RIP Chris Magras

It is with great sadness I announce the passing of our Bass player Chris Magras. He was found in his home on 5/21/21. 

Chris and I met in the early 90's when he joined my band at the time Acheron. When I departed Acheron I teamed up with Bent Vengeance drummer John 'Bono' Ryan to form The Unholy. Bono thought we needed another guitar player and a bass player. I told him if we could get Magras we'd only need a bass player because Chris was a monster who frequently played in guitar range. The Unholy was privileged to have him ever since.

Chris played on our 1992 EP release Darkness Dawns, recorded by CD (Chris Davis) now with Sugarbone.

Chris would remain through all 3 The Unholy Line ups. 

Laszlo-Magras- Bono

Laszlo-Magras- Croxton

Laszlo Magras- O'Leary

Chris would go on to record on full length albums with The Unholy:

Garden of Souls 1994

As Below, So Above 1998

Ash Wednesday 1999

Magick of the Darkland 2002

Dance With Shadows  2019

We were in the process of working on new material. Sadly distance, time and health weren't our friends. He will be greatly missed. No one had a bigger heart or played a meaner Bass. He was the most creative Bass player I ever had the pleasure of playing with. Truly one of the greats. Chris was fascinated with aliens. He believed him and I got along so well because we descended from the same alien planet. Probably.

RIP friend. 

The Unholy circa 1991- 1996 original line up
Magras-Laszlo-Bono

2nd Line-up 1996-2000
Magras-Laszlo-Croxton

3rd Line-up 2000-2021
Magras-Laszlo-O'leary

Ash Wednesday re-released on Bandcamp!

 

The Unholy is proud to re-release our 1999 classic, Ash Wednesday on Bandcamp.

https://theunholy1.bandcamp.com/album/ash-wednesday

 Be sure to check out our cover of King Diamond's, Shrine.

Fun fact. Shrine, the King Diamond song we covered on Ash Wednesday was the only cover The Unholy ever did. It originally was going to be on a Root of All Evil Records, King Diamond tribute album. That never panned out so we put it on Ash Wednesday. Because I changed and lengthened the solo section King Diamond himself had to approve our cover.

Link to our cover of SHRINE.

This album is also available on CD.

As Below, So Above released on Bandcamp

 Unholy greetings,

We have re-released our 1998 Classic, As Below, So Above on Bandcamp.

https://theunholy1.bandcamp.com/album/as-below-so-above

It has been available on other online stores for sometime but we recently added to Bandcamp. The listening quality seems much better than some other formats.

We will be adding Ash Wednesday in the near future.

Currently we are writing and working on a new full length album hopefully for a Spring release.

Welcome to Hell Live!!!

20th Anniversary re-mixed, The Pact!

20th anniversary of The Pact, originally on our Ash Wednesday release. 

This is a re-mix and re-master! Available on

Bandcamp!

https://theunholy1.bandcamp.com/track/the-pact-20-year-re-mix

Acheron-Foundation of The Unholy!

ACHERON

Click here to listen on Bandcamp!

Founding members Croxton and Laszlo in 2018

Why write the history of Acheron on The Unholy’s page? Because The Unholy sprang from Acheron. Acheron was the foundation of The Unholy.

HISTORY

In 1987 Guitarist Wade Laszlo ran an ad in the Minneapolis ‘City Pages’ looking for musicians to form a band.

Drummer Tom Croxton answered the ad. Laszlo and Croxton hit it off and began writing music and adding members.

The original line-up in 1987 was Wade Laszlo-Guitar, Tom Croxton-Drums, Fred McGuinness-Bass and Andy Cummings on vocals.

There is a live recording I have from a Minneapolis club, Fernando’s, with the original line-up. Never has been released. Maybe someday.

L-R  Andy Cummings, Wade Laszlo, Pat McVey, Tom Croxton

Early on Fred McGuinness was replaced on Bass with Pat McVey. When McVey and Cummings left  the 1989 line-up heard on Prophecies Unholy formed which was:

Wade Laszlo-Guitar, Tom Croxton-Drums, Mark Beliel – Bass and Bart Smith-Vocals.

Eventually Mark Beliel moved up to second guitar and Chris Magras came on as Bass.

Some band politics ensued and Bart Smith left the band. Laszlo who had been singing back-up vocals wanted to sing lead, Most of the band was opposed.

Prophecies Unholy Line-up. L-R Wade Laszlo, Tom Croxton, Mark Beliel, Bart Smith

Shortly thereafter Laszlo left and formed The Unholy taking Magras with him. Original line-up of The Unholy was Laszlo-Guitar and Vocals. Chris Magras-Bass and John ‘Bono’ Ryan (from Bent Vengeance) on Drums. 

The Unholy continued to play the songs written in Acheron  and re-recorded most of them as The Unholy, as until now Prophecies Unholy had never been released.

Tom Croxton and Mark Beliel continued on with the Acheron name eventually recording and releasing The Pain Dominion.

Croxton did eventually re-unite with Laszlo and Magras in the Unholy and recorded As Below, So Above and Ash Wednesday. Croxton would then depart for Impaler to be replaced by Rick O’Leary on drums.

Acheron: Prophecies Unholy, was recorded at Blackberry Way Studios in Minneapolis in 1989

Line-up on album:

Wade Laszlo-Guitar

Tom Croxton-Drums

Mark Beliel – Bass

Bart Smith-Vocals.

2019 is the 30 year anniversary of the recording of Prophecies Unholy!

Cover Art

Back Cover

The Culling! from Dance With Shadows!

From The Unholy's new album, Dance With Shadows.

Available on all on-line stores!