Once Upon A Tale

Released March 28, 2025, Martyr's Once Upon a Tale is newly remastered by Rob Colwell of Bombworks Sound and features a new layout and design by Scott Waters of NoLifeTilMetal Graphics. These tracks were all sourced from the original demo tapes or CD pressings as the master tapes do not exist, but Rob made them sound great! Coming your way on a limited-edition vinyl pressing of only 200 copies on a beautiful gold/black swirl vinyl with a beautiful 4-page insert. Also, on a limited-edition CD version of 500 pieces only with a 12-page booklet. Both the insert and booklet include full lyrics and a brand new write up from Chris Ackerman (Betrayal/Martyr).
Without further ado, we are stoked to be bringing you classic Christian thrash band MARTYR back to the mainstream with a killer new compilation entitled Once Upon a Tale.
What we have here is a culmination of all the band's history through the years, including 2 brand new previously unreleased tracks. Martyr stormed on to the Christian thrash/punk crossover scene in the mid-80s, hailing from Van Nuys, California, with their debut 4-song demo entitled Fall on Your Face, recorded in April 1986 and the 9-track demo tape Death Is Dead released in 1987. Martyr would start playing shows and gaining notable notoriety playing with many similar bands including a very high profile show in Porterville, California playing with The Crucified.
With the underground success of Death Is Dead, the band would continue on and bring their next cassette only 4-track demo tape entitled Imminent Warfare in 1988 and followed that right up the next year in 1989 with the 4-track demo Frantic.
But alas, with the competitive Christian metal market and life getting in the way, the band would not continue on much further than those 3 independently released demos. There would be a few attempts to revive the band throughout the years, and ultimately in 1993 that led to the compilation album Wickenstraut available on CD only. Wickenstraut boasted a total of 18 tracks compiled from those 3 demos along with a few new tracks added to the mix.
After that, we wouldn't hear much from the band again until 2001 when the band would put out an extremely limited-edition CD in partnership with Betrayal entitled The Passing of Time, which featured 10 tracks starting with 7 tracks from Martyr, which were a combination of tracks from Frantic and Imminent Warfare, along with 3 previously unreleased tracks and 3 tracks from Betrayal. A very important side note is that Betrayal was born out of the remnants of Martyr and continued on in the Christian thrash music scene for years to come post Martyr.
That all leads us to today and my personal excitement for this one, having seen them live only once, I (Bill) personally fell in love with the music of Martyr and was constantly pestering the band to work with us. Low and behold Ladislao, with a little help from Chris Ackerman, finally agreed to work with us on this one (or maybe he got tired of me pestering him and Chris). Coming this March via Roxx Records for the first time ever on vinyl and remastered on CD, we proudly present you with Once Upon a Tale.
Once Upon a Tale boasts a total of 10 tracks, featuring tracks from every release the band made and ending with two previously unreleased tracks. One note of trivia: The song "War Circus" first debuted on a demo in March of 1991.

Lineup

Ladislao Prado - Vocals/Bass
Tyger Falmo - Vocals
Michael "Bones" Van Asch - Guitars/Backing Vocal
Marcus N. Colon - Guitars/Backing Vocal
Noah Vollmer - Guitars
Eric Clausen - Guitars
David L. Prado Jr. - Bass
John Waldron - Drums/Backing Vocals
Todd Norris - Drums
Jeff Edwards - Drums

Guests

Josh Kramer (Saint) - Background Vocals
Chris Ackermann - Background Vocals
Jimmy P. Brown II (Deliverance) - Guitars