Reviews: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Barren Cross - Atomic Arena
   
Musical Style: Heavy Metal Produced By: Dino & John Elefante
Record Label: Enigma / Retroactive Country Of Origin: USA
Year Released: 1988 / 2020 Artist Website: Barren Cross
Tracks: 10 Rating: 85%
Running Time: 43:12

Barren Cross - Atomic Arena

The fact Barren Cross’ 1988 Engima Records sophomore album Atomic Arena has been a high-ranking mainstay on Christian metal ‘best of lists’ underscores its significance to the greater hard music community.  A 2018 article at Heaven’s Metal magazine compiling the top 100 Christian metal albums of all time placed Atomic Arena in a very respectable eleventh position, describing Barren Cross as ‘taking the Maiden-esque sound to new heights’ while ‘(soaring) with high energy and hard-hitting social commentary’.  A thread at the Christian Metal Realm forum from 2005 to also rate the top 100 Christian metal albums held Atomic Arena in even higher regard with an eighth place finish, garnering 410 reader votes behind the 727 accredited to winner Stryper’s Too Hell With The Devil and 659 for runner up Vengeance Rising’s Human Sacrifice.

Angelic Warlord has also gotten in on the act by rating Atomic Arena twenty-second in an article outlining what we believe to be the top 50 Christian metal albums of the eighties.  No, we might not value Atomic Arena to quite the same extent but an upper half finish is also nothing in which to be ashamed, particularly in light of some very stiff competition.  Personal favorites from Kerry Livgren (Seeds of Change), Sacred Warrior (Rebellion), Joshua (Intense Defense), Saint (Too Late For Living) and others, for instance, edged it out.  Fact is there is a very small margin of victory regarding all time great albums - a near photo finish if you will - in that from revisiting Atomic Arena we could justify placing it within the top 10 to 15 (or higher).

Hindsight might be 2020, but the spring of 2020 Retroactive Records re-issue to Atomic Arena allowed us to take a second look at the album and gain a newfound sense of appreciation for it.    A good measure of this pertains to improvements in the areas of re-mastering (attributing to Rob Colwell of Bombworks Sound) and packaging (crediting Scott Waters at No Life Til Metal Graphics).  A professionally done multi-page booklet is home to a slew of vintage band photos, scanned concert fliers and magazine covers in addition to lyrics in an easy to read font.

As for re-mastering, a side-by-side comparison with the Enigma release finds the Retroactive version coming out on top: cleaning things up by slightly increasing volume levels while producing the brighter, crisper and cleaner sound.  Any murkiness to the low-end ends up filtered out in the process.  Despite a bit too much polish for my taste, the original Elefante production sounds fine but credit the Colwell re-mastering for bringing Atomic Arena up to modern standards.

Album contains five of what I consider ‘monster cuts’, beginning with opener “Imaginary Music”.  Yes, I regard Barren Cross as straightforward heavy metal but allowing room to branch out musically, and such is what we have with the songs accessible (do I dare say commercial?) sound in giving prominence to albums most immediately engaging chorus hook.  If given proper push, I cannot help but think “Imaginary Music” could have been a significant radio hit (a video for the song did receive MTV airplay).

Even better is the group’s signature song “Dead Lock” (known as “Deadlock” on the California Metal compilation in which it first appeared) in channeling some of that high-energy momentum in question.  Heavier than “Imaginary Music” with its vitriolic guitar edges, it also stays true to a similar draw you in at once hook basis - a perfect joining of heaviness and melody if you will - but also burnishes (even if faintly) for the backing vocals to adorn its churlish refrain.  Addiction is the subject at hand:

I'm never going back, never, it doesn't last,
Reality is hitting me
They think they're in control,
But their desire is digging a deeper hole, they're in a Deadlock

I'm talking to you as a friend
And I love you 'til the very end
It's not the way to go, don't follow those who never
Never know

“Close To The Edge” is another top flight track.  It exudes a light progressiveness, beginning with the soaring instrumental opening seasoned by keyboards but also encompassing the heightened feel to the feedback driven refrain (every bit alluring as “Imaginary Music” and “Dead Lock”) and instrumental interlude decelerating to a near crawl to Ray Parris’ flogging lead guitar.  Bonus points for the range exhibited by Dickinson influenced vocalist Mike Lee.

