1990 – Page 8 – Real 80s CCM

Contender – Fighting To Win – 1990

Right off the bat there is some confusion out there on this band. This is the New York Contender NOT the Illinois Contender. The Illinois version had 2 demos and this version does not have a demo out there I am aware of. Other than that I was unable to find out much about this one album band. The lead singer Eddie Villanueva apparently had some info on the band on MySpace but it’s long since been scrubbed. The album is a straight out Rock album. Some have classified it at Metal but in my opinion it’s Hard Rock. It’s a pretty good album but I feel it should have had a little more production. It was produced by the band and I am surprised that when Refuge picked it up they didn’t bring someone in to work on the album but it really looks like it went straight from studio to pressing. Too bad because I think had this had some better production it would have been a whole lot better known.

Tracklist
1 – I Won’t Give Up – 3:10
2 – You – 3:36
3 – Convenient Christianity – 4:04
4 – You’re There For Me – 4:10
5 – Fighting To Win – 4:03
6 – So I’m Singing – 3:53
7 – Cryin’ Over You – 3:31
8 – I Know You’re There – 4:27
9 – Pullin’ The Wool – 3:10
10 – I Believe In You – 4:19

Credits
Bass – Rich McCarthy
Electric Guitar, Acoustic Guitar, Backing Vocals – Paul Grimsland
Guitar, Drums, Bass – Bob Vinsick
Guitar, Keyboards, Drums, Bass, Backing Vocals – Steve Atwood
Lead Vocals – Eddie Villanueva

Companies, etc.
Phonographic Copyright ℗ – Refuge Records
Copyright © – Refuge Records
Distributed By – Spectra Distribution, Inc.
Distributed By – Mainroads Music Group

Dead Artist Syndrome – Prints of Darkness – 1990

Dead Artist Syndrome is actually simply Brian Healy and a host of friends that over the year, records and concerts rotated in and out in support of their friend who is easily Christian Music most unheralded alternative artists. Too often pigeon holed as exclusively a “goth” artists, DAS was an alternative that presented a darker, gloomier and deeper perspective to the world than most in CCM. The label most obviously comes from Healy’s baritone and at time monotone vocals associated with goth rock. It is not a whole lot different from many Mike Knott (who makes in appearance here) created projects. On “Prints” Healy is joined by Undercover’s Ojo Taylor and Gym Nicholson and it shows. There is an atmospheric sound to the record that is reminiscent of Undercover as well the Psychedelic Furs, Echo and the Bunnymen and The Sisters of Mercy. Healy willfully uses satire, sarcasm and symbolism throughout and, as a result, often misunderstood. Healy is an ordained minister and infuses much of his lyrics with doctrinal ideologies. I was working for Frontline Records when the second album was released and met Brian on a few occasions as result. I always found him to be incredibly nice, very, very funny and quite intelligent and interesting. These virtues would appear within the content of all of DAS’s music and is most evident on this debut. The opening track, “Christmas” is a sly indictment on the commercialization of the “Winter Break” and the rejection of the truth of the season. “Red” appears to be inspired by the story of Hosea and the harlotry of God’s people over the generations. I love the album’s finale, “Reach,” which is a very simply expression of worship in a somber and powerful way. It reminds the listener of the need to reach out to God in glory and honor.

Contributor David Lowman – https://ccms500bestalbums.wordpress.com/

Tracklist
1 – Christmas – 3:35
2 – Amy – 3:41
3 – Dancing Without Touching – 3:25
4 – Vision – 3:35
5 – Hope – 4:35
6 – Dance With Me – 4:04
7 – Think Of Me – 3:16
8 – Red – 3:40
9 – Reach – 3:30

Credits
Backing Vocals – Annica Svensson, Brian Miller, Camille Miller
Bass, Guitar [Acoustic] – Mike Knott
Bass, Keyboards – Michael Saurerbrey
Executive Producer – Thom Roy
Guitar – Gym Nicholson
Guitar [Rhythm & Acoustic] – Chris Harvey
Keyboards – Jeff Sheets, Ojo Taylor
Mixed By – Brian Healy, Ojo Taylor, Thom Roy
Producer – Brian Healy
Recorded By – Brad Jeffers, Dave Hackbarth, Ojo Taylor, Scott Macklin
Synthesizer [Synclavier] – Whitney Quinn
Vocals – Brian Healy

