Tag: 1989

Watchmen – Generation – 1989

Sometimes it’s difficult to classify an album into any specific style of music. This is one of those bands. Watchmen only had this 1 studio album (they did also have a demo) which kind of surprises me as it is actually very good. There are example of Metal, Rock, and AOR on this album. All are well done and personally I think the vocals are fantastic. Vocalist Greg Sweet did reappear in 2004 in a couple bands but that was it. Anyway this album is very good and was a very pleasant surprise. The only person who I recognized on the album is Kevin Whisler who is also the drummer from Bloodgood. The stand out track for me is “Best Friend” which is an excellent tune with some excellent saxophone work and it has gone on my personal rotation.

Tracklist
1 – Turn – 3:42
2 – Stand Strong – 3:53
3 – Straight – 3:32
4 – Best Friend – 4:33
5 – Breakin’ The Chains – 3:19
6 – United – 3:47
7 – I Will Be There – 4:27
8 – Defenders – 3:51
9 – One Day – 4:07

Credits
Backing Vocals – Dave Van Liew, Doug Larson, Greg Sweet, Kevin Antholt
Backing Vocals [Additional Bck Vocals] – Grant Scott, Joyce Carlsen, Kelee Gates, Les Carlsen, Mark Thornberg, Rene Wood
Bass – Doug Larson
Drums, Percussion – Kevin Whisler
Guitar – Dave Van Liew
Guitar [Additional Guitar] – Ross Nyberg (tracks: 4)
Keyboards – Kevin Antholt
Keyboards [Additional Keyboards] – Brook Lizotte
Lead Vocals – Greg Sweet
Producer – Terry B. Shelton
Programmed By [Computer Programming], Sampler [Sampling] – Kevin Antholt

Companies, etc.
Record Company – Regency Records
Phonographic Copyright (p) – Regency Records
Copyright (c) – Regency Records
Distributed By – Word (Uk) Ltd.
Manufactured By – Music Manufacturers

Bloodgood – Out of the Darkness – 1989

This was the 4th studio release for Michael Bloodgood and the band. For this album Guitarist David Zaffiro and drummer Mark Welling were out and Kevin Whisler and Paul Jackson on guitars and drums, respectively were in. Of course Michael Bloodgood maintained his position on bass and Les Carlsen continued vocals. Fans of Bloodgood said this album was a bit of as return to their previous heavier work but myself I believe it’s all in the production. This album doesn’t quite have that commercial Pop influence so it sounds much more raw which is a much better sound for Bloodgood. My personal take away track is the Rez Band reminiscent track “Hey! You”

Tracklist
1 – Out Of The Darkness – 3:43
2 – Let My People Go – 4:09
3 – America – 4:04
4 – It’s Alright – 3:44
5 – Top Of The Mountain – 6:30
6 – Hey! You – 4:05
7 – Mad Dog World – 4:25
8 – Changing Me – 6:38
9 – New Age Illusion – 3:18

Credits
Acoustic Guitar – Paul Jackson, Terry B. Shelton
Arranged By [All Songs] – Bloodgood, Kevin Whistler, Paul Jackson
Art Direction – Ed McTaggart
Backing Vocals – Les Carlsen, Michael Bloodgood
Bass – Michael Bloodgood
Co-producer [Co-Produced By] – Les Carlsen, Michael Bloodgood
Drums – Kevin Whisler
Electric Guitar – Paul Jackson
Engineer [Engineered By] – Terry B. Shelton
Illustration [Cover Illustration] – Jeff Foster
Lead Vocals – Les Carlsen
Mixed By – Les Carlsen, Michael Bloodgood, Terry B. Shelton
Orchestrated By – Brook Lizotte, Terry B. Shelton
Performer [Bloodgood Is] – Les Carlsen, Michael Bloodgood
Producer [Produced By] – Terry B. Shelton

Companies, etc.
Phonographic Copyright (p) – Intense Records
Copyright (c) – Intense Records
Distributed By – The Benson Company, Inc.
Produced For – Black Coat Productions
Recorded At – Black Coat Productions
Published By – Broken Songs
Glass Mastered At – Nimbus, Virginia

Tempest – Eye of the Storm – 1989

The second and last album from Tempest had a more commercial Metal sound than their first. This album saw a change of band members with Darren Lee taking over bass and Bobby Andrews on drums and apparently Joe English also supplied a drum track for the album. A year after this album came out the band dissolved but I don’t know if they did a tour in support of the album or not. There isn’t actually a lot of info on Tempest in the 80’s but Mick Rowe did revive the band in 2017. Along with Thom Schultman and Rex D.Scott from X-Sinner they recorded a 4 song EP and apparently played several live dates.

