The early 80's...the Cars were big in the pop scene, and bands wore tight pants with flashy shirts. Philadelphia came out of left field playing a Melodic Early Heavy Metal dubbed "Righteous Rock" and they didn't get marketed to the Christian industry as much as they did the secular world.
I'll be honest I had heard tell about this band, but until I popped this re-issue CD by M8 Distribution into my CD player I had never heard their music before. These guys are a toned down Quiet Riot! All I can say it's simply FUN to listen to this album. This album is loaded with high pitched guitar solos, and vocals that are just melodic metal style.
What really impresses me are their lyrics. These guys give it all to God in every song, and to think this stuff was marketed to radio stations....they should have known they'd fail, no radio station had the guts to play this kind of integrity filled music. Check this bit of tongue-in-cheek piece from "No Compromise:"
Jesus met the devil and the desert winds did blow
He said, if you be the Son of God take a rock-and make him roll,
But He gave him no compromise, No compromise
Jesus said, It is written not by bread alone
But by every word that come from God. The Word of God alone.
We are talking SERIOUS scripture there. The music is just as punchy. Man if you are into retro metal at all this is a must have. The guitars squeal, and the songs just ROCK!
8/10
Other coverage for this album
Opus 2005Reviewed by Jason MoreheadOriginally released in 1985, I'm sure that this release raised some eyebrows back then. Tooth & Nail Records was still years away, and the Christian music scene was starting to realize that you could create music that could sound "secular" and yet still be "spiritual." So I'm sure that Philadelphia raised the ire of some Christian parents, convinced that their good little youth group-attending…Dead Zine 2002Reviewed by SORGPhiladelphia is a band that I had heard of but never heard, until now. This cd is definitely one for the history books, when it came out on vinyl in 1984 it truly was one of the first Christian metal recordings that I am aware of. The cd kicks off with the title track, a killer tune with great addictive riffs and sounds very similar to early Saint and Judas Priest. The vocals are a little slurred…The Phantom Tollbooth 1999Reviewed by Bert GanglMention '80s rock & roll and most people envision groups like Poison, Winger and any number of other bands whose slick, hook-laden pop-metal and highly visual approach locked them in as staples of both rock radio and music television. Of course, in Christian music a comparable, albeit much smaller, collection of artists were combining the sound and appearance of their mainstream counterparts with…The Phantom Tollbooth 1999Reviewed by Michial FarmerMillennium 8 Distribution is doing us all the favour of reissuing classic albums from the '80s and early '90s. So far, artists featured include Dance House Children and Lifesavers Underground. The latest in the series is the classic melodic metal album Tell the Truth..., originally released by Philadelphia in 1984. Tell the Truth... harkens back to brighter days, when the hair was big, the men…Similar sounding releases
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