Michael - The Battle Rages On...

So another new-old band is scheduled to have their music released on Roxx Records (easily my favorite of the active record labels releasing Christian rock and metal).  Here is a portion of their press release and a video for the only single (so far).

Roxx Records wrote:

...our latest release coming to you by way of a long lost classic album from an artist simply entitled Michael with their only album ever released entitled ‘The Battle Rages On’. This extremely rare and very good Christian hard rock album from Michael was only ever released on cassette tape. A South Amherst, Ohio based band, this was their only officially released album that originally came out in 1995 on a small defunct  indie label called R.A.G.E. Records and in very limited quantities. 

Michael featured Shane Freeman (Jake Banshee) on vocals who was the former vocalist of Stutz. Also featuring the keyboard talents of Todd Waites (Who would go on to play in Apologetix) Mike Slone on bass guitar and Dennis Raymond on drums. With solid operatic vocals and shredding guitars this album is reminiscent of bands like Stryper and Holy Soldier.

I like the single.  It doesn't rock my world, but it a solid sound that I like.  So,I pre-ordered.

It sounds nice, but not so nice that I want to order.

rockerVu2 wrote:

It sounds nice, but not so nice that I want to order.

I understand.  I'm thinking I would like to hear a few more tracks before I decide if I want to get it or not.

Scott Waters says that they are trying to get BOTH of this band's albums released on Roxx.  I hope they do.

I will be playing this one tomorrow.  Mine came in the mail today.  I was just playing through a few clips as I was getting ready to rip my CD to MP3 and this reminds me of bands like Journey or Idle Cure.  Should be a really good album.

Cool, keep us posted based on the first song I did not preorder.

Here's my take on this album.


It reminds me a lot of Journey and Fighter as far as overall heaviness goes.  This is melodic and keyboard laden.  The guitars and keys compliment one another, and both do solos as well.  The voice reminds me a tad of the male singer in Fighter at times and of Jon Bon Jovi at times without sounding like a clone of either.  You can tell that this was a demo, though, and not fully up to label professional standards.  However, there are some great songs here that are very Christ-centered and downright evangelistic.  Almost every song has a short spoken word piece where they recite scripture.  If you miss bold lyrics, then this is a must.

The song that was released as a lyric video was a poor choice.  There are much better songs on here than that.

The three live songs at the end sound pretty rough to me.  I will end up cutting them from my FiiO player.

I want to listen to more. Is it out somewhere?

Since they have only released this one lyric video, I will upload one song to my Google Drive so that you can hear something else.  It will only be one song, though, so as to not hurt Roxx's sales.  We want to be good digital citizens!

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1yvBuT5HC_Br8PL0dacDNAmY3rfKp6PAC/view?usp=sharing

This is the song "Warriors" from the album.  The "nah-nahs" at the first are a little silly sounding to me, but the rest of the song is cool.

I agree, it's a cool "nah-nah" song.

That's is a cool song, I think I might have to get this album.

The first thing I thought about with the "nah-nah" was Journey, the kings of Nah-Nah-Nuh-Nah-Nah-Nah-Nuh-Nah-Nuh-Nah-Nah!

Definitely has that 80's sound with the keyboards, very vintage but I guess that's because it is.