101 Harding St. is just like the rest of the 3 family houses that populate the former summer friendly town of Long Beach, New York. However, during the winter of 1985 through to early 1986, no one could imagine the history in the making as calls were made to the police to report noise complaints. Most of the time, the "noise" was being made by a group of Berkley music school teenagers naming their group "Majesty." One would wonder if people would have been listening instead of complaining if they knew this group of teens would emerge into the "Dream Theater" known worldwide today. There was also another kind of "noise" blasting from third floor of this corner. Teenage skinsman Mike Portnoy was in the midst of recording over 30 tracks with neighborhood guitar hero S.A. Adams. The two had been commissioned by Kick Ass Monthly editor & aspiring vocalist/lyricist Bob Muldowney (the "maniac fan" who brought Metallica's demo tape to Megaforce's John Zazula) to record a 10 song album demo the previous summer. Combat Records was so impressed with the demo that they were sending off what would have been their first record deal. In anticipation of receiving the deal, Adams had the idea to record three more album's worth of material so this project could go on tour for at least two years without the worry of having to write & record new music. But it wasn't meant to be. Two days after Portnoy & Adams final recording session, the Combat contract arrived, and in Adams' words "It was nothing short of slavery. Now if we were guaranteed 2 million dollars per album, there could definitely be room for compromise and soul selling." But for the $5000 per album they were offering, "no deal was definitely better than a bad deal". It left the band's demo album, "DeSade was a Feminist" to become legend of the mid-80's underground, and help decide for Mike Portnoy to fully commit himself to "the two Johns he connected with at Berkley." And while the music Portnoy made with this "to become Dream Theater" became longer & more intricate, Adams continued the streamlined British Punk influenced metal that marked these early recordings. Almost immediately after the Portnoy sessions, he began work on another self-financed album with Peter Kronin, vocalist of a local act, simply called Kronin. (In turn, Adams produced the Kronin debut demo tape) Adam's 9 song demo started getting played in a few of the local bars. That in turn started getting gig offers, which was amazing since there was no band to speak of at the time. But once he was offered a slot opening for Manowar at the legendary "Sundance" club, he quickly assembled a "team to kill". Consisting of Ramone's influenced drummer Marc Del and John Allman-future bassist for death/doom metallers Winter-this new band, christened The Fury, would tear up the area from 1989 until 1993. They would go on to support bands like Metal Church, Overkill, Blitzspeer, Non-Fiction, and even support Manowar a second time. They would release the 7" EP "A Dozen Thorns" and right after releasing a full length album called "Sex", the third and final incarnation of the band would call it a day after a minor nervous breakdown was had by drummer Rocky Quitoriano. However, his label was not going to allow Adams to walk away from his obligations. Deciding to pick up their option, a compromise was made to let Adams release a solo album to complete The Fury's 1992 agreement. "It would be a lie to the audience to release an album under a band name when there wasn't a band to speak of. They were begrudgingly cool with that, though they all felt they'd be stuck with a room full of CD's." But something strange happened: This solo album, "Exiled on Green St." did even better than The Fury's "Sex" album. So well that European label's started putting out feelers to Adams to pick up his next album. "I went with Rock The Nations as they were advertising in every European rock mag, and they SEEMED to have it together. They were very fast in contract response, and got our financing for the next album to us almost overnight." Produced by Adams and Bob Shuster, a technician at Avatar Studios & Sony Mastering Labs, 1994's "Redemption" was lauded with positive reviews. What was supposed to be the band's live schedule starter gig was a sold-out mini-festival with metal legends Raven & Anvil. Additional financing was sent over for a promotional video- under Adams' direction, two videos were produced. There was even serious talk of a European tour with Saxon, but then things quickly went southward with the RTN label. "As I started doing interviews with all these major color glossy magazines like Heavy Oder was, Rock Hard, and Metal Hammer, people started asking questions about the label, and the business of the label. EVERYONE was telling me they were owed money from RTN, and how hard it was to get a hold of them. And almost right after this press run, we started having problems getting a hold of them ourselves." "Our financial statements stopped coming, our "tour" was now being done by a band called "Shockbox", and magazines that still were supporting our cause starting calling and asking me if RTN was going out of business. From pressing estimates and numbers that we could gather, RTN owed us at least $32,000 if not over $60,000 as there seems to be this continuing influx of newly pressed versions of the "Redemption" album." Rock the Nation would not only stiff every band on their label money due them, but leave over $250,000 of advertising dollars indebted to all the major magazines of Europe. Adams would reunite with Bob Shuster for the DIY album "Signs Of A Time" in late 1997. Instead of doing the large scale tours originally promised, he went into a different underground-small regional all-ages shows populated by this new breed of fans & bands influenced by Korn, Limp Bizkit, Static X & the like. "Most of these kids weren't even in the double digits when I first started The Fury, so we were like aliens from another planet when they saw us. For the first two songs of every gig it was always the same. Jaws