Kam Lee

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Kam Lee (born Barney Kam Lee) is an American singer. He is best known for his vocal contributions to an early incarnation of Death (called Mantas) in 1983 -84, and later joined Massacre in 1985, founded and formed by Bill Andrews (Death). He is said to be one of the creators of the vocal style called the death grunt or death growl, taking influence from the then Celtic Frost vocalist Thomas Gabriel Fischer (a.k.a. Tom G Warrior). Massacre recorded 2 demo tapes that were heavily distributed using the tape trading system but did not lead to a record deal. The band dissolved when members Rick Rozz, Bill Andrews and Terry Butler left to join a later inception of Chuck Schuldiner's Death; however, the subsequent citing of Massacre as influences by bands such as Napalm Death signified a great interest in the defunct act within the death metal community. This lead to a reformation and the recording of the album From Beyond on Earache Records, made up mainly of reworking of the songs featured on the original 1985 & 1986 demo tapes.

Lyrically, Lee drew heavily from the stories of American author H.P. Lovecraft, and the album's cover art featured a painting by artist Ed Repka representing creatures from Lovecraft's imagination. Upon its release, many critics described the band as simply apeing many of the later bands they had originally influenced, especially in comparing the vocal style of Lee to that of Napalm Death vocalist 'Barney' Mark Greenway. Lee also played drums in both Mantas and Death as well as vocals. In 2006 he started a band with Terry Butler (Death/Massacre/Six Feet Under]]) called Denial Fiend. He has also been a member of many other short-lived bands.