Description
Very rare test pressing with American testpress labels from Rainbow Reords in Usa. Testpressings are very hard to obtain and are often only made in 5-25 copies. A testpressing or an acetate is a crown jewel in any vinyl collection. This testpressing is dated to the 30th of August 1985
Apart from being a Christian act playing mid-eighties AOR, the particularity of Battlecry is their origin: the most recent of the 50 U.S. States, Hawaii. Anyway, the band commanded by singer Doug Morris moved to California and not only made a strong following among religious circles but also from secular audiences. Recorded and released independently, their now hard to find sole release Red White And Blue from 1985 includes some lovable AOR tunes with a strong keyboard presence, nice melodies and good choruses. You have marching tracks such as the Aviator-like title track Red White And Blue or the Journey-esque Life With The Lord plenty of synth fills and Neal Schon influenced guitar playing. More Melodic Rock / radio oriented is the sweet hookline in Power And Might, while the classic mid-tempo AOR styling of Youve Got To Know somehow reminds me Steve Overland’s Wildlife or early FM. When The Lord Comes Back is the weakest track with some poppy Allies smell, but Not Tough Enough recaptures the melodic energy via cool guitar licks, swirling keys and easy choruses. As you can read in the song titles lyrics are clearly religiously focused, but that does not bother at all. Songwriting is little naive at places, however these guy’s musicianship – and the gurl playing keyboards – is very good, as well production. Red White And Blue only was released on vinyl and cassette (which includes some unnecessary live tracks poorly recorded as bonus). If youre into heavily laden melodic rock with keyboards that are characterized by high-pitched, note-perfect harmonies then this one is something worth checking out. Red White And Blue was an impressive collection of melodic AOR that paid respect to Yes and Journeys blueprint.
Track listing:
1. Red White And Blue
2. When The Lord Comes Back
3. Life With The Lord
4. Not Tough Enough
5. Power And Might
6. Youve Got To Know