| CD REVIEW Bride |
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Band : Bride If a band has the tenacity to keep on going against the grain, they will one day make it big enough. Or so it would seem, when one looks at those that have made it over the years...but things do not always work that way! Take Christian Rock act Bride, for instance, who debuted with a 1986 album on the Refuge, and have since given the world 11 more studio albums (plus one live and a total of 6 compilations, some of which released independently). Of course, the fact that they never really broke through (in spite of sóme popularity in the States) may have had to do with the fact that they occasionally altered their musical direction! It all started in the early '80s with Louisville, Kentucky based brothers Dale (singer) and Troy (guitarist) Thompson staring a band under the monicker of Matrix, with which they first made demos in 1983. When opening for Canadian act Daniel Brand at a Pottsdown (Pennsylvania) show in 1986, the band (then also including guitarist Steve Osborne, bassist Scott Hall, and drummer Stephen Rolland) caught the eye of an agent of Refugee Records. Matrix changed their name to Bride, and would release 3 albums (1986's Show No Mercy, 1988's Live To Die – whichcaught the Christian Rock community off-guard by the inclusion of an unaccredited final track of screaming demons, and 1989's Silence Is Madness)under the Refugee banner (the latter with a changed line-up). A new deal was struck with StarSong, who would first release the 1990 compilation End Of The Era with hits from the first 3 albums (but also with a couple of previously unreleased songs). The compilation's title was significant in another way, as the band (now with the Thompson brothers assisted by bassist Rick Foley and drummer Jerry McBroom) would change their musical direction from their Metal roots to a more mainstream Rock, which was more in tune with that era. The first album in that style would be 1991's Kinetic Faith, and as the album indeed got some hits on commercial radio, the band continued on the road they took. In 1992 a split rumour was coupled to the possibility that Dale Thompson might take over Michael Sweet's position in Stryper, but when the band released the Snakes In The Playground that same year that rumour was nipped in the butt. Following the 1994 album Scarecrow Messiah and the 1995 compilation Shotgun Wedding: 11 #1 Hits And Mrs., Bride parted ways with StarSong. Meanwhile, the band had decided to take some old recordings out of the closets, and released them independently, Lost Reels I and Lost Reels II in 1994,and Lost Reels III in 1997. 1995 was significant for the band in more ways than one: not only did they recruit a new bass player in Steve Curtsinger, but they underwent a new change in musical direction...completely forfeiting their heavy roots and going for a more Alternative Rock oriented sound which even included the use of banjo and mandolin, a display of which came on the Rugged Records (a new label to which the band had signed for just the one album) released 1995 album Drop. At this time, it is also appropriate to mention that Bride has received a total of 4 Dove Awards from the Gospel Music Association (3 were for "Hard Music Song" in 1992, 1993, and 1995...the fourth in the category "Hard Music Album" for Scarecrow Messiah in 1994). On the recommendation of their producer and close friend John Elefante, the band then signed to another new label called Organic, who were to release three albums by the band: 1997's The Jesus Experience (which was the band add some Grunge and Post-Grunge overtones to their Alternative Rock leanings) and 1998's Oddities (with yet another directional change, now towards a mixture of Alternative Rock and Hard Rock), and finally 2000's compilation album Best Of Bride. Meanwhile, difficulties with the label had already arisen, and the band had already released the 1999 Bride Live! Volume 1 on an independent basis (in a limited rotation of only 700 copies). Some time after the band's release from their label, both McBroom and Curtsinger left to pursue other musical projects, and they were replaced by Lawrence Bishop and Michael Loy respectively. Having gone into a Rapcore direction, the band was picked up by Absolute Records, who released the band's 2001 effort Fistfull Of Bees, but the material didn't fair well with the band's old fans due to the Nu-Metal and Rapcore elements. The band's independently released 2003 album This Is It however saw the band return to their Rock-driven sound, and the album (with a digital remastering and new cover) was re-issued on the Retroactive label in 2006...same year as when Skin For Skin was first released in the US. The album sees Bride (the Thompson brothers backed by Bishop and drummers Jason Lewis and Mark Gray, with additional help for solos by former Bride member Steve Osborne) return to their earlier Metal-influenced Hard Rock roots, and has been praised by the band's fans, most prominently so by Ultimatum's Scott Waters whom we'll cite for having said the album was "a logical step from This Is It, and an honest and successful attempt to progress without worry of what is popular." Well, I'm not sure about that! Overall, you could certainly call the music on this album Melodic Heavy Rock, at moments even Heavy Metal, but with a serious amount of '90s groove in the rhythm guitar to boot (to the point of almost bringing in an additional Thrash feeling)! The info we got with our promo copy mentions this to be the first album to use double bass drumming and, by Golly, it certainly makes the songs come out poundingly heavy throughout the first 12 songs (because the first track is a weird experimental album intro, and the 14th is a ballad, you see, even including some nice piano play)! While all Bride albums are centered around The Lord and His son Jesus, Dale delves into themes like addiction, redemption,restoration, deliverance, and love. Dale's son Alex (who'se currently in the US Army) even wrote a song for this album, and another Thompson by the first name of Zachary has delivered additional percussion and the screams at the opening of "Fuel And Fire".As it turns out, I forgot to check out what's available in audio material at either the band's own website bridepub.com or myspace.com/bridemusic, so you'll have to do that yourself. Hope there's some songs off Skin For Skin though, because that album truly sparkles! If more Christian Rock bands would be as good as this one, a lot more people would convert to Christianism, I'm sure (not that I would ever be caught into that game, but there's a lot of directionless people out there who could use some faith)! 90/100 Tony. |