Official Releases

with memories of the releases

RETURN TO MEDIA

If its not listed here, then its a bootleg!!!

'89 Official Rehearsal

 This was recorded in September 1989 on a 4-track in a friends basement.   Ross from Immolation had introduced us to Kim August from Ultimatum 'zine to play bass.    She flew down for the weekend without having a proper practice to learn the songs.   We played live and we were all off time with each other but didnt know any better!  The vocals were recorded later in Jere Jameson's (original NunSlaughter member) apartment.   I remember people showing up for the event and being how shy that i once was, I asked for everyone to step outside.  I tried to hide out in a bedroom but Jere kept peaking his head in and making me laugh.    I managed to get through it and we released it as is. - Sharon

 '90 The Unholy Ground Demo

 Our good friend Jeff Cherep (Doomwatch, Submachine, Plastard Bastards) introduced Terri and I to a high school friend that had a home recording studio (DAT).   That recording still has great memories, we had the most fun with that recording.  I believe that was done over a weekend and Jeff Cherep had let me borrow his head and cabinet which created the Derketa sound.   I have recently bought the same head, which is a Roland JC-120, and that is what i use now.   Terri  and I were in the "window room" together with our headphones on just kind of winging it.  When they gave us the thumbs up, we came out.  We've developed our own sense of timing, which i believe makes Derketa what it is.  We are always on time with each other but its not "proper timing".   The outro of the recording has a sound effect of a jet plane taking off.  Dont know if anyone has ever picked up on that.   The demo cover was a drawing out of Fangoria magazine.   The lettering was cut and pasted on paper from this Old English font sheet that Terri and I had.   Hence the uneven writing!   We laid it out ourselves and took it to a local copy store to have printed out.  We hand cut each demo sleeve, which again is very uneven.  We had a limited "Red" cover, and i still have copies of those.  - Sharon

'91 Premature Burial 7"

 Seraphic Decay Records contacted us in the summer of 1991 to record a 7" on their label.   We didnt have time to write new material, we were very slack back then, so we just re-recorded two demo songs.  We went back to the studio where The Unholy Ground demo was recorded.   Recording those two songs took longer than recording the 4 demo songs!   And i think the stress from that recording is what started the breakup of the original lineup.   We recorded it in a weekend and i wasnt happy with the sound of the vocals, they didnt sound as raw as the demo, but when you record over a weekend, you dont seem to make the right decisions as far as sounds.   Everything starts to sound the same.   That was also the first time that I ever attempted a lead., but it was under Jeff Chereps direction.   He would show me lead styles and I took about 20 attempts until they gave me the thumbs up that whatever I did seemed to work.   That is on the song Eternal Misery, and to this day I have no idea what i actually did.  I just stumbled over it.   Chris Moyen had given Seraphic Decay a bunch of artwork.   We had originally picked the cover that Incantation used, with was the two nuns praying.   Our second pic was the one we got, which turned out to be more fitting for Premature Burial, and is still to this day our favorite cover.   Almost forgot to mention, Heidi Franks is pictured on the 7" but did not record with us.   Vincent Crowley from Acheron had introduced us to her, we had figured she would work out in the band so we included her in the photo session for that release.   She didnt work out so her photo was on the 7" but that was her only involvement with the band. - Sharon

'99 Begotten Son 7"

 Those of you who are familiar with Derketa know that Nun Slaughter has always been a great supporter of ours.   Don was actually the original bassist but being surrounded by females, he thought it would be interesting to have all members as female and introduced us to Mary.  Back to this recording.... Don had asked me to reform Derketa but Terri and I werent on the same page at that time.   He offered his drummer, Jim "Sadist" Konya.   Nun Slaughter were originally based in Pittsburgh but are now based in Cleveland, Ohio.   I would drive 2 - 3 hours to practice with Jim.  A friend of his had a home studio so we recorded at his friends house.   Again, over a weekend due to the travel.   We recorded Begotten Son and Crypts of Darkness in the bedroom of this house.  His friend that had the studio "Beeker" played bass.  Im not sure why I didnt play bass but he learned the songs within minutes and did a great job.   Rhia from Somnus wrote the intro, which Nun Slaughter even used as a show opener for them.  Shes amazing with what she can come up with on keyboards.  Delieria Noise Outfitters originally released the Derketa/NunSlaughter split 7", then Ordealis Records later released it on Picture disc.   The picture disc photo was not picked by either of the bands.  Don had mistakenly sent a disc with various photos and Ordealis picked from those photos.  We had thought it was going to be the actual 7" cover.   The Derketa pic disc was some harbor scene with small witches flying in the sky.   We have no idea why that was picked but it is what it is. - Sharon

