Who were they?-Vyper

These guys were from the hotspot of 1980's metal. That's right, they were from Kansas City, Missouri. Wait, you say it was LA that was the hotspot of 1980's metal and not Kansas City. Oh, maybe that partially explains why these guys didn't make it. This was a slightly tough one to pin down because there are some conflicting stories on these guys. However, here is what I know of them as far as I could pin down. They formed around 1983 and signed to Greenworld records in 1984. That same year they released an lp called "Prepared to strike". The band line-up was Christy Black (vocals, and despite the name, a male), Jacky Foxx (guitar), Robbie Saint (guitar), Rik Brock (bass) and Michael Scott (drums). So uh, yeah not a real name in the bunch.

Their label did not help them get a tour, but they did get some press and I even remember hearing them played once on the radio. In 1985 they changed their image a little and released a four song ep called "Afraid of the dark".

This ep had one track from the first album, one track called Daddy's Girl that was originally banned from the first album and two new tracks. Okay, here is where it gets messy. At some point not too long after this Greenworld records went under taking with it the rights to the band's album. Apparently this tied up the band's future and made it hard for them to get another record deal so labels passed on them. The band had apparently not been getting along either and there was a split as singer Black left and took the band's manager with him. Now he then formed a band and he called it (surprise, surprise) ...Vyper. Meanwhile the remaining four members hired another singer and also continued on as Vyper. Each band only lasted about a year before breaking up. So long before Ratt and LA Guns these guys were confusing people by having different versions of the same band. One big rumor that popped up over the years was that the master tapes of their albums were burned in a fire. However their former tour manager did an interview recently where he said that is not true. Somehow the rights to these albums went to Enigma records after Greenworld went under. Now Enigma went under in the early 90's so I don't know what happened to the rights then. Retrospect records was selling this on cd back in 2005, but it was pulled months after it was out. I don't know if they sold out or if there were other rights issues. Christy Black popped up in a band called Billy the kid in the late 1990's, but never got beyond doing a demo. Drummer Scott later played in Ballistic and recorded with Prizoner.
So that's the history lesson on these guys. My first impression is that they sound like two other bands that are just a little less obscure and those bands are Icon and London. To compare Vyper's sound to more known bands then I would say maybe they sound like early Dokken, but not so melodic crossed with early Queensryche, but not so complicated. Prepared to strike has some really good songs and some that are just alright. I think more than anything that these guys had some real potential. They had a singer with a good strong metal voice, the guitarists could play and they had an overall solid sound. I think the writing needed a little boost though as they were a bit repetitive and cliche at times. Now the two new songs on the ep showed a marked improvement in their writing. Those two songs had quicker pace changes and the band was sounding sharp. So in a way it's a shame they never did more because they seemed to be moving in the right direction. So that's who Vyper were.

***Next month's "Who were they?" will be on the unjustly overlooked Zoetrope from Chicago.