Jesters of Destiny

Jesters of Destiny is an American heavy metal band from Los Angeles, California, which was formed in 1984 by Bruce Duff and Ray Violet who had worked with The Dickies, Mentors, God Lives Underwater, Rozz Williams, Smokey Robinson, Bloods and Crips, EXP, and lots of down and out strippers. Evolving from a recording project spearheaded by Violet, who was working as senior engineer for Dawnbreaker studio in San Fernando, CA, the band recorded what would be the first two Jesters songs during the project, which was instigated in order to come up with commercial jingles. The songs were "Diggin' That Grave" and "End of Time." The band presented the songs to Metal Blade Records, who included "End of Time" on Metal Massacre V collection. It closed the LP, which include early tracks by Overkill, Fates Warning, Voivod and Metal Church. The band then signed to Metal Blade, but due to the band not being strictly heavy metal, the label created a subsidiary, Dimension Records, which released the band's debut album, Fun at the Funeral, in 1986, and an EP, In a Nostalgic Mood, in 1987, during their first tenure. Following ",,,Mood," Metal Blade dropped the band. They demo-ed a number of songs for a planned third LP to be titled, No Laughing Matter, but were unable to land a new recording contract. They broke up in 1988. During their run, a number of lead guitarists and drummers were part of the band, including on drums, David Buzzelli, Louie Schilling, Wailin' Jennings Morgan (ex-London), Dave Kuzma, Blaze; and on guitar, Sickie Wifebeater, Michael Montano and Brian Butler.