“Roxx Records is once again excited to work on bringing another long-lost classic Christian metal album to the spotlight and this is one we have wanted to do for years. Without further ado, we are stoked to be bringing you classic Christian thrash band MARTYR with a killer new compilation entitled Once Upon A Tale. What we have here is a culmination of all the band’s history through the years, including 2 brand new previously unreleased tracks. Martyr stormed onto the Christian thrash/punk crossover scene in the mid-80s, hailing from Van Nuys, California, with their debut 4-song demo entitled Fall On Your Face, recorded in April 1986, and the 9-track demo tape Death Is Dead released in 1987. Martyr would start playing shows and gaining notoriety playing with many similar bands. With the underground success of Death Is Dead, the band would continue on and bring their next cassette-only 4-track demoin 1988 entitled Imminent Warfare and followed that right up the next year with the 4-track demo Frantic. But, alas, with the competitive Christian metal market and life getting in the way, the band would not continue on much further than those 3 independently released demos. There would be a few attempts to revive the band throughout the years and in 1993 that led to the compilation album Wickenstraut which was available on CD only. Wickenstraut boasted a total of 18 tracks compiled from those 3 demos along with a few new tracks added to the mix. After that, we wouldn’t hear much from the band again until 2001 when the band would put out an extremely limited edition CD in partnership with Betrayal entitled The Passing Of Time, which featured 10 tracks starting with 7 tracks from Martyr, which were a combination of tracks from Frantic and Imminent Warfare, along with 3 previously unreleased tracks and 3 tracks from Betrayal. A very important side note is that Betrayal was born out of the remnants of Martyr and continued on in the Christian thrash music scene for years to come. Once Upon A Tale boasts a total of 10 tracks, featuring tracks from every release the band made and ending with two previously unreleased tracks.” –Roxx Records

TRACK LISTING:
Imminent Warfare
Frantic
War Circus
Impiously Deranged
Fallen Deceived
Plead The Blood
Escaping The Altar
When Darkness Reigns
American Holocaust
Truth