Hittman (band)

Hittman is an American heavy metal band from New York, initially active from 1984 to 1994 and then again from 2017 onward.

The band formed in September 1984 in Huntington, Long Island, when guitarist Jim Bachi, bassist Mike Buccel, drummer Chuck Kory, and vocalist Scott Knight came together from local New York bands. After a few months, they let Knight go, feeling he wasn’t strong enough, and brought in Dirk Kennedy, who had been a roadie or early associate of thrash metal band Anthrax. They soon added second guitarist Brian Fair. In June 1985, they recorded the demo *Metal Sport* and used that material to open shows for acts like Saxon, Poison, Black ’n Blue, and Stryper—though Poison was not yet a major touring act, as their debut album came out in 1986. Fair was dismissed in 1986, replaced by Greg Walls, who was then replaced by John Kristen. Around 1986, a second demo was circulated to a select industry audience, followed by months of unsuccessful talks with record labels.

In August 1988, Hittman released their self-titled debut album on the German label Steamhammer, which had signed them in March. Only the title track from *Metal Sport* made it onto the album, which also included a cover of Johnny Rivers’ television theme “Secret Agent Man.” Because Steamhammer was again based only in Germany after a failed overseas expansion, American listeners could only get the album through imports. AllMusic suggests this stalled the band’s career and delayed a second album, while the *Encyclopedia of Popular Music* points to internal group tensions. Kennedy explained that negotiations with American label Polygram Records were complicated by the required takeover of the debut album, which had been licensed very successfully by Roadracer Records; Steamhammer reacted angrily to the poaching attempt, and after personnel changes in the relevant Polygram department, that label dropped out, forcing the band to stay with Steamhammer. The legal trouble around label affiliation halted the band’s momentum, and management dropped them. Production on a planned concept album, *Precision Killing* (in the vein of Queensrÿche’s *Operation: Mindcrime*), was stopped to avoid constant comparisons.