Rough Edge: Guardian CD Reviews

GUARDIAN

"The Yellow and Black Attack Is Back" (M8; 1999)

Sometimes there's a fine line between "tribute" and "blatant rip-off." Guardian's self-proclaimed "tribute" to legendary Christian rockers Stryper teeters on the border between the two.

Consisting of the same six songs originally recorded by Stryper on their "Yellow and Black" album, "Yellow and Black Attack is Back" are pretty much dead on re-recordings of the original Stryper songs. The only difference is that Guardian's vocalist doesn't quite have the range of Stryper's.

Is this a bad CD? By no means. Is it a strange CD? Yeah. It reminds me of the "Psycho" movie that Gus Van Sant directed a few years back starring Vince Vaughn in the Anthony Perkins role. Van Sant's film was a shot-by-shot remake of the original Hitchcock classic. This CD is a riff-by-riff remake of the original Stryper. Both projects beg the question - why?

For more information, check out http://www.m8.com.

"Fire and Love" (Pakaderm; 1990)

Reviewed by Jeff Rogers

Since discovering a lot of old school Christian metal, and find that some of it is pretty good stuff, I want to pass on my reviews to those who might also want to expand their musical horizons.

Guardian has that Guns N'Roses and Motley Crue sound but don’t subscribe to the same lifestyle or lyrics. Fair enough, each to his own, but the music here just plain rocks, and we all want to rock no matter who is behind the mic. Sometimes the lyrics are indirect and that helps with those who don’t want a singing sermon and sometimes they're plainly thought-provoking; either way, the music is driving and just another vehicle to get a message across.

The vocalist, Jamie Rowe, sounds a lot like Jeff Keith of Telsa. He has that musical swagger to back up his voice and the band backs him up musically. The pairing of Jamie and the rest of the guys makes for some great hard-rocking music.

The guitar is punch driven and crunches right along with the drums to give you a one/two dose of metal. The solos are just blistering with enough meat to keep you full in the gitfiddle department; the old school of metal is the best for me because a song without a solo is just three minutes wasted, in my opinion.

I challenge you to listen to this disc and not be impressed by the music that you hear.

The best cuts are “Power Of Love,” “Send A Message Out,” “Time Stands Still,” and “Turnaround.”

Guardian: Jamie Rowe – lead vocals; Tony Palacios – guitar; David Bach – bass; Karl Ney – drums.

For more information, check out http://www.guardian-world.com.

Rating Guide:

A classic. This record will kick your ass.

Killer. Not a classic but it will rock your world.

So-so. You've heard better.

Pretty bad. Might make a nice coaster.

Self explanatory. Just the sight of the cover makes you wanna hurl.

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