LOCAL HEAVY METAL BAND HAILS FIRST ALBUM

A Cape Girardeau-based heavy metal band has released its first album. The band, Beggar's Jury, calls the album "Just Because We Can."

"When we started out, people told us `you can't make it big in Cape Girardeau,'" said Timexx Nasty, 20, who sings lead vocals for the band.

The album was recorded at Riverside Recording Studio in Cape Girardeau and printed by TJ Enterprises.

The band plays at the Hushpuppy II in East Cape Girardeau, Ill., Danny's Pizza in Scott City, and Gatsby's in Carbondale, Ill., and has played in St. Louis. Nasty said every time the band plays they take their light show with them.

"Ever show we play, it's like we're in the biggest auditorium in the world," he said. "The shows are really high-powered."

More than 425 tapes have sold since the tape was released a week ago, Nasty said. They are available in local record stores.

Although the band does not endorse any ideals or push any messages onto its audience, Nasty said, members try to encourage teens to seek out solutions to their problems. A card containing the phone number of the National Youth Crisis Hotline is included in each cassette of "Just Because We Can."

"The lead single ("Tear Drop In The Rain") is about a girl I knew from Jackson who was a runaway," Nasty said. "The song encourages kids not to run away from their problems."

Other songs on the album include "Young, Wild & Wasted," "Rock on the Rise," "The Ledge" and "Horse Flys in the Shed."

Other band members are Kenny Keller, 20; Chris Mattingly, 23; and Dennis Pennington, 19.

Nasty said the band hopes to tour soon and is sending a video to MTV.

"I always believed that you can do anything you want to do if you try," he said.