In January, the search for a dependable lead guitarist began.  Ads were placed in the local paper, and auditions were held. Joe made a lot of progress learning new techniques and building his skill and endurance in a relatively short amount of time.  It really surprised us how quickly he caught on and how ambitious he was about learning everything there was to know about metal music and playing it.  He became an obsessed metal fiend, absorbing anything and everything metal around him.  We couldn't have asked for a better drummer.

In February, we decided that it was time to make a recording of some sort.  Using our primitive recording tools, we recorded a first draft of "Evil Unbound". On February 2nd, we recorded what became known as the "Evil Groundhog Demo".  Compared to later versions, this version is very slow, and since we didn't have a lead guitarist, Patrick put down a makeshift lead guitar part.  This first version of the song was only about four minutes long.  We were really pleased because it was our first attempt at writing and recording original material.  It sounded like total shit, but we were proud of it.

In March, Patrick purchased a four-track recorder.  A new, longer version of "Evil Unbound" was recorded as well as another new song: "Lifeblood", and a first draft of "Realm of the Lost".

In May the three of us decided that it was time to find a better rehearsal space.  For almost five months we searched for a new place to rehearse and for a new lead guitarist.  We checked into getting a place at a building downtown that rented rehearsal spaces to bands, but found that it was too expensive. In October, after placing an ad, we finally found a practice space.  It was a really cool building towards the back of a residential property, and the owner was a musician as well.  It seemed like a safe building in a decent area of the city, so we rented it.

Auditions for lead guitarist began.  Four guitarists were auditioned during the first week we were at the new space.  Amongst them was Rick Mushinski, who made an immediate impression upon us.  Rick shared our goals and ambitions, and seemed very knowledgeable of the technical aspects of playing lead guitar.  He really put the other guitarists  who auditioned to shame.  He was into our music and shared our same twisted sense of humor, which was a plus.

On October 18th, Rick joined Kadath as our lead guitarist.  Now a complete band, we began picking up where we had left off in May.  Our three songs, "Evil Unbound", "Lifeblood", and "Realm of the Lost"  became more polished, while other new songs were written.  Early versions of "Braintrust", "The Hell Beyond", and "Abuser" were created during October and November.  In December, Kadath was invited to play at a large party hosted by Marco Guerrero, a guitarist friend of Joe’s.  On December 9th, Kadath made it's first appearance at the party.  We set up in a tiny bedroom and played our asses off. We performed "Evil Unbound", "Lifeblood", "Realm of the Lost", and struggled through undeveloped versions of "Braintrust" and "Abuser".  Then we butchered a bunch of covers by The Misfits, Metallica, Holocaust and anything we could think up on the spot. We were all pretty nervous, but Rick was fucking petrified.  We got a really good response, even though we felt like we had done a mediocre job at best.  We had fun, though.  Later, we found out that Marco’s band, Neptune's Belly was humbled by our performance and somewhat reluctant to play after us.  We took this as a compliment coming from them, as they were all skilled musicians.

For the remainder of the year, we continued to rework and refine our six original songs.  But, once again, problems arose at the lead guitar position when Rick was forced to miss some practices due to personal issues.