Knightriot played its very first show together in Aug of 1988 at Gazzari's on the Sunset Strip. The Troubador a week later and The Whisky soon there after. by The Whisky show the buzz was heavy and closing the evening on a Saturday night delays had KNIGHTRIOT finally taking the stage at 1:30am. The band worried that the crowd had already departed but what they didn't realize that the crowd that night was there to see them. It wasn't long before KNIGHTRIOT was headlining all the major nightclubs in Los Angeles at a time when there were 2500+ bands in the LA Metro area and a majority of those were Hair bands.
Using the example of such bands as Sabbath, Maiden, Priest, Deep Purple the boys in KNIGHTRIOT were never one of the gimmick bands. They were a heavy metal band plain and simple. Popularity continued to grow even as they maintained the straight forward in your face metal foundation. Troubador and the FM Station were the 2 clubs that the guys seemed to have in their pocket playing a lot of sold out shows and packing the clubs, and drawing the attention of people like Ronnie James Dio, Axl Rose, Wierd Al Yankovich, Metallica as fans. All the while having a roster of songs that obviously were christian themed. KNIGHTRIOT was considered a Christian Metal Band, gaining a huge following in that market also.
The first demo "Speak No Evil" released in 1989 was 4 songs. The Christian Music distrubtor Spring Arbor Records contracted the tape and released it across the country. One of the songs "Kiss the Black" was also released on Ocean Records International Compilation Album Underground Metal II. On the 2nd project "Beware The Knight" the band hired Alex Woltman (Pasha Records, Motley Crue, Wasp, blue murder) to produce and once again one of the songs "Bitterfeld" was released on the compilation album "Banned in LA" .
Then one day while booking their next gig at the Troubadour, the booking agents had not any available dates for Knightriot or any other Metal bands. But not only The Troubadour all the major clubs had placed a blanket BAN on Metal Bands. This was war.
Jumping to action they recruited other bands to join the public protest that would tell the world of this injustice in major publications with side by side full page ads claiming discrimination and suppression. This gained worldwide attention, press inquiries, interviews and nothing changed. Until Napalm Death and Ice T and Body Count called and became part of the Protest. Within one month of Ice Ts joining the protest the ban was lifted and metal returned to the clubs.
Knightriot recorded the 3rd tape "Killing Time" at NRG Studios (Ugly Kid Joe, Orgy). It was their best to date and soon got the attention of Runaways producer Kim Fowley and Def American Producer Rick Rubin. This was 1991 and by the time 1992 arrived music had changed and Metal would no longer be in high demand by 1993..... Not after Nirvana