Leatherwolf

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ounded by high school buddies Michael Olivieri (vocals/guitar), Geoff Gayer (guitar), Carey Howe (guitar), Matt Hurich (bass) and Dean Roberts (drums), Leatherwolf debuted in 1985 with the 5 track EP Endangered Species. This set was enough to attract UK label 'Island' who released all of their following albums. It was also only a short time after when Paul Carman replaced Matt Hurich.

Confusingly, this act had two self-titled albums at the start of their career, both completely different, the first being Leatherwolf (1984). It wasn't until the self-titled Leatherwolf (1987) by producer Kevin Beamish (R.E.O. Speedwagon) that they appeared as a blip on music radar. This album had a very commercial approach, even featuring an adequate cover of (C.C.R.) Creedence Clearwater Revival's Bad Moon Rising. The album made US top 100 but it wasn't enough to beat the pop pack. But it was the commercial failure of their 1989 Street Ready release that would finalize their fate. It featured a harder, yet still accessible sound and made a clear serious attempt at targeting the pop/heavy metal crossover market. It showed an effort at generating their own identifiable sound and featured an impressive second track Thunder. It also was the debut for Paul Carman (bass). Unfortunately it failed to achieve significant ratings and they broke up almost immediately after. An attempted reformation in the late 1990s has thus far failed to produce popular results with only the release of their first live effort Wide Open (1999) resulting under the Street Ready line-up, except Chris Adams on vocals.