Power metal influenced “In The Eye Of The Fire” might be the best of the bunch.  It stands out with its bludgeoning low end, finding Jim LaVerde in top form with an intro bass solo and lofty bass line simmering beneath the surface, and commanding presence, allowing Lee to trade off with shouted backing vocals during the able-bodied refrain.  Yes, missing is some of the accessibility of those previously referenced but the songs raw power more than makes up for it.  An anti-suicide message is delivered:

Do you feel weak inside?
Sometimes you wish you could die
Feels like no hope is ever to be
You have been hurting too long
Why not let God make you strong,
He'll lead you to joy, find him and see
Dying isn’t the key

Beware of the lie that it's happy to die, no, no
Wait out your strife but don't take your life

Barren Cross goes full on progressive metal with the seven minute “Living Dead”.  Roaring out of the gate at a restive tempo, it bulrushes ahead to a crushing rhythm section and all the technical thrash fortitude you could ask, only letting up for the periodic moments to see momentum temper, even if modestly.  Three minutes in and a chilling wind blows as offbeat keyboards coalesce with Lee’s swarthy vocal presence, only to give way to a cutting instrumental section.  The hardheaded angst returns for the remaining distance as the song recaptures its impulsive force.

A notch below but still very good is “Terrorist Child”, three and a half minutes of scorching metal trending towards the melodic fueled by a vocal harmony driven refrain and albums best stretch of lightning leads from Parris.  Likewise with “King Of Kings”, an inspired but basic worship melodic metal cut defined by striding rhythms and atmospheric passage at the halfway mark to pinpoint guitars on the more affable side.  Lyrically, former touches upon current events:

See the fire of a burning rage
Teach a class full of kids to hate
Pledge allegiance to an unknown cause
A fight they know nothing of

Terrorist child, if you only knew
You were taken and brainwashed only to kill
´Terrorist child, your days are few
And the blood that you shed will come back to you,
Terrorist child

And latter a worshipful form:

There's a mountain up in the Havens
That can never ever be moved
He's the Father of all creation
And He knows you even better than you do

He's the rock, the great I Am, the reason why we sing, He's the

King of kings, the master of all things
The power and the source
The everlasting force

I have never been enamored with companion speed metal tracks “Killers Of The Unborn” and “Cultic Regimes”.  With their agile, boisterous and impudent durability, I respect both as essential album cuts, but I do not find them that particularly memorable either.  That said are they supposed to be in light of musical direction at hand?  Regardless, Saint mirrored a similar heading on Time’s End cuts “Space Cruiser” and “Phantom Of The Galaxy” and (in my opinion) did the better job.  Lyrical direction to the two is self-explanatory:

Lay her down, commence to drill
A primo murder, the legal kill
I am a child about to die
My mother does not hear my cry, no

Killers of the unborn, killers
Killers of the unborn, stop the killing

Cultic regimes,
Money to scheme,
False religions, beware
Caught in the grip
Caught in the spit
It's all going to burn, it's a snare

Worship the god of your choice
Is he asleep where is his voice
My god raised up from the dead - is yours in bed?

Lone skip button is ballad “Heaven Or Nothing”, which I find dipped in to much glitz and polished keyboards for my taste.  The AOR style refrain is way over the top.  Let’s face facts: Barren Cross is simply not a ballad band.  Put the song in the hands of Stryper or Guardian and my tone potentially would be completely different.

It would not be out of line to suggest that Atomic Arena is the better of the four Barren Cross studio albums, at least when factoring the choice combination of consistent songwriting, solid production and musicianship.  It also features what in my opinion are many of the group’s better songs in “Dead Lock”, “Imaginary Music”, “Close To The Edge”, “Eye Of The Fire” and others.  Overall, I understand how others might rank it higher on ‘best of lists’ (if more into the two speed-metal cuts add another 5 to 10 percent to the final score) but one must also consider the strong competition the album faced.  In the end, thanks to Retroactive Records for not just the much needed re-issue, but also for getting the details correct in terms of re-mastering and packaging. 

Review by Andrew Rockwell

Track Listing: “Imaginary Music” (4:26), “Killers Of The Unborn” (3:28), “In The Eye Of The Fire” (4:27), “Terrorist Child” (3:30), “Close To The Edge” (4:55), “Dead Lock” (4:18), “Cultic Regimes” (2:48), “Heaven Or Nothing” (4:10), “King Of Kings” (3:30), “Living Dead” (6:50)

Musicians
Mike Lee - Lead Vocals & Acoustic Guitar
Ray Parris - Guitars
Jim LaVerde - Bass & Synthesizers
Steve Whitaker - Drums

 

Reviews: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
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