Vandal vocalist Eric Knight—who you surely remember seeing among the record racks as a manager at Spec’s in Miami’s Westland Mall—as with the members of fellow South Floridians Nuclear Valdez: is the son of Cuban immigrants. Knight joined the “hair metal” inflected Vandal two years after lead guitarist Richie Fitz, a six-string duty shared with co-founder Tony Reeds, aka Medina, founded the band in 1984, which met its demise in 1995. The band’s longest-serving drummer, Derek Cintron, who joined in late 1989, previously backed a nascent version of Saigon Kick (that morphed into Super Transatlantic).
By 1990, Vandal graduated from warehouse and private parties and high school dances with cover sets to all-original sets on the South Florida club scene at the popular “hair metal” venues The Button South, Rock Candy, Rosebuds, Summers on the Beach, and that infamous, cavernous joint with the pool tables: The Plus Five in Davie, Florida (just southwest of Fort Lauderdale). Long-suffering scene guru, Gary Stryder of Gled Studios, included the band as part of his three-disc Unsigned local artist compilations (1990-1992) as Vandal won the 1991 Florida Jammy Award for “Best Metal Band” (hosted by the defunct, statewide-distributed ragazine, Jam). Vandal quickly self-released a five-song demo in 1992—complete with the photocopied J-cards one expects with such releases—which sold out by way of selling at shows and mail order through the metal magazines of the day.
Unfortunately, regardless of cultivating an impeccable reputation as a live band that culminated in their winning a statewide award: their self-title EP was not accepted by South Florida’s burgeoning alternative rock scene that took hold in the early ’90s. So, in addition to Vandal being ignored by educational-based, local non-commercial radio stations that specialized in airing local music as part of their now “alternative” programming, the Sunday night “Local Only” programming aired by South Florida’s commercial radio, which by then eschewed any music with a hint of spandex or hair spray, also ignored the band, as those previous AOR-inflected stations now touted themselves as “rock alternative” outlets. Nonetheless: Vandal attracted analogous-sized crowds to the scene’s then hot “alternative rock” prospects Collapsing Lungs and Marilyn Manson: anywhere from 500 to 1,500 music lovers were perpetually in attendance at their shows (and some shows were double bills with another, one-release-and-gone-hair metal-to-alternative upstart, Nectar—which figures into the next progression of Vandal). In fact, prior to each of those “alternative” bands arriving on the scene, Vandal was one of the area’s three-top drawing bands alongside Saigon Kick and Tuff Luck.
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| Vandal, live at The Button South, January 1993. |
Even with so few hard-rock venues left to book, and with the overnight rise of alternative rock clubs that snickered at them, Vandal still impressed local impresario John Tovar, who came to guide the careers of Nuclear Valdez, the Mavericks, and Marilyn Manson to major label deals. His short-lived managerial efforts resulted in Atlantic, Polygram, MCA, and Virgin Records expressing interest in the band: yet, no deal was forthcoming. Eric Knight took over the band’s management upon Tovar’s departure (this too, happened with Carey Peak and his pre-C-60s band, Dore Soul).
By May of 1995 Vandal had enough of South Florida. So, as with Randy Bates before them, relocating his Talk of War/East of Gideon collective to the (not so) greener pastures of Los Angeles, Vandal relocated. Through positive press on the Hollywood rock scene, the South Florida metal transplants teamed with producer Toby Wright, known for his work with Alice in Chains, Kiss, Metallica, and Slayer—that brought forth no record deal. Returning to their hometown, Vandal self-produced their lone, full-length effort, Julian Day, in 1994.
Still with no label interest—and taking cues from the Randy Rhodes-era of Quiet Riot, who could not secure a deal with a U.S record-based record label, opting to release their first two, pre-Mental Health albums via a CBS-affiliated label in Japan, which led to critical acceptance and touring the Far East—Vandal signed with an EMI-affiliated label to release Julian Day to an analogous press acceptance and touring in the Pacific Rim territories.
Sadly, even with their Far East successes: creative and promotional schisms developed between Eric Knight on one side, with Vandal’s founders and long-time drummer Derek Cintron, on the other. By the summer of 1995: it was all over.
Eric Knight returned to the South Florida scene in 1997 with his self-named band featuring bassist David Poole, formerly with Nectar (fronted by ex-Talk of War vocalist, Randy Bates), to self-release his solo debut: a classic rock/heavy modern-rock hybrid, Near Life Experience, that same year; the effort benefited from the production of industry heavy-hitters Keith Rose at the world-famous Criteria Studios, and Arnie Acosta, known for his work with everyone from Kenny Rogers to Canned Heat to Peter Frampton to U2. One of the band’s gigs was opening for an Aerosmith Miami appearance in 2002.
Relocating to Los Angeles, Eric Knight released the albums Welcome to Babylon (2015) and The Rise and Fall of Babylon (2017) with his next band, Disciples of Babylon. His next solo albums, Fractured Fairy Tales and Delusions of Grandeur, appeared in 2002 and 2025, respectively. He continues to work behind the scenes as a producer and music executive developing artists.
Taking his solo debut cues from Paul McCartney, Steve Winwood, and John Fogerty, already recording solo material before Vandal’s demise, Derek Cintron wrote, produced, and played all the instruments on his self-released solo debut, Mantra, released in 1995. To perform live: Tony Medina returned to the fold. For his sophomore effort, Oh . . . the Drama (2002), Vandal’s bassist, the single-named Sosio, engineered and mixed the songs, again, solely performed by Cintron.
Cintron and Medina returned to South Florida stages as the heavy power-popped DC3, which self-released You and Me and Everybody Else in 2006, then as Brother for Others, which released the efforts Songs of Ours (2014) and Space (2017).
And that’s the long, twisted tale of Vandal: one of South Florida’s best—and underrated—bands from the ’90s.
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| Brothers for Others with Derek Cintron, left. |
* * *
Vandal, aka It’s
Only Love
5-song EP/indie demo (1992)
- It’s Only Love *
- Self Destruction *
- Alone
- Mystery
- It’s In Your Eyes *
* Re-recorded for below album
Julian
Day
14-track LP
Alfa/Brunette/EMI Japan (1994)
- In Your Eyes
- The Crush
- Move On
- Shadows
- White Lies
- Self Destruction
- Thought Police
- Awakenings
- Helltown
- Sheer Heart Attack — Queen cover
- It’s Only Love
- Out Of Touch
- Little World
- Bring Me Down
Unsigned: 11 of South Florida's Unsigned Bands
Stryder Records (1990)
- “In Your Eyes” (aka It’s In Your Eyes)
- Exclusively cut for the release, it was included on the demo EP, then re-recorded for Julian Day
Unsigned II: The Dotted Line
Stryder Records (1991)
- “It’s Only Love”
- Exclusively cut for the release, it was included on the demo EP, then re-recorded for Julian Day
Musicians on all releases:
- Eric Knight — vocals
- Richie Fitz — lead guitar
- Tony Reeds — lead guitar
- Sosio — bass
- Derek Cintron — drums
* * *
You can listen to studio and live recordings by Vandal, as well as the studio albums by Derek Cinton’s DC-3, and Eric Knight’s the Eric Knight Band and Disciples of Babylon on Over the Edge Radio You Tube.
You can keep up to day with the continued musical endeavors of the members of Vandal by visiting the official websites of Eric Knight and Derek Cinton’s Brother for Others.
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