Emerald

There are at least four bands with this name: 1. A metalcore band from Estonia, founded late 2008. Released first EP "How About Discount?" in March 2010. Baskin - vocals Ott J?giaas - bass/vocals Levo J?giaas - guitars/vocals Rauno Vaher - drums Kaido Kadaja - guitars www.myspace.com/emeraldest 2. Heavy metal from California. EMERALD was founded during 1978 by the teenage guitar player Dave Enos and lead vocalist Larry Phillips.

1.
A metalcore band from Estonia, founded late 2008. Released first EP "How About Discount?" in March 2010.

Baskin - vocals
Ott J?giaas - bass/vocals
Levo J?giaas - guitars/vocals
Rauno Vaher - drums
Kaido Kadaja - guitars

www.myspace.com/emeraldest

2.
Heavy metal from California. EMERALD was founded during 1978 by the teenage guitar player Dave Enos and lead vocalist Larry Phillips. The 'Armed For Battle' recording sessions would see bass player Roger Dale Martin in the studio for six songs until he left, relocating to Los Angeles to join the now infamous Vengeance Rising. The band then enlisted Joe Palma to complete bass parts. (Roger Dale later went on to join Die Happy and Once Dead.)

The album emerged in early 1987, nearly a full year after commencement of recording, but EMERALD called it a day in November 1988. Drummer Kyle Morrett would join SACRED FAITH whilst Enos created LAST DAZE.

Last known line-up
Larry Philips - vocals
Dave Enos - guitars, keyboards, vocals
Joe Palma - bass
Kyle Morrett - drums, keyboards

3.
One of the crown jewels of the Holland Heavy Metal scene!
We have to go back to the mid 70s to find the origin of Emerald. At this time the 2 school friends Bert Kivits and Allard Ekkel decided to start a band and call it Warrior. Of course there were later a number of bands called Warrior, only in Holland alone there were a few of them. So at the end of '83 the name is changed into Emerald, inspired by a song from Thin Lizzy. It takes until '84 when the band records a 4 track demo. The songs shows the guys are very much into Picture and Ozzy Osbourne. What everyone directly hears is the extremely high pitched voice from singer Bert Kivits. It's a love or hate thing and nothing in the middle. A mix between Geddy Lee and Pat Benatar (really!). But besides Bert's voice also the Randy Rhoads style playing from Allard Ekkel is quite remarkable and gives Emerald their own unique sound. No wonder the band gets good reviews. Megaton boss Bram Kloos gets interested and so it happens that on the 24th of January 1985 the band signs a deal with Megaton (Thank you Bram!!). When later that year the album is released, Emerald got a huge live reputation in their region and is called ?The best Heavy Metal band from the East' (of Holland that is).
Although the LP, called Down Town, does not have the best production and artwork, the LP still gets a lot of good reviews. It contains the 4 songs from the demo plus some new songs. Soon after that Megaton gets bankrupt and the band is back on the street again. In the meantime they replaced drummer Gert Slot for Rudy Marissen who played in Revenge before. With him they write new songs, but no new demo is released. In '86 they do a gig in Enschede which is recorded by Radio East. That recording is the only recording where the songs, written after Down Town, can be heard. And it proves the band only got better after the album. Songs like ?Robin Hood', ?Wet Dreams', ?Karen' and ?Back to the Future' are killers, everyone single one of them!
But the band didn't got a new deal and at the end of the 80s the band splits up.
It takes till 1998 when the guys from the German That's Metal magazine (and yours truly) do an interview with the band. It puts the band back in the spotlight. One year later ?D-Day' from the Down Town LP appears on the 1st HM Maniacs compilation CD. From Germany Iron Glory Records shows interest to put out a CD release of the LP. They change the artwork into something ?more metal' and they change the title into ?Iron on Iron'. In '99 the CD gets released and gets very good reviews in several magazines. The band is honoured by all the attention and decides to answer all the begging to do a reunion gig.
So it happens that in 2002 Emerald appears on the HM Maniacs festival playing all their classics. The news reaches Germany and some time later Emerald hit the German stage for the 1st time in their history followed by a number of gigs in Germany. Most memorable gig is the gig in 2005 at the Keep It True festival when a hall with 500 people gets totally nuts and sings every song word by word. A proof that the Cd sold very good. Around this time the band added Paul van Rijswijk (ex-HAMMERHAWK) as 2nd guitarist plus a new bass player. Nowadays plans are made for recording those old songs written after ?Down Town'.
MEMBERS:

Bert Kivits ? Vocals
Allard Ekkel ? Guitars
Paul van Rijswijk ? Guitars (other bands: Hammerhawk, Afterdark)
Essie Zagers ? Bass
Gert Slot ? Drums
Rudy Marissen - Drums (other band: Revenge)

DISCOGRAPHY:

1984 Demo (DEMO)
1985 Down Town (LP Megaton)
1999 Heavy Metal Maniacs pt. 1 (CD Compilation - Track: D-day)
1999 Iron on Iron (CD release of Down Town)

4.
A folk/punk band from Szczecin, Poland, founded in 1991.

http://rateyourmusic.com/artist/emerald_f1