Companies, etc.
Phonographic Copyright ℗ – Dead Artist Syndrome
Copyright © – Dead Artist Syndrome
Produced For – The Points
Recorded At – Whitefield Studios
Recorded At – Neverland
Mixed At – Neverland
Published By – Blatant Christian Music
Published By – B-1 Music
Made By – Disctronics Group, United States – 112970

Mad At The World – Seasons Of Love – 1990

This was probably one of the most surprising albums of 1990. MATW did a complete change of direction going from a new wave pop sound to a more hard rock sound. I can honestly say that this new “The Cult” sound was quite a surprise to me and honestly I was not a fan. I didn’t mind the sound, I had The Cult in my collection at the time but when a band does a switcharoo like this it is just too startling to me. Now that aside the album is very well done and these guys nailed a sound that was not well represented in CCM music at the time. The album sold very well as I think the new style was a welcome change to a lot of fans. I think it can be said that this album was a rather historic CCM music moment so if for no other reason than that you should give it a listen.

Tracklist
1 – The Narrow Road – 3:39
2 – Seasons Of Love – 4:51
3 – City Of Anger – 5:34
4 – When The Wind Blows – 5:38
5 – Marshmallow Land – 2:58
6 – Summer’s Gone – 3:06
7 – Promised Land (The Deception Of Drugs) – 5:24
8 – So Insane – 3:22
9 – It’s Not A Joke – 3:27
10 – The Love That Never Fades – 4:05
11 – Seasons Of Love (Reprise) – 5:04

Credits
Arranged By, Engineer [Engineered By] – Roger Rose
Art Direction – Ed McTaggart
Band [Mad At The World Is] – Brent Gordon, Mike Pendleton, Randy Rose, Roger Rose
Illustration [MATW Logo Illustration Re-worked By] – David Jackson
Layout – Joe Potter
Mastered By – John Matousek
Photography By – David Dobson
Producer [Produced By] – Roger Rose
Songwriter [Songs Written By] – Randy Rose, Roger Rose

Companies, etc.
Phonographic Copyright (p) – Alarma Records
Copyright (c) – Alarma Records
Distributed By – The Benson Company
Recorded At – MATW Studios
Mastered At – Soundworks West
Published By – Broken Songs
Glass Mastered At – Nimbus, Virginia

Arsenal – Armored Choir – 1990

The late 80’s provided the Christian metal scene some fantastic metal bands and this is one of them. Fronted by a female singer they stuck out a bit from the crowd and the fact that she was gorgeous certainly didn’t hamper the band either. Arsenal first appeared on a Regency Records sampler “East Coast Metal”. I am assuming they were well received so the album came about. Unfortunately this is all we got from them as it appears this was a one record deal. This band continues my complete bewilderment of the Christian Metal scene as obviously there was sufficient talent here to merit another album. That said I was not involved with this area of the Christian music scene so I don’t know what kind of sales numbers these albums were getting. Apparently there are demo’s pre and post this album and you can rest assured I’ll be looking for them. I understand that Christine is still strongly involved with music and recent pics of her show that she is every bit as beautiful now as she was when this album came out.

Tracklist
1 – Turn Around – 3:30
2 – Someone Believes In You – 3:38
3 – Armored Choir – 3:39
4 – Coming Back To You – 2:29
5 – Forever Yours – 3:44
6 – The Valley – 3:14
7 – You’re No Good For Me – 3:28
8 – Bishop Of Souls – 3:56
9 – Take It Away – 3:23
10 – The Candle… The Flame – 3:30

Credits
Backing Vocals – Dale Tiemann, Doug Kirkland, Russ Kirkland
Bass – Kandy Slaughter
Cover – Jeff Spencer
Drums – Dave Calliano
Lead Guitar – J.D. Miller
Lead Vocals – Christine Steel
Producer, Engineer, Keyboards – Russ Kirkland

