Recycled Metal

In today’s “alternative” rock era, there is a tendency, perhaps partly out of relief, to forget how dominant heavy metal was in the 1980s.

Unlike today, when dozens of bands grounded in the local alternative movement get legitimate shots at national success, the star-making machinery of the metal scene made room for just two national contenders from Orange County: Stryper, which hit it big, and Leatherwolf, which reaped youthful good times instead of cash returns before frustration ended its nine-year run in early 1990.

Almost nine more years have passed, and the five Leatherwolf members, now in their mid-30s, are back together, letting their fingers do the walking--or running--through complex, three-part guitar harmonies that formed the band’s trademark “triple ax attack.”

Guitarists Geoff Gayer and Carey Howe, singer-guitarist Michael Olivieri, drummer Dean Roberts and bassist Paul Carman will play a reunion show Sunday at the Galaxy Concert Theatre. They’ll revisit their old, epic-scale repertoire of stately harmonies and stormy, driving rhythms supporting songs based on mythology, sword-and-sorcery sagas and the standard metal rock-as-rebellion ethic.

After playing for their old friends and fans, band members hope to stick together, at least informally, to make another record.

Given the diverse musical interests the five have pursued since their metal days, making new music could prove interesting, Olivieri said. “It could really work, or it could be a train wreck. First, we’re going to concentrate on relearning all the old tunes. There’s a lot of notes to remember.”

Gayer said it didn’t all come back instantly when Leatherwolf reconvened in August to rehearse for its first comeback engagement, at a guests-only surprise 40th birthday party at the Troubadour in West Hollywood for its former manager, Jennifer Perry.

“Some of that stuff is pretty intricate. I had to sit down with the tapes and rehearse. But it comes right back. I’d think, ‘I don’t really remember how that riff goes.’ Then you start playing, and my hands remembered before my head did.”

Gayer, Howe and Olivieri broke up Leatherwolf in 1990 to try a more aggressive, Guns N’ Roses-influenced approach in a new band called Hail Mary. Hail Mary collapsed within two years, its prayers for a record deal unanswered as Nirvana’s ascendancy signaled the triumph of alterna-rock and twilight for old-line metal bands.

Gayer and Howe have since concentrated on running their Huntington Beach-based clothing line, Grind Inc., which features youth-oriented denim pants. Both have kept playing, but only informally for their own enjoyment.

Roberts, who had pretty much put away his drums for eight years before reuniting with his old bandmates, has a roofing business in Costa Mesa. Carmen moved to Denver, where he works as a radio engineer and plays in local bands.

Olivieri remains active as a local music pro, but in a far different guise than in his Leatherwolf days: Five years ago he met and married Carole Coutoure, a French-Canadian disco diva, and together they front a club band called the Pleasure Co. that specializes in funk, disco and R&B.; Olivieri, who lives in Huntington Beach, plays acoustic gigs on the side and writes songs in a bluesy, Southern-rock vein that he hopes to place with recording acts who need material.

Leatherwolf reconvened for sentimental reasons when friends of Perry, now part of Ozzy Osbourne’s management team, figured that turning 40 might be easier to take if she were serenaded by one of the favorite bands of her youth.

As if an eight-year layoff weren’t reason enough to be nervous, the Leatherwolf members found themselves confronted during their seven-song performance with one of the most famous faces in heavy metal: Ozzy Osbourne, seated front and center.

“He seemed to be enjoying it, tapping his foot and cheering after songs,” Gayer said.

“It was incredible,” Perry said from her office in Los Angeles. “You would never have known they hadn’t played in that long.”

Looking back, Perry said it was more her fault than the band’s that Leatherwolf failed to flourish after signing with Island Records in the late ‘80s. “I honestly feel if I’d been a better manager at the time, if I knew then what I know now, it would have been a very different world for them. I just didn’t know enough.”

But the Leatherwolf musicians absolve Perry of blame. She drew up strong marketing plans, Olivieri said, but Island didn’t make Leatherwolf’s two albums, “The Calling” and “Street Ready,” a big-enough priority to put them into effect.

“We got pretty close,” the singer said. “We toured around the world, got a lot of the fringe benefits. We put in our ante, but we didn’t cash out. Money wasn’t the motive for us back at that time, anyway. We were having such a good time that the huge cash wasn’t really missed. It was a great time of my life.”

In hindsight, Gayer said, Leatherwolf should have taken a break instead of splitting up when frustration began to outweigh the fun.

“Everyone feels we just dropped the ball a little too soon. We should have kept on writing music and doing records. We should have taken a small break, instead of completely dropping it.”

Roberts said he felt hurt when the three guitar players broke up the band, but he likes the musical and personal footing the members are on today. “We’re still hard rockers, but [any new music] would be more kind of grooving music, a little bit of blues, a little bit of funk and a little bit of punk. As we sit down and play, we all voice our opinions more.

“We don’t try to fit into the mold of the Leatherwolf ordeal, where a couple of guys wrote the tunes and not everybody participated. It’s a lot more fun, it’s a better feeling as we play.”

The object of the Galaxy show isn’t to hint at new directions, though. It’s to treat fans to another taste of the old days, when Leatherwolf, when not on tour, would hold forth at local metal havens such as the long-defunct Marquee in Westminster.

“We’re going to keep it as close as possible” to the old band sound,” Olivieri said. “It may be modernized a bit. On the albums, we had huge background vocals,” which the band sometimes tried to replicate onstage by cheating with electronic effects--a common ploy among ‘80s pop-metal bands who relied on huge sing-along chorus hooks. This time it will all be live.

“We’re more open-minded about the songs, not so professional and picky about having to be perfect,” Roberts said. “We’ll go out and play the songs as best we can. And we’re going to play some mellower stuff that we never used to play live.”

* Leatherwolf, District 7 and Melting Pot play Sunday at the Galaxy Concert Theatre, 3503 S. Harbor Blvd., Santa Ana. $17.50-$19.50. (714) 957-0600.