Tracklist
1 – Storms – 1:41
2 – Rock For The Light – 5:30
3 – Goin´ Nowhere – 3:15
4 – Goodbye – 3:24
5 – Let Them In – 3:30
6 – True Love – 3:00
7 – All For One – 3:21
8 – Eye Of The Storm – 2:32
9 – Lost Without Your Love – 3:16
10 – Midnight – 1:58
11 – U.S.A. – 3:03

Credits
Bass – Darren Lee
Cover, Design – Jeff Spencer
Drums – Bobby Andrews
Guitar – Mikk Rowe
Lyrics By – J.R. Rowe (tracks: 2, 6, 7, 9, 11), Mikk Rowe (tracks: 3, 4, 7, 8, 9, 11)
Music By – J.R. Rowe (tracks: 6), Mikk Rowe* (tracks: 2, 3, 4, 7, 8, 9, 11)
Photography By – Eric Hassler (2)
Producer – Dan Rudin
Vocals – J.R. Rowe
Written-By – Chris Kachulis (tracks: 5), Peter Maroney (tracks: 5)

Apostle – Apostle – 1989

Apostle may be the biggest and/or best Metal bands to never have an album deal. It’s unknown why they never has an album deal but I’m gonna say I suspect it’s because they never got an offer they liked. The Florida based band had several demos which sold very well. I don’t remember seeing a group that had more demos over such a long period. As is common with demos there appears to be some confusion regarding this particular demo. Several sites show it as called “Metal for the Master” and was released in 1983. The cassette cover doers not show a title and has a copyright date of 1989 so that is the info I went with.

Tracklist
1 – King Of The Saints
2 – Overcomer
3 – Conquerors
4 – Born Again
5 – Parting The Red Sea
6 – Unlimited Power
7 – Armageddon
8 – King Of Kings
9 – Bread Of Life
10 – Holy Soldier

Credits
Bass – Mark Borrero
Drums – David Paul McKee
Vocals, Guitar – Matt Harding

Sacrament – Presumed Dead – 1989

Sacrament were one of the original Christian Thrash Metal bands. This was the demo that started it all for them. It was sold at their shows and apparently had pretty broad distribution. As for the music, I have no idea if it’s any good. I know nothing about thrash metal and can’t stand listening to it. If you like thrash metal this is probably a pretty good album judging from the positive reviews of it. The quality is a little off which is kind of strange for 1989 as technology was pretty advanced for producing demos. That said it just may be the copy I got. The original might be much better.

Tracklist
1 – Separate From Iniquity
2 – Assault (Satan’s Doom)
3 – Lies of The Blind
4 – Face Reality
5 – Presumed Dead

Credits
Bass – Eric Ney
Drums – Paul Graham
Producer – Frank Thompson
Guitar – Brian Toy, Mike Didonato
Vocals – Mike Torone

Walk On Water – Walk On Water – 1989

The story of this album is somewhat interesting. The band won a Swedish national music contest with their song “What’s The Noise?”. In the process of recording the support album for the song. While recording the album the band became Christians and the album took on a while new light. Several songs were rewritten to have Christian lyrics and the original record deal died. Luckily the brand new label “Alarma Records” (a division of Frontline records picked up the album and released it. The album has a strong keyboard based New Wave feel with a few tracks having a heavier guitar track. “What’s the Noise” continues on as the single and is still the stand out song on the album. The CD had a rather odd aditional track that is 17 minutes long and is just chriping bird nature sounds. That one leaves me rather confused.

Tracklist
1 – To Walk On Water – 3:42
2 – What’s The Noise? – 4:07
3 – Call My Name – 4:05
4 – Prayer – 5:00
5 – Yeah Yeah Yeah – 3:51
6 – North Sea Town – 4:35
7 – Time – 3:25
8 – Someone – 3:35
9 – When The Serpent Rules – 4:00
10 – There Is A Morning – 4:27
11 – Bird-Song – 17:48

