Fear And Bullets is a soundtrack album created by John Bergin (Trust Obey) and James O'Barr to accompany The Crow comic book.

The album was a component of a special limited edition of The Crow graphic novel published by Kitchen Sink Press and Graphitti Designs in 1994. The album was also released as a stand-alone item in 1998.

This Bandcamp Exclusive is a collection of the very first “4-track demo” recordings Fear And Bullets, created between 1990-1991.

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“These recordings were made with very limited resources, well before the days of free digital multi-track workstations that fit in your pocket. In the early 90s, our recording options were either renting expensive studio time or using fairly rudimentary home recording equipment.

I used a Tascam Porta 05 4-track recorder, a $50 Global LP70 guitar, a no-name bass created from parts of different instruments, a Casio SK-1, and a handful of effects pedals. I didn't have a drum machine at the time, so I used two Digitech Delay pedals to capture and loop beats from songs that had clear, isolated drums. The delay pedals looped a maximum of 2 seconds, which kept the drum patterns short and repetitive. Beats were sampled from Schooly D’s “Am I Black Enough For you?”, Controlled Bleeding’s “Trudge”, and Led Zeppelin’s “When The Levee Breaks”

At the time, James and I didn't consider this Fear And Bullets to be a "demo.” It was the final product; a zero-budget soundtrack for a black-and-white indy comic book no one had heard of, recorded in a basement and published from the back-office of a comic book store in Detroit, Michigan.

James and I duped 100 cassettes and gave them away at comic book conventions in late 1991. That same year we took The Crow comic to a new publisher, Tundra/Kitchen Sink, where we saw an opportunity to revisit the soundtrack and create a more polished album to be packaged with The Crow collected graphic novel.

In 1992 I brought in Brett Smith (guitar) and Patrick Hopewell (bass) and began to rework the songs for studio sessions that would eventually comprise the “Fear And Bullets” album. I also (finally) got a drum machine: A Roland TR-505, followed by an Alesis SR-16.

Graphitti Designs partnered with Tundra to produce a deluxe hardcover limited edition of The Crow graphic novel, packaged with the Trust Obey soundtrack on CD. This was released just as the The Crow film hit theaters in 1994.

Most of the compositions from these 4-track sessions made it onto the studio version of the album. A couple did not. You’ll hear that "The Blessing Of The Pig" was originally a cover of Robyn Hitchcock's "Raymond Chandler Evening" (the lyrics of which are featured in The Crow graphic novel). The only actual recording from this demo to make it onto the final album is the first minute or so of “The Crow,” which features a Casio SK-1 played through a long chain of effects pedals. An interesting coincidence: the rhythmic breathing sounds in the later parts of this song were inspired by Graham Revell's score for Dead Calm (1990). A few years after I made this recording, Graham would be hired to score The Crow film.

This Bandcamp Exclusive release is presented as-heard on cassette in 1991, complete with tape hiss and distortion.

The bonus track “Halo of Wire” features vocals by James O’Barr. This was recorded in late 1991. Before heading into the studio to record Fear And Bullets, James and I wrote a second set of Crow comic book soundtrack songs called Sanctity Now. We had planned to release this set as a follow-up to Fear And Bullets, but the project fell by the wayside. “Halo of Wire” is one of the few Sanctity Now songs we tracked vocals for. You can hear the rest of the Sanctity Now demo cassette here: johnbergin.bandcamp.com/album/sanctity-now-1991-demo .”

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John Bergin, 2018