It happened late 1989 or early 1990. I was looking for some Heavy Metal CD's as I usually do in some of the best record stores in Madrid. In one of them I found by chance a very interesting compilation of instrumental and classic Heavy Metal music called "Guitar Masters" ( Later I discovered that it came out in the US entitled "Fretboard frenzy" ). I didn't know it, but that CD would change my life. I bought it because it included songs of some of my favourite guitarists ( Friedman, Howe, Tafolla ) and Heavy Metal bands ( Cacophony, Apocrypha ), but it also included the track "Digital dictator" of a band called Vicious Rumors, unknown for me at that time. As soon as I listened to VR, I knew that they were different from the rest, and I couldn't beleive the awesome Mark's guitar playing. I got really hipnotized by that track and immediately began to buy all the VR albums I could find, "Soldiers of the night", "Vicious Rumors", "Welcome to the ball"... Each album was better than the previous, and I was absolutely shocked about the band's skillful members and original songwritting. I also got "Word of mouth" and some months after, I suddenly read somewhere about Carl's tragic death. It was one of the big deceptions of my life, especially after listening to the next album with Geoff on vocals; I knew that VR died with Carl. But instead of forgetting, Carl's death made VR more mythical and I became even more fanatical! There were a lot of other Heavy Metal bands in my life, but I slowly forgot all of them after listening to their records for some months. All except one, Vicious Rumors. They were the best Heavy Metal band ever, too good to catch the attention of the really big audiences. Right now, I'm more that happy of having bought that first "Guitar masters" CD but I sometimes think, What would have happen if I wouldn't have gone shopping that hot day in 1989??