Credits
Art Direction – Ed McTaggart
Band [Walk On Water], Bass – Magnus Wahl
Band [Walk On Water], Guitar [Guitars] – Flord
Band [Walk On Water], Keyboards – Erik Strömblad
Band [Walk On Water], Vocals – Tot
Guest, Acoustic Guitar – Kaj Erixon (tracks: 8)
Guest, Backing Vocals – Sollentuna Gospel (tracks: 10), Titiyo Jah (tracks: 1, 7)
Guest, Dhol – Lambodhar Kalindi (tracks: 2)
Guest, Drums [Additional Drums] – Magnus Frykberg (tracks: 1, 7), Magnus Persson (7) (tracks: 2, 6)
Guest, Musician [Nagra] – Ananta Mahato (tracks: 2)
Guest, Musician [Sanax] – Dharani Kalindi (tracks: 2)
Guest, Sounds [Birds] – Ingemar Persson
Guest, Synthesizer [Mini Moog] – Kaj Erixon (tracks: 9)
Photography By [Clouds Photographed By] – Kent Nyberg
Photography By [WOW Photographed By] – Ewa-Marie Wernersson
Producer [Produced By], Arranged By – Kaj Erixon, Walk On Water
Sleeve – Kent Nyberg
Words By, Music By – Erik Strömblad*, Flord, Magnus Wahl, Tot

Companies, etc.
Phonographic Copyright (p) – Alarma World Music
Copyright (c) – Alarma World Music
Record Company – Frontline Music Group
Distributed By – The Benson Company, Inc.
Recorded At – B3B Studios
Mixed At – B3B Studios
Glass Mastered At – Nimbus, Virginia
Published By – Broken Songs

Veil of Ashes – Pain – 1989

Veil of Ashes is an alternative band from Oakland, California that built a cult following in the California Christian music scene. Though they didn’t get a huge following in the CCM music scene they probably should have and their cult following had good taste. This is their first official album though they did have 2 previous demos one of which had good distribution. I was reading all of their reviews and all of them tried comparing the band to someone but I’m going to resist that. I believe they had a sound that was all their own. I really wish I would have heard this one back in the day but I have it now and it’s on my regular MP3 rotation. Oh and the Bob Dylan cover is pretty darn good too.

Tracklist
1 – The Times They Are A Changin’ – 3:56
2 – And They Call It Love – 3:45
3 – Without Eyes – 3:20
4 – Corpse – 4:35
5 – Suicide – 3:25
6 – She – 3:29
7 – Take My Hand – 4:04
8 – Testimony – 5:09
9 – The Cross Was His Own – 3:29
10 – Hide Me – 4:22
11 – Come Unto Me – 5:20

Credits
Art Direction – Ed McTaggart
Backing Vocals – Derri Daugherty (tracks: 1), Steve Hindalong (tracks: 1)
Bass – Sterling
Drums – Phil Meads
Engineer [Additional Technical Assistance] – Dave Jahnsen, Steve Hindalong
Keyboards, Electric Piano [Hammond B-3], Piano, Lead Guitar [Electric], Acoustic Guitar – Lance Harris
Percussion – Joseph Linn
Piano – Gene Eugene (tracks: 11)
Producer, Recorded By – Gene Eugene
Vocals, Acoustic Guitar, Electric Guitar, Harmonica, Voice [Poet] – Sean Doty

Companies, etc.
Distributed By – Word (Uk) Ltd.
Phonographic Copyright (p) – Graceland
Copyright (c) – Graceland
Recorded At – The Mixing Lab

Randy Stonehill – Return To Paradise – 1989

Randy broke out the acoustic guitar for this release but It’s not an acoustic album it just appears he stuck to the acoustic guitar for most tracks. The title “Return To Paradise” is a reference to his 1979 album “Welcome To Paradise” . This album is full of great performers. Phil Keaggy plays guitar on a few tracks, Mark Heard not only produced the album but played tambourine on a track. Derri Daugherty was involved with the engineering and David Edwards even wrote one of the songs. The lead track “Starlings” was only on the CD and not the cassette or vinyl. If you like Randy you’ll love this album. Realistically Randy never did a bad album.

