Death Mask were formed in 1985 by a pair of Baltimore, MD metalheads, bassist David "Hoss" Sherman and guitarist Tom Marchiano, who subsequently drafted drummer Ed Gerritson and, finding no suitable vocalist, settled into a power trio formation with Hoss also handling the microphone. The group's sludgy brand of metallic mayhem fit no easy categorization, however, as they dabbled in everything from the New Wave of British Heavy Metal to thrash and doom, while Hoss' fearsome and unmusical growls simply had no precedent aside from Lemmy Kilmister, and certainly no commercial potential. So it came to pass that Death Mask spent the next 20 years toiling in seclusion, playing only very rare gigs and recording a few sessions when money and circumstances allowed, never coming close to attracting any record company interest. They finally broke up in 2005 without an official album to their name, but what studio and live material could be found was eventually compiled for release four years later by Shadow Kingdom Records under the title of Exhumation. ~ Eduardo Rivadavia