In 1985 an unknown Canadian band called Piledriver burst onto the metal scene, with an over-the-top image, tacky lyrics ("Sex With Satan", "Alien Rape"), but also a surprisingly well-executed power/thrash style. "Metal Inquisition" was just plain great fun to listen to, one of those guilty pleasures that one could both smile at and headbang to at the same time. Some time later, the followup, "Stay Ugly", appeared, and was quite a disappointment, as the production and songwriting were both below average, and the style had shifted a bit toward messy thrash. The band soon disappeared without a trace.

Years later, the Piledriver story was told. Pile Driver himself (real name Gord Kirchin) tells how the idea of the band came from a record exec who basically just wanted to make a quick buck. The band, as such, never really existed at all, as Kirchin was only hired to do vocals for two separate studio projects (which explains why the two albums differed as much as they did), with all the names made up (though with member names like Former Lee and Knuckles Akimbo, that wasn't hard to figure out), as was virtually everything else about the band. After the Piledriver efforts, Kirchin was involved in another similar band (Convict) before later putting together his own band dogs with jobs, and in the intervening years has sporadically worked on a solo career.