Cherry Red [Release date 21.02.25]

The second and third albums released by Christian Metal heroes, Barren Cross, are now together for the first time, remastered and reissued by Cherry Red, with ‘2 bonus tracks’ added.

Atomic Arena (1988)
State Of Control (1989)

The band, Mike Lee, Jim LaVerde, Ray Parris and Steve Whittaker were a tight, unified unit for many years.

Some background:

Marcus Moberg is Senior Researcher in the Department of Comparative Religion at Abo Akademi University in Turku, Finland.

Moberg states that Christian metal serves four main purposes: (We’re focusing here on the third) : “as an effective means of evangelism and fighting and standing up for the Christian faith”.

Over the years, the focus has changed. Moberg notes that the current scene seems to have very little interest in evangelism, especially in Northern Europe.

But that’s now, this was then.

And so, Atomic Arena, the debut, was born into an atmosphere initially of mistrust among the Metal buying masses.

It seemed like the album’s challenging, supercharged lyrics, with song titles like ‘Killers Of The Unborn’, ‘Terrorist Child’ and ‘Heaven Or Nothing’ would be anathema to your ordinary metal fans.

But no, the music, presented as Power Metal, driven hard by relentless, torqued up riffs, massive drum beats and Lee’s stratospheric vocal range, overcame any objection to the band’s challenging beliefs and intense, bloodletting lyrics.

Its success led to incessant touring, establishing valuable band/fan relationships, cementing the band’s commodity value.

Recently, Atomic Arena was placed 11th of the 100 Best Christian Metal albums of all time.

Looking back, the passion expressed across those 11 trailblazing tracks is on a scale that has its own distinction.

The album sold and the label got the band straight back into the studio the following year.

State Of Control was primarily written by Lee, “in the back of the bus on the Atomic Arena tours”, with John (Kansas) Elefante again at the production helm.

Both the ballads, ‘Your Love Gives’ and ‘Cryin Over You’ burn with the intensity that made the debut standout, getting the attention of MTV.

The spirited, doomy, foot on the monitor Heavy Metal of ‘Out Of Time’ is why the band was often compared to Maiden and Priest.
It was the first single.

Significant touring followed. The band had clearly broken out of any artificial Christian Metal limitations. The Troubadour, The Roxy, The Whisky and Gazzari’s on LA’s Sunset Strip’s became regular venues.

The inevitable changes in line up ensued, with the original band eventually reforming in 1994 for one more studio album. ****

Review by Brian McGowan

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