DAMIEN STEELE built a following from the ground up, renting halls, putting on concerts, and hammering out red hot, molten metal tunes, playing music that was called "the bridge between Queensryche and Fates Warning." Lead guitarist Steve Matusik and bassist/vocalist Paul Staub co-founded the band around 1982, and many musicians came and went over the years. The core line-up with Steve, Paul, drummer Ben Tomlin, vocalist Mark Hopkins, guitarist Mike Learn is the one that most people remember, the one that packed regional rock clubs in the late eighties. Despite continued interest from hometown fans in Erie, Pennsylvania, the band nearly drifted into obscurity. In 2005 Pennsylvania based label PMM would release a CD compilation including the band's original 1991 five-song demo tape, plus four unreleased tracks that would induce one of the best U.S power metal bands of their time to a broader audience when at the time the climate for heavy metal was at an all-time low. The guitars work of Learn and Matusik delivers catchy riffs, beautifully synchronized duel harmonies and searing solos. Meanwhile, the rhythm section bassist Staub and drummer Tomlin create a solid and precise foundation for the band's unique progressive power metal stylings. All this complemented by the ear-splitting falsettos, and vibrato filled mid-range vocals of Hopkins. The band would originally form in the early 1980s and make it into the coming decade. But as with many other bands in the early 1990s, DAMIEN STEELE would call it quits and all go onto other endeavours.