'01 Impaler of Trendies Tribute

 Master from Bestial Mockery had contacted me about this release.   It was a tribute to Mad Max from the Impaler of Trendies label as well as from the band Lust from France.    Max was a good email friend of mine, during the years that people didnt seem to be interested in Derketa, Max was always emailing me with sincerity towards Derketa.    Max was going through some hard times and I really tried to be a "big sister" role model in hopes that he would snap out of whatever he was going through.   Max was extremely suicidal.   Im personally against suicide.   I had hoped my friendship with him would have made an impact, and at times it seemed as if he would hear what i was saying.   Basically that he was so young and the life that he knew at that time would change for the better, if he allowed it to.   In my eyes, he went off the deep end.   He moved to Canada, was hanging out with violent people, and his personality changed drastically for the worst.   My biggest regret was getting an email from him that was totally out of character and me replying that if this was Max sending this email, to fuck off.   That was my last correspondence to him.   A week later news circulated that he had jumped off of a bridge and committed suicide.  Im not saying my email had anything to do with it, im just expressing my regret of sending that email to him and that being the last thing i said to the guy.  I wrote the song "Your Rotting Flesh" for Max, recorded it with the help of Bill Belial (Lethal Prayer).  He had a 4 track and offered his drummer "Troll" to play with me.   It was a quick recording, not the best sound given the time restraints, but it is what it is.   Interesting fact...not knowing it was exactly a year of Max's death, i had a dream about Max.   I woke up to a loud noise in the house.   A wooden letter holder that was hung in my kitchen had completely fallen off of the wall, nail and all.  It was fixated on that wall for about 10 years.   I went to my email to find an email waiting from Max's email account.  I thought at first that it was all a joke, and that he was still alive.   When i read the email, it was his mom emailing his friends wanting to know about her sons friends and the person that he was.  To this day that freaks me out. - Sharon

'02 Behold the Legions of Hell 4-way Split 7"

 Patrick from Iron Bonehead had asked if I would want to contribute to a 4-way Split with Gravewurm, Sado-Maniac, and Witchburner.  I agreed and went into the studio again with Jim from NunSlaughter.    This time his friend Beeker was working for Beechwood Studios, we were able to go in the studio once they were closed and recorded "Spirits in the Morgue" during the night.  I think we finished up about 3 or 4am.   Don's then wife Heather played  bass on this release.  I was hoping that she would join full time but it wasnt something that she wanted to do at that time.    The recording went as well as it could of being that we recorded it in the middle of the night.   This was my first time in a "real studio", which was a cool experience.   I remember needing something to hold onto when doing the vocals, I cant just stand casually to do those kind of vocals.   The only thing avaiable for me to hold was a roll of duct tape!   So during the vocal track, I held tightly onto this roll of duct tape that Heather had found for me.   My back, of course, to "the window" as at I still wasnt comfortable having people watch me doing vocals.   There were some vocals parts that we wanted to do over but I had lost my vocals.   The one lyrical line is "rise....spirits in the morgue".   When i went to redo them,  i just sang "rise", and it sounded as if i was falling off of a cliff!!   I remember Jim yelling in the room saying its "3 o'clock in the morning, quit goofing off" and i had to tell him that i wasnt joking around.   My vocals were GONE.   So the recording was as is!  That same weekend we drove up to Canada with Chris Doro (Decrepit) to see Voivod, Motorhead, and i think Razor.   We were all extremely sleep deprived so it was an interesting trip!   I had met Snake from Voivod at that show, who was a really down to earth and nice guy.   I also remember wearing my Sacrifice demo shirt to the show and seeing Rob Urbanati (singer of Sacrifice) and his wife at the show!   Rob was extremely shocked to see a Sacrifice demo shirt in the crowd.   It was a great weekend!!  - Sharon

'02 Goddess of Death compilation CD

 Roy from Necroharmonic has always been one of the few people that I completely trust in the underground.   I know for a fact he is NOT in it for the money but only to keep the underground  that we all once knew alive, and Derketa is fortunate to have his interest.   He asked to put out every recording that Derketa has ever done onto CD format.   I jumped on the opportunity to work with Roy, as I highly respect him for what he does.   He worked with Roger from Mortician to remaster the recordings as best as they could.   Given the recordings that were given to them, they didnt have much to work with, but they managed to get the release out so that more people can hear the recordings of Derketa.   Daryl from Funebrarum had designed the cover, which I absolutely love.  It is so different from the usual Death Metal covers, and really taps into my interests of ghosts and the afterlife, but in a very subtle way.  He had a cemetery photo then painted the "goddess of death" on top of the photo.   I was really flattered that all of them wanted to put the effort into the old material, most of which I wasnt completely happy with.   But they did it, and I respect them for putting their time into keeping Derketa alive.    Necroharmonic is currently working on a Vinyl version of this release.   We're adding some unseen photos for the album, so it should be interesting to those who are into Derketa. - Sharon

'11 In Death We Meet - First full-length release in the 23 years of existence

Youll just have to wait to see this sick cover!

 Those of you that are familiar with the history of the Derketa lineup know that Terri and I lost our friendship along the way, which caused the breakup back in 1991.   This full length release is extremely important to me, because it "may" be our final release.   Not saying that it will be, but we are NOT getting any younger.   I wanted to do this full length with Terri, it is only right and her and I have a great musical chemistry together.   We developed the style of Derketa together, she is the ONLY drummer that I truly want to work with.     We patched up our friendship and it took me 5 years to talk her into even considering to play drums and play in Derketa again.     So 5 years later we found her a drum set and started back at it.    Going back to 1991, Robin wanted to move to Pittsburgh to be the second guitarist and Mary had joined as the bassist.   Of course the fight of Terri and mine had ended all of us working together, and Terri and Mary went on to team up with Dana Duffey to form Mythic.    When Robin heard that Terri and I were going to do this recording, she immediately mentioned that we should do it right, play some shows with her and Mary, back to the original lineup from 1991 that never happened.   Except with Robin on bass and Mary on guitar.   And that leaves us to today, recording the "In Death We Meet" full length, which has been sitting for 10 years waiting to be recorded.  It is with total sincerity and pleasure to work with Terri, Mary and Robin and to keep this lineup strong based on the roots of Derketa.   I can PROMISE the old friends of Derketa that you will enjoy this release, as it gives me chills just listening to it myself.   We are taking our time on this release and would like to have it released around Halloween, cause what better holiday to have a CD release party?????   ;-)    We'll just play it by ear based on our schedules.  - Sharon