Description

Reduced price due to cut out

Still sealed. Us pressed music cassette. Clear cassette with grey text.

Although they never achieved as much notoriety as their Orange County neighbours Stryper, Los Angeles Barren Cross were among the best-known Christian (or “white”) metal bands to emerge in the 1980s. They released their debut album, Rock For The King, in 1986 and it featured some powerful, Judas Priest-derived heavy metal that sounded far more legitimate than Stryper’s goofy pop-metal. The remarkable Atomic Arena followed in 1989 and then came State Of Control in 1989. Through this album, Barren Cross won many accolades and awards that year; Barren Cross was named by HM: “Readers Poll Band Of The Year for 1989”; and ‘State Of Control’ was “1989 Readers Poll Album Of The Year”. Furthermore, Bassist Jim LaVerde won “1989 Readers Poll Bassist Of The Year”, and Lead Singer Michael Drive (Lee) also received top awards in 4 categories. The band had the same line-up but added more background choruses and Mike Lee incorporated more variety in the singing (textures and vocal range) for State Of Control. They also gave more room for the bass to come up and show Jim LaVerde’s skills and for Steve Whitaker in the drumming department. The production is very clean and it was under John and Dino Elefante who were the responsible for producing Petra’s most famous and heaviest releases in the 80’s. When it comes to the music this one is kind of strange to classify. The killer songs are the best they ever put out (yes, even better than Atomic Arena) saying: The Stage Of Intensity, Hard Lies, Inner War and Two Thousand Years. The problem is with the bad songs: Out Of Time, A Face In The Dark, Love At Full Volume and Bigotry Man are really filler/bad/average and not remarkable at all. Cyrin Over You is a very good power ballad that can be compared easily with Iron Maidens Wasting Love because it has the same structure, vocal style, pace, and the solo is very similar only this one has a more sad and gloomy feeling. The Stage Of Intensity with its acoustic intro to set the mood and killer riffing is the best song in the album without any doubt. Inner War and Two Thousand Years are also worth mentioning as they have exquisite rhythm parts, amazing solos and everything you expect from very good heavy metal. Two Thousand Years is very similar to King Of Kings with the same pace and song structure. This was the final release before they split up (or took a hiatus) and back in 1989, when it was released, heavy metal started to change to harder and sharper tendencies. State Of Control is definitely worth owning. This album can compete with some of Maiden’s or Scorpions’ heaviest albums and you can enjoy the best songs here as their best songs ever and the bad ones you can skip since they are quite average.

Track list:
1. State Of Control
2. Out Of Time
3. Cryin’ Over You
4. A Face In The Dark
5. The Stage Of Intensity
6. Hard Lies
7. Inner War
8. Love At Full Volume
9. Bigotry Man (Who Are You)
10. Two Thousand Years