The months leading up to the tour which started at the end of June were spent finalizing more shows, proofing album artwork, mixing & mastering, etc, so the album could come out in August while the band was on the road. The tour was booked completely D.I.Y., the band didn’t have a booking agent. Everything back then was done by phone, snail mail and the occasional fax. Les booked a majority of the tour and the Texas dates were taken care of by Cryptic Slaughter's new label mates from Corpus Christi,TX band Angkor Wat. At the time Angkor Wat just got signed to Death Records and were a relatively unknown band outside of Texas. Later on some A.W. members would go on to play in Skrew, Nine Inch Nails, Pail, The Sabbath Assembly and Ministry to name a few. If you can find their two albums “When Obscenity Becomes The Norm....” (The more thrashy of the two) and “Corpus Christi” (the transition into Skrew and a more industrial sound) you will not be disappointed.
The tour involved the initial cities/states Las Vegas, Salt Lake City, Oklahoma, Corpus Christi, San Antonio, Austin, Houston, Memphis, Detroit and then up into Canada and back through the East Coast and so on..... At this point everything was setup and we were ready to go. A week or two prior to leaving we had a little hitting the road party with some friends, Hirax singer Katon DePena (who was a big component to C.S. getting signed) and visiting from Toronto Canada, underground metal aficionado Dave Busch. All I remember is a ton of laughs and even more beer! The following days after the party the band rented a cargo van and a small u-haul trailer for the tour. Bill’s dad, Ray who was managing the band at the time, unhooked the odometer so the band could save money because the band was getting charged by the mile on the van. But by unhooking the odometer, we forfeited the speedometer and we would end up leaking oil in the process, which we didn't know at the time but would add a level of frustration to the tour. On a side note, the day before we left we thought it would be a good idea to test out the van and drive it to Magic Mountain (Amusement Park), completely hungover. Obviously we weren't thinking too straight, hahaha but from what I remember, we had a blast! The next day we all shook off any hangover we may have had and met at Scott's parents house (the band practiced in their garage, which was directly behind the Santa Monica airport) in the morning to pack the trailer and do our best to comfortize the back of the van with sleeping bags, pillows and blankets. After everyone got situated, we were off. Excitement was running high, to say the least. Shit!.....who wouldn't be excited!? You’re hitting the road across the country and Canada with your best friends (that your still friends with 20+ yrs later), watching a bunch of killer shows, meeting some new amazing people, no parents, school etc. An adventure, to say the least! Keep in mind that I was 17, Rob,Scott and Bill were 18 & Les was 20. Let the insanity begin.
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