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Biography
Although they hardly ever achieved just as much notoriety as their Orange County neighbors Stryper, Los Angeles’ Barren Cross were one of the best-known Christian (or “white”) steel bands to emerge within the 1980s. Produced in past due 1983 by vocalist/guitarist Mike Lee, guitarist Ray Parris, bassist Jim LaVerde, and drummer Steve Whitaker, Barren Combination rehearsed assiduously before executing their initial concert half a year later at, of most places, a property for juvenile delinquent young ladies. Quickly thereafter, the children utilized their Christian cable connections to approach manufacturer Dino Elefante (whose well-known sibling John was then your vocalist with prog rock and roll giants Kansas) and have for help making use of their profession. Great Samaritan that he was, Elefante decided to generate Barren Combination’ aptly called debut E.P., Believe, that your music group released and distributed in-may 1985 using $10,000.00 that they had elevated themselves. The gambit paid when unbiased label Star Melody agreed upon the group, remastered the EP’s six monitors, and acquired Barren Combination record three brand-new ones for discharge as 1986’s full-length debut Rock and roll for the Ruler. At that time, white metallic was an evergrowing rock & move commodity, because of the task of Stryper (and countless similarly devout, but a lot more discreet works, such as for example Chicago doom favorites Problems), but Barren Mix had been still fighting an uphill fight. Although their effective, Judas Priest-derived design sounded a lot more genuine than Stryper’s gooey pop-metal, many heavy metal enthusiasts discovered the genre’s desire for the occult as appealing because the music itself. Christian metallic was therefore a full time income contradiction, & most main labels remained likewise unconvinced about white metallic, and for that reason, Barren Mix’, industrial potential. And despite many efforts to help make the leap to a significant, the music group would see following attempts, 1988’s Atomic Market and 1989’s Condition of Control (both of these also championed by John and Dino Elefante) relegated to 3rd party Enigma Information. Choosing to mention their 1990 live recording Hotter Than Hell was, in retrospect, certainly an indicator of stress, and it wasn’t unexpected to find out Barren Cross quit the fight just a short while later on. Some bandmembers possess since remained energetic within Christian music circles, and also briefly reunited as Barren Mix in 1994 to be able to record another studio room album called Rattle Your Cage prior to going their split ways once more.
