Various Artists
Righteous Metal
Reviewed by Doug Van Pelt
K-tel's Arrival Records has released the first Christian metal compilation of signed bands. They even beat Pure Metal's long-awaited Heavy Righteous Metal. The first reaction many of us die-hard metalheads is gonna be "Ah, they put Petra on there! And The Altar Boys!" You must remember that this album was basically put together almost a year ago. Arrival had to choose from Christian metal bands with records out. They didn't have access to all the hot bands with demos...and hot bands like Whitecross and Trytan weren't out yet. So, with what they had to choose from, they put together a good little record. Of any Petra song, I'd put "Shakin' the House" too. I'd pick another Rick Cua song, like "Don't Say Suicide," and I'd choose "I've Got Power" by Leviticus over an Altar Boys tune, and I'd choose "I Think You Know" from Rez's latest, plus I'd pick anything from Barren Cross but "Rock for the King" (It's their only song I really don't like). This is a hot album, as far as giving an uninitiated person a fair cross-section of Christian metal as of a year ago. It's progressed so much since then, Praise God! The real good news is: that Arrival is willing to do more compilations in the future! The album starts off with one of Christian metal's classics: Bloodgood's "Crucify." The remaining song list is: "Rock for the King"; "Master of the Metal" by Messiah Prophet; "Time's End" by Saint; "In His Majesty's Service" by Jerusalem; "Love Comes Down" by Rez; "Shakin' the House"; "Rock On" by Stryken; "Rise Up" by Daniel Band; "Wear Your Colors" by Rick Cua; "You Are Loved" by Altar Boys; and Philadelphia's "Search and Destroy." One other great thing about this record is that it's being distributed in secular stores all over!