A member of the first edition of Black Flag circa 1981-1982, guitarist Dez Cadena moved on after the band temporarily broke up in 1983 due to contract squabbles with Unicorn/MCA. By 1984, he had recruited two veterans of the L.A. hardcore scene (Paul Roessler and Jeff Dahl) to form DC3, a band which pointed back to the roots of hardcore by reworking the sludge metal of Black Sabbath with little punk influence. Signed to former bandmember Greg Ginn's SST Records (which also handled Black Flag), the band debuted in 1985 with This Is the Dream. The Sabbath influences became more understated on DC3's two albums released in 1986, You're Only as Blind as Your Mind Can Be and Good Hex. A year later, Roessler became Twisted Roots for a self-titled LP which featured Cadena and Dahl but functioned more as a solo album. Roessler's true solo debut -- in name, that is -- was 1988's Abominable. Roessler's third solo outing under a different alias, The Crimony EP, was also released in 1988, with production help from his brother-in-law, Mike Watt. In 1989, SST released Vida, a DC3 compilation of live material culled from L.A. shows during the previous two years.