The Dark

The Dark
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The Dark was an American band from Cleveland, Ohio

History

The Decapitators and The Dark

By 1980, Tom formed his first band The Decapitators with his brother Scott Eakin on bass and friends Robert Griffin on guitar, David Araca drums. Scott and David left and were replaced by David Richman on drums, no bass player. The Decapitators played out once in November of that year, at a rec center below a church called the Well in Shaker Heights, Ohio, doing an hour and a half of covers (Pagans, Dead Boys, Germs, Ramones, etc) and ten originals. They were not asked back to play and broke up a few months later; no recordings were made. A year later in 1981 at high school, Tom ran into Robert and they decided to reform the band again, but under a different name with Scott and David, becoming The Dark. They quickly recorded for the “Cleveland Confidential” compilation album on Terminal Records with the song “I Can Wait” (which has been reissued on vinyl by Thermionic Records and on CD by Overground Records.) They made their debut at Tucky’s in downtown Cleveland on January 9th, 1982, with Mike Hudson of The Pagans fame becoming their manager after the gig for the year (see Mike Hudson’s book “Diary of a Punk” about his life, the Pagans, managing The Dark, etc.) By the third show, Jimi Imij of Zero Defex recorded The Dark on his boombox at a record store in Kent, Ohio, called Garbage Inc. and put several songs from that show on a cassette tape compilation titled “There is More” that the fanzine Slam put out. Being so young, always sticking to their punk roots, The Dark started to become more interested musically in what later became the term Hardcore with their hair getting shorter and songs becoming faster. They created their own style mixing punk and hardcore with deathrock (Christian Death, 45 Grave, TSOL “Dance with Me” album), adding a moody goth feel to the songs, making them their own.

The New Hope Compilation

By 1983, cities and record labels everywhere started to put out lots of compilation albums, putting their scenes and bands on the map. For some reason, northeast Ohio didn’t have one, so Tom Dark decided to put one out himself. While helping out bands, putting on shows and benefits, Tom raised enough money to put out “The New Hope” compilation album (on his own New Hope Records (1983) featuring 11 bands including The Dark doing the songs:”You Got What You Wanted”, “Sacrifice” and “Screeching Metal”) to good reviews, giving the bands exposure and getting word out about the scene. (It was later released as a double vinyl album/download by Smog Veil in 2010, with extra songs by The Dark, “Put Your Hand through the Plastic” and “Last Day”, and others.) A second release was also put out on New Hope by Outerwear titled “The Outerwear Limits”, a cassette album, which came in a plastic bag filled with prizes and lyrics, but nothing else by the label was released after that. In February 1984, The Dark went into Island Studios and recorded a full-length album, to be released at a later date. The Dark at that point had played all over Ohio, going out of state once to Pittsburgh, Pa. and opening for many bands that became legendary such as: The Misfits, Dead Kennedys, Circle Jerks, GBH, Negative Approach, The Necros, The Five, Agnostic Front, and Cause For Alarm, to name a few. By that year, Robert lost interest and The Dark was put to rest. Years later, The Dark appeared on two more compilations, “They Pelted Us with Rocks & Garbage” a vinyl album (on Negative Print /Fungus/After Hour Records) in 1985 (a review in Spin Magazine mentioned “Fire in the Church” by The Dark as being one of the stand out tracks) and “High Road to Obscurity” with “No Eyes” on CD in 2000 (Grand Theft Audio/GTA.) In 2006, a double CD (78 tracks) was released, also on Grand Theft Audio/GTA, of all the missing and lost recordings by The Dark from the 80s, it included all the studio material, demos, compilation tracks, remixes, a live radio broadcast and live concert, resulting in a reunion by three of the remaining members after 23 years for the “Cleveland’s Screaming” concert series in the summer of 2006. Drummer David N. Araca died of a brain aneurism in the mid 90’s at age 26.

Members

• Tom Dark
• Scooter Eakin
• Dave Araca
• Robert Griffin

Discography

Compilations

• The New Hope - Various Artists
• Scream Until We Die (2006 Grand Theft Audio)