Companies, etc.
Phonographic Copyright (p) – Regency Records
Made By – Disctronics S
Distributed By – Word (U.K.) Ltd
Recorded At – Papa K’s
Produced For – September Music Productions

Vengeance Rising – Once Dead – 1990

This is the second studio album by Vengeance Rising. It follows the same path of thrash metal as their first album. It is often considered their best album and I’ve read a few reviews that said it was the best Christian thrash album ever. Apparently it’s good enough that it crossed over into secular fans. As I’ve said before when It comes to this style I have no idea if it’s good or not as it’s all I can do to listen to it’s once. The lyrics are very biblical based (when I could understand them) which I found surprising but their is one exception track and that’s a rather odd cover of Deep Purples’ Space Truckin’. I’m not criticizing I just struggle to figure out the reason for this track. Anyway here it is, apparently the best Christian Thrash Metal album their is.

Tracklist
1 – Warfare – 4:50
2 – Can’t Get Out – 3:50
3 – Cut Into Pieces – 3:15
4 – Frontal Lobotomy – 4:05
5 – Herod’s Violent Death – 3:07
6 – The Whipping Post – 8:40
7 – Arise – 4:50
8 – Space Truck’In – 5:00
9 – Out Of The Will – 2:04
10 – The Wrath To Come – 2:43
11 – Into The Abyss – 8:18
12 – Among The Dead – 3:03
13 – Interruption – 0:50

Credits
Arranged By – Vengeance Rising
Bass – Roger Dale Martin
Drums – Glenn Mancaruso
Engineer, Mixed By – Dave Jahnsen
Guitar – Doug Thieme, Larry Farkas
Mastered By – Eddie Schreyer
Producer, Mixed By – Ron Goudie
Vocals – Roger Martinez

Companies, etc.
Phonographic Copyright (p) – Intense Records
Copyright (c) – Intense Records
Recorded At – The Mixing Lab
Glass Mastered At – Nimbus, Virginia

Halo – Halo – 1990

Halo, which apparently stands for “Heavenly Angelic Light Orchestra”, were a great hard rock/metal band out of Alabama. They formed in 1980 and strangely had a non Christian drummer, Mike Graham, who was also only 14 years old while the rest of the band was in the area of 21 years old. He did come to Christ in a couple years but I find it odd someone would ask a 14 year old non Christian drummer to join their adult Christian band. But whatever, it all seemed to work out. The band played for the next 9 years without a record deal. A demo tape got to Bob Hartman (Petra) and he started to mentor the band. Bob finally got them a record deal in 1989 with the Elefante brothers over at Pakaderm Records. This album was then recorded with much involvement of the Elefante’s and released in 1990. Best description of the sound would be a power Rock & Roll band which some (including me) might consider to be light metal. This is one that definitely deserves a listen.

Tracklist
1 – Jesus Music – 4:20
2 – Lord Of All – 4:39
3 – Good Feeling – 4:13
4 – Soul Searcher – 4:35
5 – Skyrocket – 3:45
6 – Lose To Live – 4:33
7 – Sing (Of His Glory) – 4:21
8 – Language Barrier – 5:09
9 – Time To Run – 4:01
10 – Timeless – 1:07

Credits
Arranged By [Additional] – Bob Hartman (tracks: 3, 4, 8)
Backing Vocals – John Elefante
Band [Halo], Drums, Keyboards, Backing Vocals – Mike Graham
Band [Halo], Guitar, Backing Vocals – Keith Mims
Band [Halo], Lead Vocals, Bass Guitar – Scott Springer
Cover, Illustration, Layout – Robert Fischer
Drums – David Raven (tracks: 5)
Engineer, Mixed By – Dino Elefante, John Elefante, Mike Mierau
Guitar – Dino Elefante, Glen Pierce, Tony Palacios (tracks: 5)
Keyboards – John Elefante
Mastered By – Doug Sax
Piano – John Schreiner (tracks: 4, 8)
Producer – Dino Elefante, John Elefante
Vocals [Duet] – John Elefante (tracks: 5), Scott Springer (tracks: 5)

