Musical Style: Hard Rock	Produced By: Resurrection Band
Record Label: Star Song	Country Of Origin: USA
Year Released: 1979	Artist Website: Resurrection Band
Tracks: 10	Rating: 95%
Running Time: 36:10

Most hard music fans agree: The Resurrection Band 1979 Star Song Records sophomore album Rainbow’s End is a step up compared to its 1978 predecessor Awaiting Your Reply (also Star Song).  Not that Awaiting Your Reply is in any way flawed - a solid album in its own right - but Rainbow’s End in my opinion features the stronger selection of songs or at the very least one of the finest in the groups three decade spanning and thirteen studio album career.  It also allows co-lead vocalist Wendi Kaiser to play a more prominent role, appearing on four songs as opposed to just two on Awaiting Your Reply.  Further accolades reveal from how Rainbow’s End took second place in an Angelic Warlord article ranking each of the Resurrection Band albums (for those wondering Awaiting Your Reply rates sixth, while top honors attribute to Innocent Blood from 1989).

Of course, bias and sentimental value play a potential role on my part, particularly when factoring how Rainbow’s End is the album that introduced me to Christian rock.  Fall of 1980 and a friend at the Christian high school I attended at the time loaned me a cassette copy, and the rest as they say is history.  Unduly inspired, I proceeded to collect the other ‘Rez Band’ albums released at the time to include Awaiting Your Reply in addition to Colours (1980) and later Mommy Don’t Love Daddy Anymore (1981), DMZ (1982), etc.  The domino effect to ensue led me to discover Jerusalem, Petra, Barnabas, Servant and Daniel Band, and eventually Stryper and the host of ‘white metal’ bands to follow.

Re-issue history to Rainbow’s End dates to 1991 when it was re-released as a 2-for-1 with Awaiting Your Reply, a sloppy effort to include both albums on a single CD with botched packaging (track listing on back of the jewel case matches each album with incorrect cover art) and inadequate re-mastering (sounding as if taken from old cassette copies).  Spring of 2022 Girder Music re-issue to Rainbow’s End rectifies this.

Packaging (noting the work of Scott Waters of No Life Til Metal Graphics) meticulously stays true to the original vinyl release by including the eye catching front and back inserts along with the band photos to grace the back cover.  Lyrics and liner notes are also duplicated along with the blue fade to yellow and orange color scheme.  Re-mastering (accrediting Rob Colwell of Bombworks Sounds) cleans up any previous muddiness in producing a cleaner sound with more pronounced guitars and better-defined backing details (crisper drums, cleaner keyboards and fuller bass).

Opener “Midnight Son” accurately represents the late seventies Rez Band blues based at the time regarded as heavy metal but now recognized as straightforward hard rock sound.  With Jim Denton’s bass solo to start, it pushes its muscular distance to precise rhythm guitar as Glenn Kaiser complements the earthy scene with his signature gravelly vocal delivery.  Keyboards (a Resurrection Band staple) briefly appear for the instrumental run.  Lyric snippet:

Oh, You light up the sky
You're the power of the sun
You're the starlight in the darkness
On Your laughter shadows run

You're the might wind of glory
And the Father all in one
You're the Morning Star
You're the Midnight Son

“Strongman” ensues as a doom-ish mid-tempo plodder.  An emotional reservoir is the upshot, instinctive to Stu Heiss’ blues drenched guitar signatures and Wendi Kaiser’s poignant vocal performance (I will go on record insisting Rainbow’s End features some of her finest recorded vocals).  Song ends in cool psychedelic fashion as a resounding gong gives way to the tribal beats that transition to “Afrikaans”.

“Afrikaans” separates as one of the albums most identifiable tracks.  Musical quality stands out accordingly when factoring accessibility in terms of the engaging guitar harmonies and one of albums catchiest refrains.  Message proves every bit crucial in light of how Rez Band was ahead of its time as one of the first groups to address the issue of apartheid:

Forget the black man, neglect his baby, ignore his hell
We need apartheid to keep the animal in his cell
You sweep the pavement, shine the buildings, display the maid
You say "republic", I say blind man, it's a cage

God makes the color, but the color doesn't make you God
And in the judgment, He will remember the ones you robbed
Without the Lord's love, this injustice will prevail
Until Jesus is the only Master, we'll never break the bars of jail

“Skyline” is the type of punchy hard rocker in which Rez Band excelled throughout its career.  The distorted guitars mixed with harmonica to start set the stern tone moving ahead, lifting on high energy levels indicating the keyed up riff focus but elevating equally the bluesy sentiments to touch upon the gritty and grainy.  Instrumental interlude sees guitar and harmonic return in full force.

