Like a brilliant flash the impact of DBFX was instant though sadly short lived. It was a brief career that saw the rise of legendary guitarist Adam Hunt, who with his power play was able to carry the band to frontline prominence on the battlefield of early metal stardom.
Legend has it that Hunt and lead singer Torden Masters met one another while caught up in an all out brawl at a Corpse’s Head concert, the pair fled and soon became good friends. The seeds for DBFX were slowly being sewed, it was not until the union with twins Derek and George Jards that the band was completely formed. The twins had just completed a business degree and found themselves lost, each possessing musical talents that would contribute to the bands ultimate success.
By the end of 1978, DBFX had become a local hit, featuring on radio and playing back up to such bands as ‘Tribal Blood’ and ‘Hurtistic’ it was soon however that DBFX would come into its own. Freedom Records owner Galvin Thompson heard a live performance at the band and within a week offered them an album deal, on the condition that the band had it ready within a month !
Locking themselves in a garage on the Twin brothers farm, the band labored day and night, finally producing their first and in many ways most influential album, ‘Power Wastage’, with twelve original songs the band managed to soar to number five on the charts upon the album’s release with the song ‘Night Whisper’ becoming one of hottest hits of the summer. It was in late 1979 that another album was released, this time featuring eight original songs and two covers. This album, though not as successful as the first showed the band could be consistent and creative. With a solid body of work, the group went on tour.
It seemed the world was wide open for DBFX as the new decade broke in, but the 1980s would not offer the promise and potential for the band that many had initially hoped. It was not until Christmas of 1980 that the band had it’s third album, ‘Miserable Glitch’, it seemed the namesake lived up to the album’s lack of success. The LP was a terrible failure, considered by many as being mundane and bland. One critic said “…it sounded like a mix of Judas Priest and Gordon Lightfoot, managing to find the worse of each and blending it.” Harsh words that carried weight, the band became reclusive and seemed to slide into a self destructive cycle.
News of the bands excessive run ins with the law and mis haps began to spread, Adam Hunt was found guilty of assault and battery as well as numerous drunk and disorderly charges, being forced into rehab clinics for the most of 1982, while Torden Masters vanished from the public scene, experimenting with spiritualism in northern Asia.
In 1983 The band soon re formed and went on tour, it seemed all was back to back to normal, talks of a movie sound track deal as well as several more albums to compliment the tour were being discussed and circulated throughout the industry. Though tragically while at the tale end of a European tour, Torden Masters tragically over dosed in a London motel room, dying at the scene.
The death of front man Masters was the death blow to the band. The Twin brothers left the music scene all together and opened up a successful ski resort in Canada. While Adam Hunt became a roaming Samurai of the rock scene, his abilities with the string stick became legendary and well requested. He toured with such bands as Dio, Dokken and Marginal Pain, but it was with Enuf Z’ Nuf that he found a home for some time. During the 1990s Hunt faded into obscurity, only to re-emerge with the alternative Funk group ‘Frozen Habbit’.
Like so many things great, the Digital Blade FX was one that lasted for a short time, though their music will last forever.
RIP Torden Masters, 1956-1983
FX
Albums
Power Wastage – 1978
Heroic Embers – 1979
Miserable Glitch – 1980
Best of Digital Blade FX – 1986
Greatest Hits of DBFX – 1990
