VULTURE was the brainchild of CROWBAR mastermind Kirk Windstein and TUNGSTEN front man Al Hodge. After many drunken “Metal Nights” at Kirk Windstein’s apartment on N. Hullen in Metairie, LA. (The object of “Metal Night” was to bring several vinyl albums that featured songs with “metal” in the title from bands like PILEDRIVER, METAL CHURCH, ICON and wear an extra old metal shirt from MANOWAR, JUDAS PRIEST and IRON MAIDEN). These parties were held regularly and various members from the NOLA Underground scene would join in on the drinking and BBQ like Kyle Thomas from EXHORDER, Todd Strange and Kevin Noonan from CROWBAR and Doobie from GRAVEYARD RODEO. “We’d get together at Kirk’s pad and get loaded and jammed to these songs or bootlegs of KISS from the 70’s that Kirk had. All of those songs were anthems that celebrated Metal in all of its glory. So Kirk and I tossed around the idea of writing our own tunes and calling the band VULTURE”, stated Al Hodge. They wrote 4 songs and enlisted TUNGSTEN drummer/engineer Mark Talamo’s services to play drums and record the songs. Although there were only three of them, they developed 4 alter egos to supply the band with a line up.

Thunder Throat: Vocals
Quickie Sticks: Drums
JJ Hawk: Guitar
Lonnie Low-End: Bass

The band tuned their instruments up (at the time all of the NOLA bands tuned their guitars to C or even to A in some cases). The drum tracks were laid down and the guitars and bass were eventually recorded as well. The only song to get finalized was “Shield Of The Warrior”. A tape of that song was circulated in 1996 through the underground, but due to different work/band schedules, the recordings were never finished. Unfortunately the master tapes were in the vaults of H/T studios in Chalmette, Louisiana and were lost forever after the massive floods destroyed the gulf coast from the wrath of Hurricane Katrina in August of 2005.

(An incidental note: the members of VULTURE were thanked on the debut CROWBAR album, “Obedience Thru Suffering” that was released in late 1991 through Grind Core Records)