Defiance “Void Terra Firma”: Bleeding Priest's Bay Area Metal Spotlight #10

Greetings metalheads, and welcome to another edition of Bleeding Priest’s Bay Area Metal Spotlight. For this edition, I’ve chosen a band that just got added to the Nefarious record release show at the DNA Lounge on July 19, 2025. They’re opening the show, and I’m super stoked. In my mind, they’re Bay Area thrash legends who never quite got their just due. It was always just out of reach for them to get to the next level for some reason, which I’ll get into in a bit.

Yeah, I love these guys. Dear friends of mine, and a kickass album: Defiance Void Terra Firma. Not my favorite Defiance album, though. I actually love the follow-up album a little more, Beyond Recognition. Fantastic record. Good luck finding it on vinyl, though. I’d be covering that album if I had it on vinyl, but it’s pretty rare and will cost you a pretty penny if you do want to pick it up. I’ve actually never seen a copy of it anywhere in the world. It came out on Roadrunner originally back in ’92 or ’93, and for some reason, Roadrunner albums don’t get reissued that often. I haven’t seen a reissue of it.

But enough about Beyond Recognition. Let’s talk about Void Terra Firma. Killer album—technical, well-played, well-crafted songs. An amazing cover version of Iron Maiden’s Killers. A couple of things held this album back, though.

One was the album cover. I don’t think it represents the high quality of the music very well. It’s kind of a lackluster cover. Not terrible, but not great either. I mean, look at this dude right here—he looks stoked to be dead. He just got blasted by an atomic bomb and he's having the time of his life. But still it is a killer album.

Defiance band photo, circa 1990

Another reason why Defiance didn’t make it to the next level, I think, is because a lot of people unfairly compared them to Testament, especially with the singer Steev Esquivel. Sure, he maybe sounds like Chuck Billy at times—maybe kind of—but not enough to straight up compare him to Chuck Billy or Testament. Because musically, Defiance is nothing like Testament, especially at this point in time.

In 1990, Testament had put out Practice What You Preach and they were doing a more streamlined, scaled-down version of thrash. Something a little more MTV-friendly. And that’s not a diss at all. Practice What You Preach is a marvelous album and they succeeded with flying colors. They definitely got to the next level with that record. They had bigger goals, I guess. More power to Testament.

But Defiance, at this point in time, was way more technical. Their songs weren’t written with MTV or singles in mind. These songs are full-on thrash, going off with reckless abandon. Played well. Just full-on thrash. So I never heard the musical comparison between them and Testament. Even the vocals—that’s a stretch. Maybe sometimes, a little bit. But I love Steev, I think he’s a great frontman, great vocalist, and a dear friend of mine.

When Void Terra Firma came out, I was hanging out with him quite a bit. There was a party house in San Francisco on Leavenworth Street. It was kind of the place to go after a show at The Stone or Morty’s. One of the few afterparty houses in the city around that time. Steev was there all the time. He may have even lived there for a while. That’s how I got to know him. Great guy.

Here’s a Steev story for you. It’s more of a story about me that includes Steev.

I was at a show at The Stone with Steev and a bunch of other friends, my buddy Gil and a few other people. I can’t remember the band; it was a thrash show. There were like four a week back then in 1990. So I’m having a great time, start talking to this chick—she actually approached me. We’re talking, flirting, sharing laughs. She never tells me she has a boyfriend. Her boyfriend is at the show, and he’s standing right over there, just staring me down like he wants to rip my head off.

I’m oblivious. Didn’t notice him at all, I was focused on her. It was actually a guy I kind of knew. And he had some friends with him that I knew too. Anyway, my buddy Gil goes over to talk to them, not knowing what’s going on, and he overhears them plotting to jump me after the show.

Gil comes over and says, “Hey dog”—yeah, even back in ’90 he was saying that—“that’s so-and-so’s girlfriend you’re talking to. He’s pissed. These guys want to jump you after the show.” I’m like, “What the hell? I’m a lover, not a fighter.” Gil could handle himself in a fight, but three guys at once? One of them was an older crazy Filipino guy who’d been in Daly City gangs and carried weapons. I’d seen him brandish a weapon before. I didn’t want this guy after me.

Defiance, Berkeley, CA, 1990

So we’re getting ready to leave, and Steev Esquivel from Defiance overhears my dilemma. He says, “Don’t you worry, man. I’m going to walk you out and no one’s going to touch you.” So I walk out of The Stone first. Those three knuckleheads are standing right there, about to approach me. Then Steev walks out behind me.

You think three little Filipino dudes are going to stand up to this monster? No way. Steev is a good guy to have in your corner, let me tell you. I love you, Steev. God bless you. Looking forward to seeing you at the show.

Those three dudes scampered off like cowards. We walked to Gil’s car, parked on Broadway, and drove off. We passed The Stone one last time to say goodbye to people, then headed into the Broadway Tunnel. I thought the story was over.

But no.

Those dudes came rolling up next to us in the tunnel, revving their engine like something out of Grease—the movie, not the country. They’re staring us down, and we’re laughing at them. Like, “What do you want to do?” Eventually they sped off and exited the tunnel.

Was that the end of it? Kind of. A couple weeks later, my band played with that dude’s band at The Stone. They opened for us. We blew them off the stage. I never heard about that guy again for the rest of my life.

Oh, and Defiance – Void Terra Firma. Check it out.

–Bleeding Priest