Lost demo, requires information

Hi everyone, just wondering if anyone has any information or links to songs of a band that went by the name "Iziah" from Brisbane Australia in the late 80's early 90's.

I come across a demo cassette case of theirs but sadly with the wrong cassette inside. The demo is called "Visions" and looks unsigned and home made. I can not find anything on these guys anywhere other then a small archive listing of them online. Any help would be greatly appreciated thanks guys cheers.

Hi there and welcome to Metal Academy! I've never heard of this band, but I thought I'd ask AI and see what it had to say. See below...

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Iziah appears to have been an unsigned Brisbane heavy-metal band active from 1985 to 1990. Metal Archives lists them as originating from Brisbane, Queensland, with status split-up, genre Heavy Metal, and no label beyond unsigned/independent. It also says the band later split and re-formed with a different line-up under the name Aces Wild. The last-known line-up listed is Brett McLean on bass, Richard Cornish on drums, Rory Martin on guitars, and Bill Richardson on vocals.

Their only listed release is a 1988 independent cassette demo simply titled Demo. The track list is:

• Sagittarius — 3:12
• Elizabeth of Bathory — 4:25
• T.N.O. — 5:13
• Fade Away — 4:11
• Soul Survivor / Wish on the Wind — 9:16

Total running time is listed as 26:17. The release page itself does not list individual recording credits.

There is very little critical or historical commentary available. A 2024 Metal Academy forum post by a collector/reviewer refers to Iziah as a “Brisbane four-piece” and describes the 1988 tape as fairly basic heavy metal, with ordinary sound quality, disputing the idea that it should be classed as power/thrash. That should be treated as one listener’s opinion rather than an authoritative genre classification.

The Aces Wild connection has one small supporting trace: an archive of Brisbane Orient Hotel gigs lists Aces Wild on bills in October 1991, including with K Agents on Sunday 13 October and with Black Magic on Sunday 27 October, the latter under a “Monster Metal Night” note. That fits the post-Iziah Brisbane metal-scene timeline, though it does not independently confirm which Iziah members were involved.

I did not find a confirmed official website, Bandcamp, Discogs entry, reissue, photos, lyrics, contemporary press coverage, or verified gig dates under the Iziah name. The available footprint is basically: Brisbane heavy metal band, 1985–1990, one 1988 cassette demo, later associated with Aces Wild.

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So it caught my attention that it mentioned a previous comment on Metal Academy. That comment was unsurprisingly made by Daniel (our resident Australian metal expert). His comment can be found here: https://metal.academy/forum/9/thread/1548?page=4

Daniel, I don't suppose you have this demo? Do you even have any of your old cassettes? I'm assuming not.

Wow! We're getting seriously underground here right now. No, I don't have my cassette collection any more Ben & I didn't ever have an original copy of the Iziah demo tape in the first place. I picked up a dubbed copy through the tape trading scene. I recently returned to this demo off the back of noticing that Metal Archives had it listed as an early Australian thrash metal release. That wasn't the way I remembered it so I thought I'd confirm my suspicions (which turned out to be correct). Metal Archives have since rectified the genre-tagging on Iziah's band page. I have a digital copy of the demo tape on my laptop so if anyone wants it they can shoot me a private message with their email address & I can Dropbox it to them. I wouldn't get too excited though as it's not the most accomplished of releases in my opinion.

Hi Ben & Daniel, thank you for the reply and Information that's great! There is so little out there on the band and it now has me intrigued.

Daniel, It would be awesome if I could get copies of them files over Dropbox when ever you have the time, that would be very much appreciated and I'd be in your debt!. It will make my Iziah tape somewhat complete as I'll try and clean the files up with software and copy to a cassette for my personal collection. I will private message you in regards to my email, cheers and thanks again guys.