Companies, etc.
Manufactured By – Word, Inc.
Distributed By – Word, Inc.
Phonographic Copyright (p) – Pakaderm Records
Copyright (c) – Pakaderm Records
Published By – Benefante Music
Recorded At – Pakaderm Studios
Mastered At – The Mastering Lab

Jet Circus – Step On It – 1990

I get the feeling you either love or hate this album. I’m going to be honest on first listen I didn’t like it but I didn’t hate it either. Keep in mind I listen to a new album every day so so often I forget about them 20 minutes after listening to it. I listened to this album yesterday but today felt I had to listen to it again. Then it hooked me. Ez Gomér and Terry Haw from Leviticus decided to try something new and this is it. This is the only album we got from them in the 90’s though they did record a second one but apparently there was a record label problem and it has never been released. Can you even believe Word Records released this one? If I had to describe the sound I guess I would pick “Fusion Metal” but even that’s not fair because this album is it’s own dog. Don’t give up after the opening track as the rest of the album does not incorporate rap again. Personally however “Victory Dance” works for me and I HATE rap in any form so that’s saying something. If you really only have time for one track at least make it their cover of the Gene Vincent song “Be Bop A Lula”.

Tracklist
1 – Victory Dance – 3:30
2 – Rockin’ Horse – 3:43
3 – Jet Blue – 3:18
4 – Step On It – 5:15
5 – Ghost Town – 4:09
6 – Break This Jail – 5:40
7 – Be Bop A Lula – 2:44
8 – Train – 4:07
9 – Run – 4:39
10 – Dress In White – 4:14

Credits
Bass, Keyboards, Backing Vocals – Ez Gomér
Design – Ez Gomér
Engineer [Engineered By] – Janne Mattsson, Martin Cervall
Guest [Special Thanks To], Choir – Lotta Gustavsson (tracks: 1)
Guest [Special Thanks To], Drum Programming – Jörgen Tjusling
Guest [Special Thanks To], Harmonica – Göran Norin
Lead Vocals, Guitar – Terry Haw
Photography By – Lennart Sjöberg
Producer [Produced By] – Ez Gomér, Terry Haw
Written-By [All Titles By] – Ez Gomér (tracks: 1 to 6, 8 to 10), Terry Haw (tracks: 1 to 6, 8 to 10)

Companies, etc.
Phonographic Copyright (p) – Wonderland
Copyright (c) – Wonderland
Phonographic Copyright (p) – Word Records Limited
Copyright (c) – Word Records Limited
Phonographic Copyright (p) – Word (Uk) Ltd.
Copyright (c) – Word (Uk) Ltd.
Manufactured By – Word, Inc.
Distributed By – Word, Inc.
Recorded At – Studio Jam (3)
Published By – Big Rage! Productions

Haven – Your Dying Day – 1990

This was the introductory album from New Jersey metal band Haven. Released in 1990 you might have missed it in the flood of Metal albums coming out at this time but this one did have some differences. It is more of a white metal album with no keyboards confusing the sound. You certainly won’t mistake this for the glam style metal albums of the time. This is in fact a straight up metal band that relies on great guitar riffs and solid time keeping drums. The vocals are not that high pitch screaming but instead a more middle of the range quality feel. Again this is not my style of music but I can hear the quality here. These guys definitely knew what they were doing. My only complaint is the mix, it just really could have used some more range but instead feels compressed at times. That said you should definitely give this album listen if you missed it at the time. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised.