Tracklist
1 – Starlings – 5:00
2 – Stand Like Steel – 4:55
3 – I Don’t Ever Want To Live Without You – 4:10
4 – This Friend Of Old – 4:00
5 – You Can Still Walk Tall – 5:00
6 – True Blood – 5:02
7 – Strong Hand Of Love – 2:54
8 – Christmas At Denny’s – 5:53
9 – Love Tells No Lies – 4:20
10 – Weight Of The Sky – 3:28
11 – Ready To Go – 4:44

Credits
Acoustic Bass – David Miner
Acoustic Guitar – Randy Stonehill
Backing Vocals – Pam Dwinell, Randy Stonehill (tracks: 3)
Bass – Mark Heard (tracks: 2, 9), Tom Willett (tracks: 7)
Bass [Fretless] – Bill Batstone
Drums – Doug Mathews
Engineer [Second Engineers] – Dan Reed, Dave Hackbarth, Derri Daugherty, Gary Gerhart, Stephen Padgett
Executive-Producer – Tom Willett
Fiddle, Viola – Joe Weed
Guitar [Classical] – Phil Keaggy (tracks: 3)
Mandolin, Accordion, Electric Guitar – Mark Heard
Pedal Steel Guitar, Lap Steel Guitar – Greg Leisz
Percussion – David Baker
Photography – Linda Krikorian
Producer – Mark Heard, Randy Stonehill
Recorded By, Mixed By – Mark Heard
Tambourine – Mark Heard (tracks: 7)
Twelve-String Guitar – Phil Keaggy (tracks: 9)
Vocals – Randy Stonehill
Written-By – David Edwards (tracks: 4), Mark Heard (tracks: 7), Pierce Pettis (tracks: 3), Randy Stonehill (tracks: 1, 2, 5, 6, 8 to 11)

Companies, etc.
Phonographic Copyright (p) – Word, Inc.
Copyright (c) – Word, Inc.
Manufactured By – Word, Inc.
Recorded At – Fingerprint Recorders
Mixed At – Fingerprint Recorders
Recorded At – Neverland
Published By – Stonehillian Music
Published By – Word Music
Published By – Ideola Music
Published By – Let’s Have Lunch Music
Published By – Pease Farm Produce

Higher Power – Cast A Light – 1989

This is the second album from Higher Power who were an obscure band out of Canada. Their sound is more mid 80’s with a strong emphasis on keyboards though guitar rifts are still present. None of the band members seem to have worked anywhere but Higher Power. If you know anything more about this band please let us know.

Tracklist
1 – Man Of Sorrow
2 – Love You Forever
3 – Now I Believe
4 – Cast A Light
5 – Jesus Make Me Whole
6 – Rock On Which I Stand
7 – Give It All
8 – Could It Be Love
9 – His Name
10 – I Know
11 – One Day

Credits
Rick Carlson – Keyboards
Dave Dutka – Vocals
Mark Anderson – Vocals
Gord Boyce – Acoustic & Electric Guitars, Vocals
Bryan Boyce – Drums, Percussion
Randy Ritz – Bass

Barren Cross – State Of Control – 1989

This is the third album from Barren Cross. The lineup was the same as their previous album Atomic Arena. This album is a well polished album with excellent production but with higher quality songs. The lyric quality was much better on this album as the band was obviously maturing. John and Dino Elefante stepped in again to provide production so the quality is there. A music video was produced for “Cryin’ Over You” but I personally didn’t think it was very good. Speaking of not very good the album cover was also questionable in my opinion. This playlist includes the CD bonus track “Escape In The Night”.

Tracklist
1 – State Of Control – 3:53
2 – Out Of Time – 4:09
3 – Cryin’ Over You – 4:53
4 – A Face In The Dark – 3:56
5 – The Stage Of Intensity – 6:36
6 – Hard Lies – 4:18
7 – Inner War – 4:09
8 – Love At Full Volume – 2:28
9 – Bigotry Man (Who Are You) – 4:42
10 – Two Thousand Years – 7:10
11 – Escape In The Night – 3:54

Credits
Art Direction – Regis Patoff
Bass Guitar, Synthesizer [MIDI Synthesizer Pedals], Backing Vocals – Jim LaVerde
Cover – Alex Remlin
Drums, Backing Vocals – Steve Whitaker
Engineer – Dino Elefante, John Elefante, Mike Mierau
Keyboards, Vocals [Additional] – John Elefante
Lead Vocals, Acoustic Guitar – Mike Lee
Mastered By – Eddy Schreyer
Mixed By – Dino Elefante, Mike Mierau
Photography By – Jodi Summers
Producer – Dino Elefante, John Elefante
Rhythm Guitar, Lead Guitar, Acoustic Guitar, Backing Vocals – Ray Parris

Companies, etc.
Distributed By – The Benson Company, Inc.
Phonographic Copyright (p) – Enigma Records
Copyright (c) – Enigma Records
Recorded At – Pakaderm Studios
Mastered At – Capitol Studios
Glass Mastered At – Nimbus, Virginia