Tag: r.e.x.

It’s Holy Week, the most important season in the church calendar, so it’s important to celebrate everything Jesus did for us, displaying his love through the ultimate sacrifice on the cross. When it comes to music, it seems that the metal bands give us the most material when to comes to focusing on the passion events. Sacrament was a super-heavy thrash metal band from Pennsylvania. They formed in 1989, and played a style of thrash that was at times much closer to death metal. One could almost argue they were the first Christian band playing in the death metal style, and they wouldn’t be too far off.… Continued →

AP2 was the continuation of, or the evolution of the forerunner Argyle Park. The first incarnation of the band recorded one album, Misguided, for R.E.X. Music in 1994, performed only one live performance at Cornerstone Festival in 1995, then broke up shortly after amidst a plethora of controversy in Christian music circles. The bulk of the controversy involved the band not being positive enough or evangelistic enough. While the bands’ members were all known by pseudonymous aliases, it is fairly well-known that the creative forces behind the project were Scott Albert (AKA Dred and Deathwish) of Circle of Dust/Celldweller and childhood friend Chris Martello (AKA Buka), who at the time worked for MTV Sports and was responsible for getting lots of Christian alternative/punk/hardcore bands into MTV programming.… Continued →

Cleveland’s Six Feet Deep were instrumental in the advent of “new school” hardcore that was emerging in the early- to mid-90s. They were one of the few Spirit-Filled Hardcore bands that didn’t end up on Tooth & Nail or Solid State (No Innocent Victim was the other major example). After an independent demo cassette aptly titled Self in 1992, they released two fantastic metallic hardcore albums: 1994’s Struggle and 1996’s The Road Less Traveled. The debut issued on Christian indie stalwart R.E.X. Music and the sophomore on Flying Tart/R.E.X.… Continued →

Greg Minier, the famed guitarist of The Crucified (and later of grunge/alternative/metal project Applehead) released a solo EP of straightforward thrash metal (the yin to The Crucified’s crossover yang), under his last name. The mini-album contained 7 songs and featured Greg playing all the instruments as well as handling the vocal duties. I remember talking with several metalheads at the time and we all agreed it was unfair for the Lord to bless some individuals with so much talent, while others of us got so little!… Continued →

Perhaps better known as the bassist/vocalist of hardcore punk cum crossover thrash band The Lead, Nina (full name Nina Llopis) released her debut album No Shadow of Turning for R.E.X. Music in 1991. As my friend and fellow fan Tim “Greybeard” Henderson (ex-Warlord) said, “This is a perfect example of 1991 music!” He’s so right. The album had hints of goth rock/post-punk, alternative rock, and jangle pop–a description which doesn’t make logical sense unless you lived through the early 90s. Musically similar to other early 90s female-fronted alternative bands like The Darling Buds and Concrete Blonde, the effort was a huge departure from her previous material with the hardcore/thrash band from which we’d come to know her.… Continued →