Tracklist
1 – On Judgement Day – 5:22
2 – Deliver Me – 4:47
3 – Murder – 4:48
4 – Below The Grave – 2:49
5 – The Calling – 5:36
6 – America – 4:38
7 – Escape – 4:34
8 – Help Me Follow – 3:23
9 – I Found Love – 5:35
10 – Your Dying Day – 5:37

Credits
Acoustic Guitar – Andrew Bruner
Artwork – Sudden Images
Backing Vocals – Kevin Ayers
Drums – Tim Benton
Electric Bass – Ed Bruner
Electric Guitar – Andrew Bruner
Electric Guitar, Rhythm Guitar – Kevin Ayers
Lead Vocals – Kevin Ayers
Photography By – Mike Ayers
Producer – Doug Mann, Paul Krueger
Songwriter – Haven

Companies, etc.
Recorded At – Morningstar Studios
Distributed By – Spectra Distribution, Inc.
Phonographic Copyright (p) – R.E.X. Music Inc.
Copyright (c) – R.E.X. Music Inc.
Glass Mastered At – DADC – DIDX-008265

Toni Rossi – Love In The City – 1990

After the dissolution of Daniel Band Guitarist/Vocalist Toni Rossi did a couple of solo projects. This is the first of those 2 projects. If you like Daniel Band you should like this album. It has a Hard Rock sound and is not that far a departure from Daniel Band. It does have a blues feel in places which Rossi does extremely well. It appears that Rossi put together an entirely new band for this project as no members of Daniel Band are credited as contributing to the album. The album was partly produced by Wolf Hassel who Canadians might be familiar with as he was in Sheriff and Frozen Ghost. I can’t find any other connection of him to Christian music so this was probably more of a professional arrangement. Toni did do one more album after this one using the moniker “TRB” (Toni Rossi Band).

Tracklist
1 – Down Where The Love Grows – 3:55
2 – Sooner Or Later – 5:03
3 – Ain’t Nobody Gonna – 4:00
4 – Not What It Seems – 3:24
5 – Love In The City – 5:37
6 – Candles – 0:48
7 – Higher – 4:53
8 – I.C.Y. – 4:38
9 – Love Followed Me Home – 4:23
10 – One Way Inn – 4:11
11 – Dry The Tears – 4:38

Credits
Toni Rossi – Vocals, Guitars, Backing vocals
Frank Catrambone – Drums
Lynn Fuhr – Backing Vocals
David Graham – Keyboards, Backing vocals
John Hughes – Drums
Wayne Morgan – Bass, Backing vocals
Sam Sundarsingh – Backing vocals
Steven Jones – Cover Design, Illustrations
Michael Sarracini – Engineer, Producer
Wolf D. Hassel – Producer

Companies, etc.
Distributed By – Spectra Distribution
Phonographic Copyright (p) – Refuge Records
Copyright (c) – Refuge Records

Crossection – Breaking Ground – 1990

The Rawling brothers are back with their second and last album as “Crossection”. It’s even better than their first album and I think if this album had been published closer to 1985 these guys would have been known to everyone who listened to CCM music. Unfortunately they were just a little late and as such they never received the credit they should have. This is a fantastic Pop Rock album with hints of Nightranger and Bon Jovi. It is not metal though you will read that in a few spots on the internet. I have no idea what album those people were listening to but it’s not any of the 3 Crossection albums I have listened to. The brothers did go on to do one more CCM album after this one using the moniker “Doug Rawling And The Fourth Watch”. Of course if your Canadian you’re probably well aware of their country music work up until this day. So if you missed this one in 1990 take a bit of time and give it a listen, you will not be disappointed.

Tracklist
1 – River’s Edge – 4:13
2 – Give It A Rest – 4:13
3 – Too Much Sadness – 4:28
4 – Touch The Sky – 4:30
5 – Fork In The Road – 5:08
6 – Where You Go – 5:14
7 – High And Dry – 3:12
8 – Tears For The Taking – 4:42
9 – I’m Missing You – 4:12
10 – Against The Grain – 6:11

Credits
Dale Johnson – Keyboards, Vocals
Nevin Eggum – lead & rhythm guitar, lead vocals
Douglas Rawling – rhythm guitar, lead vocals
Bruce Rawling – bass, acoustic guitar, lead vocals
Martin Zinger – drums, vocals

Companies, etc.
Manufactured For – Image 7 Music, Vancouver
Phonographic Copyright (p) – Image 7 Music Inc.
Copyright (c) – Image 7 Music Inc.