Nasty Savage

by Eduardo Rivadavia
Tampa, FL's Nasty Savage was a member of the first generation of American thrash metal bands, deserving credit alongside the likes of Metallica, Anthrax, and Slayer for helping the genre gain its first footholds in the underground scene, but never really threatening to follow them into fame and fortune. The band was formed in 1983 by natural-born exhibitionist and pro-wrestling enthusiast "Nasty" Ronnie Galetti, who guided Nasty Savage through a pair of demos (1984's Wage of Mayhem and Raw Mayhem -- both hot commodities on the worldwide tape-trading circles, in their day) and three and a half melodic thrash albums (1985's Nasty Savage, 1987's Indulgence, 1988's Abstract Reality EP, and 1989's Penetration Point) before their demise at the close of the decade. Through it all, the core lineup of Galetti on vocals, Ben Meyer and David Austin on guitars, and Curtis Beeson on drums remained surprisingly stable, but the bassist position seemed to have some kind of curse on it. First album bass player Fred Dreschigan was forced to quit after sustaining a hand injury; his successor for album number two, Dezso Istvan Bartha, had to choose between the band and a large inheritance, and understandably picked the latter; and EP bassist Chris Moorhouse would later die in 1991 car accident! Richard Bateman, who performed on Nasty Savage's final album in 1989, presumably had the bad luck of, well, performing on Nasty Savage's final album. At least until ten years later, when all five members of that last formation reunited for a German festival appearance that led to the recording of a new Nasty Savage album in 2004, entitled Psycho Psycho.