| Musical Style: Metal/Hard Rock | Produced By: Frank Hart & Atomic Opera |
| Record Label: Metal Blade/Retroactive | Country Of Origin: USA |
| Year Released: 2000/2026 | Artist Website: Frank Hart |
| Tracks: 12 | Rating: 90% |
| Running Time: 50:28 |
As if its trademark ‘Houston sound’ didn’t do it, presence of ArkAngel vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Kemper Crabb helps give Atomic Opera its unique appeal. The groups 1994 Warner Brothers debut For Madmen Only (85% Angelic Warlord review) saw founding member, front man and guitarist Frank Hart draw upon the rich harmonies, swirling vocal melodies and progressive groove innate to Houston, Texas hard music scene contemporaries King’s X, Galactic Cowboys and The Awful Truth. For Massive Groove Productions 1997 sophomore Atomic Opera album Penguin Dust (75% review), Hart and co-founding member and drummer Mark Poindexter collaborate for the first time with Crabb, whom contributes mandolin to several tracks.
Crabb helps take the Atomic Opera sound to the next level on its Metal Blade Records 2000 third album Gospel Cola. In addition to lending his compositional skills and lead vocals to three tracks, he also provides mandolin, dulcimer, recorder, bouzouki, harmonica and ocarina in hearkening back to the multi-instrumental role he played on acclaimed 1980 ArkAngel ‘art rock’ album Warrior. Gist in my opinion is the Atomic Opera magnum opus in Gospel Cola.
Gospel Cola finds the group distancing from the lighter acoustic instincts to Penguin Dust and returning to the heavier metal meets hard rock with understated progressive inclining defining For Madmen Only. It proves the more consistent work from staying true to the innate Atomic Opera creative and technically complex songwriting acumen, referencing how I pass on several tracks to Penguin Dust but am not tempted to hit the skip button for Gospel Cola. Presence of Crabb plays no small role in such regard.
Long out of print and hard to find, Gospel Cola saw reissue on Retroactive Records on CD (300 copies) and vinyl (300 copies) in September and November of 2026, respectively. Rob Colwell attributes re-mastering and Scott Waters layout and design. Atomic Opera is renowned for choice production and original version to Gospel Cola proves no exception. Retroactive re-mastering, however, takes things to the next level with a cleaner sound revealed in a crisper rhythm guitar mix, deeper low end and more transparent backend details (vocal melodies, drum rolls & fills, etc).
Album opens to “Jesus Junk”, a term I believe traces to Keith Green and the early eighties that takes an unapologetic jab at the overt commercialization of the Gospel:
Gospel Cola in the morning
Then make my Velvet Jesus Bed
I want some Holy Trini-Tea Bags
Covenant Candy fish – and loaves of bred
Gold plated Crown of Thorns Messiah Ring
Belt buckle’s a descending dove
Hang a chrome fish on my truck
They’ll know were Christians by our love
…of junk
Musically, it embodies the heavier Atomic Opera side as sinewy guitars and swirling distortion coalesce as Hart unveils his emotive at times classic tenor and others reaching down low vocal proclivity. The looping vocal harmonies help bolster the ascending melody.
“October” further ups heaviness, embodying a darker resonance as low-end speaks of the strapping and guitars a somber partiality. A sophisticated mid-paced mood rises to the surface accordingly with the wispy rhythms and eclectic harmonies impressing of the bluesy.
“Winterland” unveils a progressive edge. Song flutters through its verse sections to atmospheric feedback only to amass incentive as burly guitars jolt in to embrace the glacial as it gets refrain. Catalyst picks up over the final minute and half as incentive digs and bites only for the bottom to drop out for choral harmonizing. Lyric snippet:
I think it's strange
How we blame the Darkness
Blame it on the light
I think it's strange
How we do the wrong things
And undo the right
Strange ... We try and explain
All the bad things we survive
Jesus. This is WinterLand.
First Crabb fronted track “Reiah Discerns The Times”, two and half minutes of buoyant guitars and blithesome bass, gives way to second, “Malediction”. Song opens to a medieval tinctured passage accenting Crabb’s distinctive grand and stately mid-ranged voice only to abruptly transition to voluminous metal swayed guitars. A vitalized framework materializes the remaining span, staunch in terms of the substantial backbone but also sustaining the medieval aspect (sort of like Wytch Hazel) with strong doses of melody and dreamy backing vocals. The ArkAngel influences are unmistakable.
“My Head” impresses as a delicate semi ballad. With winsome vestiges and bouncing rhythms leading the way, song regally flows as keyboards make a vaporous impression and guitars touch upon a lighter tone hearkening back to the better Penguin Dust material. Atomic Opera reveals a flattering commercial side to this one.
