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IR8 features the trio of Jason Newsted on bass and vocals, Devin Townsend playing guitar and "Toxic" Tom Hunting of Exodus on drums. Originally recorded in 1994, Colossus, Nothing, and Black on Black are three original tracks of a slightly better than demo quality. The music works as a more aggressive version of traditional thrash (other than the doomish opening track "Colossus"). Newsted uses a very brutal vocal approach without sounding like a conventional death metal singer. A comparison could be made to David Vincent of Morbid Angel's deep, semi-spoken delivery evidenced on tracks such as God of Emptiness.
It was in 2002 that Newsted finally decided to release the recordings on a split release with another project of his called Sexoturica, which features Andreas Kisser of Sepultura replacing Townsend on guitars.