Album lightens for wondrous ballad “Paint A Picture”.  Piano and acoustic guitar complement Glenn’s raspy croon for the initial moving verse sections, with momentum and bluesy guitar focus upping for the sweeping refrain and histrionic verses to ensue.  Final minute comes across haunting as the song fades out with the phrase ‘the price God paid to prove His love for you…’ continuously repeated.  Lyric snippet:

Paint that picture
And you can start
To understand the love of the Savior
And oh, how He understands you
Paint a picture of a blood covered cross
See that picture
And you'll know what it cost
The price God paid
To prove His love for you…

“Rainbow’s End” opens album second half as a full on metal anthem.  Hammering guitars with keyboards soon to follow initiate only to give way to one of the catchiest riffs you will hear, the epic (if not outright symphonic) landscape to establish underpinning Wendi as she sings at her rawest and gutsiest best.  An instrumental joining of guitar harmonies and duel leads between Glenn and Heiss points to the mesmerizing.

I rate “Concert For A Queen” among Rez Band’s most underrated and overlooked.  It echoes of the medieval to see classical guitar fluttering between the left and right channels as Glenn smoothes vocally by singing in a lower register.  Impetus picks up with punchy bass building upon the backend and heavier rocking guitars the forefront not to mention a flattering keyboard solo to carry things instrumentally.  The distant melody to result is off the charts.

Wendi returns to front “Sacrifice Of Love”, another pointed hard rocker with energy on high (guitars churn unremittingly) and hooks to spare (of the kind to invite radio play).  Of particular note - and the Colwell re-mastering plays a role in this regard - is how albums clean production allows bass to rise above the mix, particularly for the distinguished refrain.  It does not get much better far as deep cuts are concerned.  Lyric snippet:

You're on the road or you're on the highway,
One or the other will take you there,
But it's a tall road, and it'll cost you,
The road to glory or the road to despair?

Sacrifice, it was a sacrifice of love, whoa,
There is a price to pay, today or later on,

The road is narrow, the cross is real,
But it's the right way, doesn't matter how you feel,
Because the Savior... the Savior doesn't change,
Not even death could hold Him in the grave.

Speaking of which, final hard rocker “The Wolfsong” completes a near perfect four-song opening second half run.  It begins to a distorted drum solo prior to morphing into one of albums heavier tracks, touching upon a metal basis with its slamming guitar focus (noting the heavy hitting instrumental focus) but also avoiding the repetitious in its use of distinct hooks (an underpinning blues essence ties everything together).  Rez Band was also ahead of its time in address televangelists:

I've mastered all the right angles and the left ones too,
Oh, I'm a box office smash and the cash is my golden rule,
Sometimes I lose sight of what's real and what's only a lie,
But it's okay - I'll just... and straighten my tie.

Ooh, you'll know them by their love and by their fruit,
Not by pearly teeth, Mercedes, or fine suits,
Not by where they go or what they can afford,
Not by Jesus as their savior, but as their Lord.

Quality does not drop for classic rock influenced closing track “Every Time It Rains”.  It starts fittingly to a thunderstorm ahead of morphing into a classy acoustic rocker, centering around emotional vocal melodies as one of albums slowest but also lushly woven with its pleading sensibilities and compelling fade out saxophone solo.  Lyrically, it serves as a personal devotion from Glenn (in same sense as Colours closing track “The Struggle”).

Hope I am not overrating Rainbow’s End with a 95% grade, but it does rank within my top ten favorite albums of all time.  Sentimental value proves a deciding factor, as does the immaculate Girder packaging to stay true to the original vinyl release.  Track listing also comes into play with a near perfect selection of songs: opening the album to four hard rockers ensued by a mellower cut with the albums second half following suite.  It also does not hurt that Glenn and Wendi are in top form vocally, while the group plays to its blues based hard rock strengths, albeit mixing in the occasional psychedelic nuance.  If a fan of Resurrection Band them make the Girder re-issue to Rainbow’s End a necessary purchase.

Review by Andrew Rockwell

Track Listing: “Midnight Son” (3:16), “Strongman” (3:41), “Afrikaans” (3:10), “Skyline” (3:10), “Paint A Picture” (4:47), “Rainbow’s End” (3:47), “Concert For A Queen” (3:16), “Sacrifice Of Love” (3:03), “The Wolfsong” (3:14), “Every Time It Rains” (4:46)

Musicians
Glenn Kaiser – Lead Vocals & Guitars
Wendi Kaiser – Lead Vocals
Stu Heiss – Guitars, Piano, Organ, Moog Synthesizer, Heiss Box Guitar Synthesizer
Jim Denton – Bass & Acoustic Guitar
John Herrin – Drums
Tom Cameron – Harmonica
Roger Heiss – Percussion