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Pagan Altar were well known throughout S. E. England and played most of the notable and some perhaps not so notable venues, but that was as far as it went, except, oddly enough, in the United States. In 1982 a demo tape of the first album circulated the U.S.A. and has been bootlegged ever since. This not only had the effect of keeping Pagan Altar alive but also has now raised them to cult status, funny how some things have a way turning full circle.
The original Demo, recorded in their own studio consisted of random tracks taken from various themes that were written as a series of songs. ‘Judgement of the Dead’ is the conclusion to ‘March of the Dead’ as ‘Reincarnation’ and ‘Pagan Altar’ is the finale to ‘Armageddon, The interlude and ‘The Aftermath’.

A good view of the coffin, complete with blood, and Altar complete with cobwebs

Pagan Altar tended to prefer to write in this manner and songs were constructed both lyrically and musically to reflect the various circumstances and feeling within each given scenario. The band considered that to produce a concept album at that stage might appear to be slightly gratuitous and may only appeal to a limited audience. On reflection this would seem to have been the case. As soon as the first issue of the Heavy Metal magazine ‘Whiplash’ with the favourable Pagan Altar demo review inside had hit the streets and circulated throughout the U.S.A. the effect was instantaneous, and the band were hard pushed to keep pace with demand. Mail arrived on a daily basis and it was a full time vocation to answer every letter and package and send off the multitude of requests for the Demo. This was however achieved with the help a number of handmaidens who relished the task and were only too pleased to help when and wherever they could!