on the floor for the first two minutes, then crazy ass applause and what looked like pogoing for the rest of our set." Adams & the band sold out the entire 5000 CD pressing just at these "kid" shows alone. And once his share was paid, he took off to Germany the following summer of 1998 to mend fences in person, as "it was like pulling teeth to get press. Many people still saw me as a RTN artist-even though I wasn't-and the prejudice was killing what little music career I still had. A lot of people would first tell me to my face how much they hated the RTN company, and once they were told of how much money my crew & I were ripped off, we were able to bond over that kick-ass German Weizen beer, and if things weren't great, they weren't at least detrimental" And during one of these bondings, Adams struck a deal with Metal Hammer's Andreas Schoewe to a release on the newly formed "Hardware" imprint. Taking over two years, 2001's "Stovepipe" was a breakthrough critical hit. "We got raves in almost every magazine we were in. I was really humbled by how many people were digging this." Upon Hardware's distribution deal with Point Music, a second pressing of Stovepipe (V.2) with four bonus tracks was released into their system. And so relentless was the sales momentum from this album, Adams landed his first festival appearance at 2002's Bang Your Head Festival. It was at this festival that the idea of releasing Adam's recordings germinated. "We did this signing session where almost everyone started asking me about the recordings I did with Portnoy back in '85-'86. One small mention in a magazine and all of a sudden everyone wanted to hear this old stuff. This renewed interest in my past definitely took me by surprise. After "a crazy weekend" of sharing the stage with the likes of Slayer, Rob Halford, Saxon and WWE's Chris Jericho's band Fozzy, Adams headed back to the states to get to work on his next album. So impressed with his set, the people at TTS Media negotiated with Hardware records for the distribution rights to his next full length, 2004's Mutated. Once again, the album was met with incredible critical acclaim, but something was happening in the record industry. CD sales all across the board were falling, CD's were being ripped, and MP3's were being traded at the speed of light "This was a rapid knife in the gut of the industry, and everyone felt the pain." TTS, who were the backbone of Mutated, began liquidating stock and consolidating their inventories. What was a whirlwind storm of momentum simply "got turned off." In the summer of 2005, Adams went back to the German festival circuit. During this trip (where he gave away one of the guitars he played on Mutated), he met with the team from Hardware and their promotional partners, True Music who advised him to see if he could mix & prepare the recordings he did with Mike Portnoy. "Without Mike's blessing and feedback on this endeavor, I would just have let the tapes continually collect dust." For the second half of the first decade of the new century, Adams bounced between production of these "Unearthed" sessions, and producing new material. In 2007, he and wonder-kid drummer Dom Barranco ('this guy's got the same raw talent that the 18 year old Mike Portnoy did") demoed 10 new tracks. In 2008, the band started to work on a Live CD/DVD project for regional and German release. Everything was looking better for Adams & the band, at least for a moment. "I never miss voting in an election-things would have to be dire for me to miss my responsibility as a citizen." But this time Adams would miss an election-and the circumstances were dire. "I had what was the worst headache I could have, and it wasn't a usual headache-it was like a chisel was being dug into my head." It turned out to be a rupturing brain aneurysm, and if it wasn't for "a divine intervention of circumstances," there would be no more S.A Adams-he was 24-48 hours away from dying. He was rushed into emergency surgery where after 6+ hours, the aneurysm was clipped, the bleeding stopped, and then the tough part began. "When I came home, I could barely play a guitar. The surgeons thought I suffered a a minor stroke due to the tremendous loss of blood from the rupture." Determined to be the player he was before the hemmorage, Adams spent hours re-teaching himself to play. "It was like my teenage days. Doing scales, relearning coordination, and having breakthroughs. This time, the breakthroughs would happen every couple of days, so I knew it was only a matter of time." Once the summer came, Adams felt ready to record again-and record he did. Taking the entire months of May-June, a new collection of tunes turned out so well "this is going to be my next studio album", and in keeping with Adams dark sense of humor is called "Scarred." "I figured what better way to celebrate this 9" scar in my head." And this streak continued. "Steve & Mike at SAB Holdings-the guys who've been repping me for a time-sent out the last feelers for the Portnoy tracks. They've been doing it since Hardware closed their doors in 2007, when the album was left in limbo. We had a couple of false starts, but the labels kept falling like dominoes. Almost a year to the day when I was admitted into the hospital, we got two label offers. Then the new year came, and we got another one. Weird, huh?" After an exhausting review of companies, it was settled that new upstart label, FnA Records, would be the home for the "Unearthed" Mike Portnoy sessions. So finally, this "lost" recording of two gifted musicians at the flashpoint of their games, will finally see the light of day. And it's not just about the past: "The guys over at this label, FnA / EMA-Polydisc want all the other SA stuff-so get your bib on and prepare to be gorged! They're lean & hungry-which is such a relief from the bloated label people that have been slothing through and killing the business." It's a moment of beginnings. Most of all the beginning of the world having it's balls blown off by the sonic assault of S.A. Adams-from the old to the new.