Mace were a crossover thrash/hardcore band from about 30 minutes up the highway in Everett, Washington. Everett is a port city probably best known for its Navy base. It’s working class and sees itself very separate from it’s much larger neighbor to the south, Seattle. Mace played a ton locally, opening for larger acts like Slayer and Anthrax, and also on bills with a range of other bands like Circle Jerks, Poison Idea, and The Mentors. Were they punk or were they metal? In the mid-80s the lines definitely blurred.
After putting out a demo called Metal Lust and contributing a track to the seminal Northwest Metalfest compilation in 1984, they headed down to SCM studios in Mountlake Terrace (about halfway between Everett and Seattle) to record their debut Process Of Elimination. It’s an incredibly good first effort. The band sounds tight – they clearly know these songs well and Jeff Gilbert’s work behind the console created a balanced sound without adding too much polish. The backing vocals are brought up to a level even with Kirk Verhay’s mains, capturing move of a live sound. Using a clip of a Hitler speech and having the applause morph into the intro of “Violent World” does feel a bit dated and unnecessary in 2026, but it would have been edgy and dangerous at the time and shouldn’t be taken as being anything more than provocative.
One of the things that just screams 1980s is heavy metal album covers. So often up-and-coming bands used straight-up hand-drawn covers, and Process Of Elimination is a prime example. It’s all here – drawn band logo and font, crazy cyber-zombies, blood, crosshairs, an exploding head, a ruined city being bombed á la Missile Attack… the only thing that could make it more 80s metal is a picture of the band clad in jeans or leather. And we have that too, on the jacket reverse, one of the band members holding an actual mace in one hand and a huge dog on a leash in the other. Lest you think I’m making fun of this, I most certainly am not. This was how things were at the time, and those of us into this kind of metal loved it. It screamed DIY. Don’t think I didn’t doodle up logos for imaginary bands while listening to albums like Process Of Elimination. The presentation actual spoke to the authenticity of the music.
Two years later Mace released their second, and unfortunately last, record The Evil In Good on the French metal label Black Dragon Records. The cover, like that of it’s predecessor, is drawn, a field of impaled heads each with a word written across the forehead – “pornographer”, “addict”, “musician”… though perhaps as a way of professing their hardcore influences also one with a full mohawk. And that crossover vibe is in full effect right from the open track, “Gutripper”. Blazing fast and with that rat-a-tat-tat delivery it’s definitely a direction shift more towards speed and hardcore and one that carries through the rest of the album.
Mace broke up in 1989, though two members briefly reformed the band to play some shows in 2012 and supposedly self-released a CD with a new song, but broke up again for what appears to be the final time. It doesn’t look like they have a Bandcamp page or any other kind of website at this point, though there is an official Mace Facebook page and a post from August 2021 indicates you can shoot them an email (macemetalmerch (at) gmail (dot) com) for CDs and patches, so if you’re interested send ’em a note. Their music is on Spotify, so definitely give it a listen. For me Process Of Elimination is the better of the two albums, though your mileage may vary.