting. Jay/Jake brought in a couple of songs he had been working on, to which Rick added some catchy lyrics, and “Never Surrender” and “Good Girls” were added to the set list. Everything seemed to flow so effortlessly with the songwriting and arrangements and very soon they had enough songs to finally present them to a live audience. MEGATTACK’s debut live gig was March 8, 1986 at the Utah State Fairgrounds in the Horticulture Building. BRAXXTON and LIXX opened the show and prepped the crowd for their first glimpse of the highly touted new supergroup, the mighty MEGATTACK. And they did not disappoint. MEGATTACK shattered all previous attendance records for a gig of all local artists with over 3,000 people crammed inside the venue and nearly 1,000 more stuck outside the venue without tickets who were nonetheless rocking out to the fresh new sound that was thundering out of the building. Just over halfway through the show the Fire Marshall shut it all down because the building’s occupancy limit had been exceeded by about 500 people. Despite the buzzkill, this gig set the tone for the potential heights this band could achieve. MEGATTACK’s next gig was an opening spot for a couple of national touring acts, SNAKEBYTE (who had just released their debut LP) and Chrysalis Records artist ARMORED SAINT. When the emcee erroneously introduced SNAKEBYTE instead of MEGATTACK as the opening act the entire crowd reacted by booing and loudly demanding to see MEGATTACK. The crowd erupted as their new local heroes took the stage launching into “Never Surrender” which had quickly become a crowd favorite. The band’s fan base continued to build exponentially as word got around and the hype around the band was completely unmatched to this day. The band returned to Audio Vision Studio and cut the 9 songs that appear on their debut album “Raw Delivery.” It wasn’t long before MEGATTACK was invited to headline an open-air rock festival dubbed “Woodstick” in Boise, Idaho. To promote the show, Patrick made an on-air appearance on the local rock radio station which helped swell the attendance to nearly 5,000 people. Once again, the show was cut short by the policy officials due to over attendance, but MEGATTACK played a great show and did not disappoint. Early in 1987 the band returned to Audio Vision Studio to record 6 new songs for their planned sophomore release. They signed a distribution deal in Europe with Dream Records for the “Raw Delivery” album. The vinyl pressing was exclusive to Europe and the cassette version was sold at the band’s shows in the USA. The vinyl pressing became quite popular in Europe, selling many thousands of copies. It even inspired a MEGATTACK tribute band in Europe who called themselves “Raw Delivery.” One of the most memorable shows the members often recounted was at the popular Salt Lake City club called The Barbwire where MEGATTACK gave the crowd a clinic on how live music should be played. The dual guitars of Parrish and Jake got the crowd screaming for more. Bryan showed off his flashy moves, flipping and spinning his sticks and pulling off a top-notch drum solo as only he could. Patrick captivated the crowd with his thumping bass and wild stage antics. Rick controlled the entire venue with his raspy melodic metal vocals that had become the signature sound of MEGATTACK. What a night! After the show, the crew packed the equipment trailer for the long trip to next show which was going to be in Arizona. It was to be a small span of shows that only had room for the band but not the crew. Upon arriving in Arizona many hours and miles later, they opened up the trailer and, to their utter shock and surprise, they found 2 of the Salt Lake City crew who had stowed away in the equipment trailer to make the trip with the band anyway. They just didn’t want to miss any of the MEGATTACK shows! The band was astonished, but grateful to have the unexpected help with the equipment and gear. MEGATTACK always had a top-notch crew who were obviously also very loyal and devoted. Despite their growing popularity regionally and sales overseas, they had yet to sign with a major label in the USA. The band was lacking nothing. Rick had been a major draw as the top act in Utah for a decade at that point and Parrish was widely acclaimed as the top guitarist in Utah. The frustration built, and creative differences begin to creep in, which produced friction. Parrish wanted to take the band in a different direction, more in the vein of the L.A. bands that were getting signed to the major labels. To that end, he brought in his old MOVIECREEN band mate, vocalist Dana Freebairn for a little jam session with himself, Bryan, Jake and Patrick. Dana just came in to have fun, party and jam with the guys, not realizing that Parrish was actually trying him out to replace Rick as MEGATTACK’s front man. Patrick and Jake were none the wiser, but it soon became clear to everyone what the underlying purpose of the jam session had actually been. In true Hollywood fashion, midway through the session, Rick walked in on the jam and the message was clear: MEGATTACK, the Utah supergroup was finished. The news of MEGATTACK’s sudden disbanding shook the Salt Lake metal scene. After all, this was a band that was on the verge of finally getting national attention from the major labels. They had built a huge fan base which was eagerly awaiting a second release from the supergroup. But the second album fell by the wayside and the songs were doomed to never get an official release. The day after the band broke up drummer Bart Hendrickson, who had driven in from Pocatello, Idaho, showed up at the rehearsal space where Jake happened to be. Bart had his drum kit packed into his car. Unbeknownst to Jake, Bart had come at Parrish’s invitation to audition for MEGATTACK. Rick and Jake formed the band RAGDOLLZ and Bart ended up joining up with them. After the breakup, Parrish moved to Arizona and joined the band previously known as SERGICAL STEEL and before they morphed into NOTORIOUS, while Patrick quickly accepted an offer to join the band NETWORK. In 2011 we lost Parrish Hultquist who passed away. It wasn’t too much longer before we lost another MEGATTACK legend in Bryan Sorenson who passed away in 2013. Six more years had passed before the Utah rock and metal community was shocked with another legend passing away in that of Rick Jackson who lost his life to cancer in 2019. Though we have lost several members of MEGATTACK over the years, their memory will live on forever thought their music and the love we all have for them. |
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