Vengeance were the first death metal band to be chock full of turn or burn Christian lyrics. The band became Vengeance Rising due to a Dutch band using the same name and potential consequential lawsuits. I remember reading reviews in a couple of fanzines when the album was brand spanking new. One declared "these guys are God, in more ways than one" and the other stated, "I can't help smiling whenever Roger Martinez opens his mouth because Pastor Bob Beeman has no idea what he is supporting". That may have been a big call back in 89 when the album was released in 1988 as all members of the band at the time were church pastors but vocalist Roger Martinez eventually became an outspoken atheist and the band wound up. Although there were rumours of Martinez recording an album full of blasphemous lyrics using the Vengeance Rising name. Personally I didn't care for their second album at all and never really followed the band. This album smokes though due to the thrashy speed, classy bluesy guitar and the S.O.D. influenced tracks. My copy was a cassette tape bought by mail order from a wholesaler with the original band name. I've since learned there were only 1000 of these worldwide and I sold my copy a year or two after buying it. Oh well.
Holy!
2 comments:
There's just way to much to say about this post...
I as well owned a copy of "Human Sacrifice" with the original non-Rising name on it and, from what I can remember, it was the first Christian Thrash Metal album ever released. I know this as I was searching pretty desperatly for any decent Christian Rock in my youth (with little success). Being a fan of all things fast, furious and noisy you'd think X-ian Rock would have been the proverbial fourty years wandering in the desert but, oddly, believers (such as Believer) were at least as good if not better than a lot of the other (ahem) Crossover out there. Both albums by The Crucified, The Lead's "The Past Behind", the first Deliverance disc and anything by the aforementioned Believer are all worth adding to any speedy metal collection.
Anyway, I got bored with VR after the first album, Christian heshers had almost no luck gloming onto Death Metal (sorry, Mortification just does not cut the mustard seed) and I became obsessed with Superchunk and Big Star (R.I.P. Mr. Chilton)and thus the story ended...
...except that I needed some kinda handle when I started commenting on blogs and what could be better than the bi-line for the Metal Pastor to end all Metal Pastors? That's right, if you need someone to listen you can always
Call Pastor Bob!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIDTWqD1Yig&feature=related
Thanks so much for posting this and sorry for my projectile vomit of a comment.
Hi CPB
Love the long comment. It's the type music bloggers dream of getting regularly.
Believer released a comeback album last year after a 15 year break. Both Crucified albums have been posted on this blog. The only album by The Lead I owned was "Burn This Record", which has dissapeared into oblivion.
Steve Rowe from Mortification sent me a copy of Lightforce's Mystical Thieves" LP to review for a fanzine I was contributing to back when that band was going. The LP really wasn't very good.
I always meant to check out The Crucified's earlier stuff. I have seen it floating around in cyberspace.
Chris
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