Holy Soldier

Item: Encore
Author: Bert Gangl

Encore

(1997)

Reviewed by Bert Gangl

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Label SpaceportThe LighthouseUnsorted 1998

alternative rock hair metal hard rock

Holy Soldier began as a top-drawing Hollywood club scene act in the mid '80s and played together for five years before signing with Myrrh Records. The group released two albums for Myrrh: 1990's Holy Soldier, which won a Dove award for metal/hard rock album of the year, and 1992's Last Train. After the second album, vocalist Steven Patrick exited the group to begin a solo career and Holy Soldier left the Myrrh label. The band then recruited Eric Wayne from the Seattle group Red Reign for their third album, Promise Man, which was released on ForeFront in 1995. Like the debut release, Promise Man also won a Dove award for metal/hard rock album of the year. The band's latest release, Encore, includes live performances of nine songs from the first three albums, and studio versions of two new songs. The live segment of the album features both Wayne and Patrick on vocals and was recorded during a February 1997 concert at Nashville's Rocketown club.

Interestingly enough, in addition to highlighting the more popular songs of Holy Soldier over the past seven years, in many ways the album also serves as somewhat of a chronicle of rock music's changing sound; from the heavy metal rock of the late '80s to the modern rock sound of today. The songs from the first two albums, which are sung by Patrick, sound like the majority of the songs from any number of '80s hair-metal bands. "See No Evil," from the first album, is a perfect example with its machine-gun drumming, blistering lead guitar solo, piercing, acrobatic lead vocal work, and bombastic finish. And Patrick's enthusiastic exhortations to the crowd on songs like "When The Reign Comes Down" are reminiscent of any number of classic '70s and '80s rockers whose bread and butter during live performances was crowd interaction.

Not surprisingly, the more recent tunes from Promise Man, which are sung by Wayne, are nearly stereotypical examples of present-day alternative rock. "My World" uses syncopated drum work and a nearly clean guitar sound on its verses, while "Promise Man" uses a muddy guitar sound as a backdrop for Wayne's droning vocal sound. In general, the songs from the Promise Man album tend to boost the bottom end and place the emphasis on the rhythm rather than the lead guitar.

While the nine live songs are quite impressive from start to finish, the new studio tracks included on the album are somewhat less so. Wayne's vocals and the various orchestral flourishes on "Whisper" give it a nice enough sound, but its overly-changing tempo makes the song sound a bit sluggish. And while Stephen Patrick's vocals are characteristically impressive on "In The End," his signature singing style falls just short of meshing with the song's more modern rock sound.

Overall, though, the relative weaknesses of the studio tracks are more than compensated for by the topnotch musicianship and fine sound quality of the live set. To be sure, the energetic and precise rendering of the group's greatest hits in the live environment proves that the band has lost none of the skill that has made, and kept, Holy Soldier one of the most popular acts in Christian rock music.