Bay Area thrashers Epidemic were consistently at the right place at the wrong time. The Death moniker had to be changed to avoid confusion with the Florida/Bay Area band of the same name. Managed by Marco Barbieri's Barbwire Productions and of the No Glam Fags fanzine (later Metal Blade and Century Media), the band was initially formed in 1987 by the two guitarists and bassist for a high school talent show. With a drummer called Geoff Bruce joining that summer all the combo needed was a singer. Enter Carl Fulli that September. The band wins a Battle Of The Bands and as a result receives the opportunity to open for Death Angel. December of 1987 brings the Immortal Minority demo. The band mails out 200 copies and replaces Bruce with Bob Cochran. Following a series of shows - one with D.R.I. - the band records Demo '89. The tape sells over 2,000 copies and becomes of the top 10 demos of the year in the only place that matters: the Metal Forces' demo charts. The band's Demo '89 is a success thanks to intense promotion and a vibrant underground community. England's Metal Core label presses the demo on vinyl - supposedly limited to 5,000 copies and calling it The truth Of What Will Be - and the reviews are very positive. Metal Core doesn't bother to pay the band any royalties. In January of 1991 the gang hordes into Telluride Studio and records Extremities '91. Again the response is good and the band promotes itself heavily in the underground. Barbieri is now working at Metal Blade and the song Circle Of Fools is slated to open Metal Massacre XI. The band's appearance on the sampler - though unexpectedly not as openers - further promotes the band. Barbieri brings the band to the attention of Metal Blade's Slagel and he offers the thrashers a contract. The band enters the studio in the winter and records a debut which it expects to see out in the spring. While the album appears early July, the band has utilized the time and procured a satisfactory cover art and opened the Bay Area leg of the Entombed/Dead Horse tour. This, the day after Exhorder were ordered off the tour for indecent behaviour. With Decameron out - do you sense a theme here? - the band manages to get on the Malevolent Creation and Suffocation tour. The band's brand of thrash metal is not a good fit here. Following the tour the band asks guitarist Higbey to leave the fold citing a lack of musicianship. With the new line up the band submits a pre-production tape (recorded with a drum machine) to Metal Blade. A teaser 7" called Lament precedes the sophomore album. The band's second full length is called Exit Paradise. Failing to make any headway, the band calls it a day with several members scattering onto other projects.