Defiance

Not to be confused with the Oi! outfit from Portland that shares the name, this particular Defiance played only a marginal role in the late-'80s San Francisco Bay Area thrash metal community. The group had actually formed back in 1985, yet it required a full four years before vocalist Ken Elkinton, guitarists Doug Harrington and Jim Adams, bassist Mike Kaufmann, and drummer Matt Vander Ende coalesced enough for Roadrunner Records to release their first album, Product of Society. Far from groundbreaking, the record echoed the approach of regional standouts such as Exodus, Testament, and Death Angel, albeit with far less distinctive results. By the time of the 1990 follow-up Void Terra Firma, Elkinton had been deemed the source of the band's shortcomings and was supplanted by Steve Esquivel. The third and final release, Beyond Recognition, arrived in 1992 and proved equally undistinguished, bringing the group's lackluster career to a close; Esquivel, however, later achieved wider recognition as a member of the neo-thrash outfit Skinlab.