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As one of the most influential Christian Metal bands
to hit the genre Whitecross have taken it upon themselves to re-record and
re-release their most prominent album to take their self titled debut
album 'Whitecross’.
This 1987 release
took the world of Christian Metal by storm and made household names of Rex
Carroll and Scott Wenzel.
The duo together with Mike
Feighan
have
taken that definitive 80’s sound and given it the benefit of new recording
techniques and equipment to bring the album kicking and screaming into the
now.
The
album opens up with ‘Who Will You Follow’ and instantly you can here the
superb guitar work of Carroll along with Wenzel’s Pearcy like vocals.
The same hard rocking in continued on ‘Enough Is
Enough’,
a track that could have come off any of Ratt’s albums such is Wenzel’s
vocals so near Pearcy’s with Carroll laying down some quite sublime licks.
One of my favourite tracks off the album has to be
‘He Is The Rock’,
this is Wenzel at his finest as he just shines vocally and with Carroll on
his left hand side just burning up the fret board like Satan himself was
on his tail, this is just a magnificent track.
Although the band wear their beliefs on their
sleeves they don’t hammer it into the listener they just let the music do
the talking as the album continues it path with the guitar filled ‘Lookin’
for A Reason’ and the equally impressive ‘No Way I’m Going’ Down’ with its
heavier refrain.
The band are definitely heavily liked by the fans of
Ratt,
Stryper, Motley Crue
and the like but there are touches of Helix and Great White in the
Whitecross sound as the next track ‘Seein'
Is Believin’ shows,
as Wenzel powers on through
another 80’s explosion,
but this version sounding so fresh it could have been written yesterday.
On ‘All I Need’ it’s the guitar work of Carroll that
is the guiding light of the track with Wenzel giving it that Marc Storace
sound on this one.
But Carroll really shows what he’s made off with the
guitar instrumental ‘Nagasake’ as the lick just keep on coming, you can
see why he continually got favourite guitarist year after year in Heaven’s
Metal Magazine in the 80’s & 90’s.
The band come out all guns blazing on hardened
rocker ‘Signs Of The End’ which shows the band have a harder edge and
aren’t afraid to show it.
On the original album there was another track
entitled ‘Your Mine’ which for some reason is omitted from new version of
the album, but the band don’t leave you short changed as they have
included a couple of full bonus tracks firstly ‘Love On The Line’ from the
EP of the same name,
and a wonderful new guitar solo track ‘’Re-d Animate’,
which shows that after all these years Carroll can still burn up the fret
board. There are also four hidden outtakes, studio jams and snippets for
your listening pleasure.
This a great rebirth of an album that holds so much
for so many and lets hope this paves the way for a totally new album which
I for one would like to hear. |