“Silence” takes an emboldened stance, with guitar playing an added forthright role and harmonies delivering added doses of fortitude. King’s X is a point of reference, revealed in the wave like underpinnings and accumulated vocal melodies. A warm and inviting tincturing elevates accordingly as song sways between faith and doubt:
Why is there so much pain?
Why is there so much violence?
The Word of God is silence
I need to hear, I long to
Please stop this silence
It will remind you of nothing
Like life, love and death
But silence was before all
It fills their every breath
“Muse” accents the Atomic Opera progressive side. The six-minute epic bounds out of the gate, almost thrash like with its heavy hitting timekeeping and intense riffing only to descend to rich harmonies and fluttering guitar for its initial verse sections and amiable refrain. The driving sentiments return only to give back to a calmer gait- back and forth and back again. The wonderful instrumental run closing the final three minutes runs from power riffs to graceful medieval instrumentation.
“Love Is As Strong As Death” represents another choice track. Song aligns equal parts ambient and eerie, sweeping with a haunting ballad like partiality to ominous bass and swarthy keyboards but haunting in light of the portent viola decorating the backend- Crabb proves the perfect fit to take the Atomic Opera sound the next level. The multi-layered ‘love is as strong as death, is as strong as love’ refrain chills to the bone. Lyric snippet:
With the promise of our youth
The silence from the truth
The passing of the rage
The glory of a child
The tearing of the page
We stand before the sky
We swear our love will never die
Love is as strong as death
Is as strong as love
Final Crabb fronted track ensues in “The Circle Is Closed”. It manifests as another progressive rocker, opening to recorder and offbeat sound effects ahead of marching forward to brash rhythm guitar interwoven with pungent bass and Middle Eastern instrumentation. The sweeping refrain interlaced with wistful harmonies rates alongside albums finest.
Recorder returns to impel the final instrumental seconds. Lyric snippet:
The present connects our history
The Circle is closed beginning to end
Mystery grows - from lover to friend
Eternity shows my heart in your hand
Holding the answers to why
The lonely ones cry.
There's truth in a sigh.
You are my rhyme
“Stop My Heart” ups aggression, jostling its span to distorted rhythms and pulsating guitar over a technical drum founding. Yet, the ever-present Atomic Opera layered backing vocals allow a melodic aura preventing any repetitious inclining. Impetus decelerates for the ploddingly bluesy instrumental run.
Album closes to one of its finest in the six minute “Doxology”. It also reveals a progressive edge, initiating to a minute long instrumental opening running the gamut from church organ to aggressive metal riffing. Bottom drops out to a lucid direction for the initial verse section with buffeting guitar impaling in and out of the mix ahead of the scintillating refrain of an airy nature. Return to a metal heading ensues only to give way to an interchanging of heavier moments and those lighter ad infinitum. The final two instrumental minutes morph from power metal based riffing to anthem like feedback. Creativity is off the charts. Lyric snippet:
Rising in unison
In a perfect world
We'll find the questions
In a world without end
Arched beams stretched over us
This common sense of surface
Refracted light of windows paned
This procession of vows
Hovering in the rebreathed air
This numbering of days
For these two thousand years
It would be an understatement to suggest Kemper Crabb proves a defining asset to Atomic Opera, elevating the groups sound with his choice songwriting, adroit vocals and multi-instrumental creativity. Atomic Opera, however, equally embodies Frank Hart’s adept compositional skills and top of the line guitar work. It equates to a work recapturing the form of For Madmen Only found in great song after great song: “Malediction”, “Muse”, “Love Is Strong As Death” and “Doxology” to name a few. If a fan of Atomic Opera or into the eighties and nineties era Houston hard music scene or progressive/art rock in its varying forms, elevate the Retroactive reissue to priority purchase status.
Review by Andrew Rockwell
Track Listing: “Jesus Junk” (3:29), “October” (3:57), “Winterland” (4:01), “Reiah Discerns The Times” (2:20), “Malediction” (5:30), “My Head” (3:59), “Silence” (2:48), “Muse” (6:01), “Love Is As Strong As Death” (3:59), “The Circle Is Closed” (4:49), “Stop My Heart” (3:35), “Doxology” (5:57)
Musicians
Frank Hart - Lead Vocals, Guitar & Cello
Kemper Crabb - Lead Vocals, Mandolin, Dulcimer, Recorder, Bouzouki, Harmonica & Ocarina
Ryan Birsinger - Bass & Stick
John Simmons - Drums & Percussion
