Apart from being a Christian act playing mid-eighties AOR, the particularity of BATTLECRY is their origin: the most recent of the 50 U.S. States, Hawaii. Anyway, the band commanded by singer Doug Morris moved to California and not only made a strong following among religious circles but also from secular audiences.
Recorded and released independently, their now hard to find sole release "Red White And Blue" from 1985 incudes some lovable AOR tunes with a strong keyboard presence, nice melodies and good choruses.
You have marching tracks such as the Aviator-like title track "Red White And Blue" or the Journey-esque "Life With The Lord" plenty of synth fills and Neal Schon influenced guitar playing.
More Melodic Rock / radio oriented is the sweet hookline in "Power And Might", while the classic mid-tempo AOR styling of "You've Got To Know" somehow reminds me Steve Overland's Wildlife or early FM.
"When The Lord Comes Back" is the weakest track with some poppy Allies smell, but "Not Tough Enough" recaptures the melodic energy via cool guitar licks, swirling keys and easy choruses.
As you can read in the song titles lyrics are clearly religiously focused, but that does not bother at all. Songwriting is little naive at places, however these guy's musicianship - and the gurl playing keyboards - is very good, as well production.
"Red White And Blue" only was released on MiniLP & cassette (which includes some unnecessary live tracks poorly recorded) and although a vinyl-rip is profusely spread in the blogosphere, it features lots of scratchs and clicks.
This is a fresh rip courtesy of my friend Robert P. (thanks mate), cleaned and restored by me.
A very nice slice of mid-'80s AOR.
01 - Red White And Blue
02 - When The Lord Comes Back
03 - Not Tough Enough
04 - Life With The Lord
05 - Power And Might
06 - You've Got To Know
Doug Morris - Lead Vocals, Guitar
Dave Chumchal - Lead Vocals, Keyboards, Guitar
Robert Giverink - Lead Guitar, Backing Vocals
Mariko Martinez - Keyboards, Backing Vocals
Ronald P. Simmons - Bass, Backing Vocals
Bret Kik Keys - Drums
BATTLECRY restored audio
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