Other Christian bands on Ulterium Records

[Parched Earth]

I just got Signum Regis (as well as Sinbreed) in the mail today. How can I not check out an album described as "The Eyes Of Power is a one of a kind conceptual metal album. The whole concept revolves around real historical events that defined the Roman – Persian relations during the late antiquity (224 – 630 AD) in the Middle East. With a clear aim to capture the atmosphere of that particular time period and to keep the language as authentic as possible, original written sources and scholar literature were carefully studied. On the album you can hear many oriental sounding riffs and chord progressions."

Giving it a first listen right now...

Sounds interesting. Listening to their songs on youtube now... Are they considered Christian metal? Just curious.

After doing some research on their singer (Goran Edman), I knew he was on a Vitalij Kuprij album I own but didn't realize he also sang my favorite John Norum song from 1987. John Norum is the guitarist of the band Europe, for those unfamiliar.

 

[Christian Motif]

Thanks for sharing. I will have to check those out. I already owned Harmony -- Aftermath.

 

[Verbum Lux]

I've always been a bit hesitant to label Sinbreed as a Christian band. Herbie is of course, and I'm pretty sure Flo is, and some of lyrics definitely deal with Christian themes. Others though, I'm not so sure about. Regardless, they're an outstanding band. Easily the best Ulterium band next to Theocracy.

Just wanted to let you guys know that Darkwater is not a christian band, and their lyrics have nothing to do with faith.

Yeah, I've seen nothing in Darkwaters lyrics to indicate any religious affiliation at all. Pretty good band, though I much prefer Harmony.

By the way, has anyone heard of Flagship? That was another band Christian Liljegren formed, with only one, six-track album back in 2005 or so. I discovered them several months ago and they've really impressed me. Of all the bands I've heard fronted by Liljegren, it's probably my favorite.

I'll have to see if I can find their album. Liljegren is one of my favorite singers, although aside from Divinefire the bands I've heard him in have all been a bit inconsistent. Haven't heard any Audiovision aside from one track a long time ago, but I see they have their albums up on Mog so I'll give them a go.

I'll definitely check Signum Regis. That sounds really cool.

 

[Parched Earth]

This thread has already resulted in me purchasing:

Audiovision-Focus
Ivory Moon-Human Nature
Ivory Moon-demo
Incrave-Dead End
Incrave-The Escape (on order)
Signum Regis-The Eyes of Power (on order)

I already had Harmony/Darkwater and Sinbreed.

 

[Verbum Lux]

The Eyes of Power is an awesome album. I was listening to it this afternoon and went to Amazon and bought it before I'd even finished the album. Highly recommended.

 

[M@RS]

I cannot bring myself to enjoy Audiovision. I've tried again and again, but there's a quality about it that ruins everything for me.

 

[Aletheus]

It's called cheese.

 

[M@RS]

Aye, haha. I guess that would be it.

 

[Aletheus]

Same thing happens with Divinefire...great vocalist, great believer, poor song-writer.

 

[Parched Earth]

I don't mind cheese every now and then.

 

[M@RS]

I actually enjoy Divinefire. My only problem is that all of the songs sound exactly the same.

 

[xcomputersx]

See, my list would be

1. Theocracy
2. Sinbreed
3. Incrave
4. Darkwater
5. Innerwish
6. Harmony (yeah, I was never big on them...)

Aww man it's too bad you dont like Harmony! Oh well we all have our music tastes. I have listened to their first album Dreaming Awake for a while and enjoyed it but It started to get a little old. As soon as I decided to listen to the 2nd album Chapter II: Aftermath, I have not stopped listening to them. I say both albums are good though.

 

[BearDad]

I realize this thread is a couple of years old, but having just stumbled across it I thought I'd put my two cents in concerning Sinbreed ...

Their first CD, When Worlds Collide, while not directly Christian a la Seventh Avenue, certainly seemed to lean that way based on lyrical content. If nothing else it was positive and safe to listen to, as there was no obvious objectionable or questionable material. However, their latest CD, Shadows, is quite the opposite! There is still no objectionable or questionable material, but the songs are very dark and seem to speak of leaving the faith and turning one's back on God. In particular "Reborn" is very dark and scary. Also, there are no redemptive songs, no happy ending.

As for the artists themselves, while Herbie made a very public statement of faith several years ago, pre-Facebook, there is nothing on his FB page to indicate he still believes. Nor is there any indication of faith or belief in Christ on Flo's FB page, and while I am not suggesting that the use of profanity is an indication of where one's heart lies, I have noticed that Flo is rather free with the F word, both in writing and in speech.

It should be noted that Herbie was not credited with any musical or lyrical influence for the first CD (Flo wrote all the music and co-wrote the lyrics for six of the ten songs), while he did help write all but one of the songs on the new CD. This leads one to wonder if Herbie has chosen to go the way of other former Christian metal musicians, such as Ojo T, Gary L, and Roger M. Of course, I said he co-wrote those songs; that could mean a lot of things and should not in and of itself be considered an indication of his present beliefs.

I posted a question concerning the lyrics on Sinbreed's FB page and actually received a response from Flo. Sadly, he merely asked what I thought the lyrics meant, which I answered, but he never followed up with another response.

So there you have it. Personally, I would not include Sinbreed in a list with Harmony, Darkwater, and Theocracy, as the lyrics for those bands' songs leave no doubt as to their beliefs.

 

[SeaStorm]

Good info, BearDad. I was not aware of a change (I hadn't checked out their new one yet). The move from Ulterium to AFM Records could also be a significant factor. It would not surprise me if the new label encouraged them to move away from the positive and towards the dark in general.

To be fair to anyone newly discovering this thread via Google, I added a note in post 19 referring to post 33.

 

[JayArby]

So there you have it. Personally, I would not include Sinbreed in a list with Harmony, Darkwater, and Theocracy, as the lyrics for those bands' songs leave no doubt as to their beliefs.

For the record, Darkwater isn't a Christian band. There is overlap in the members between Harmony and Darkwater, but in fact the keyboard player and vocalist of Darkwater left Harmony for the very reason that it was a Christian band and they didn't feel right standing behind a message they didn't believe in.

 

[SueNC325]

What about Black Fate? I think they're new to Ulterium, but they've got an amazing sound!
The word I got was that the members were Christian, but their lyrics arent overtly Christian-themed.
Somebody else made the argument that if they were members of the Greek Orthodox church, they werent Christian. I'm not sure how that works, since I dont know enough about the Greek Orthodox church, but...

 

[SeaStorm]

Black Fate is very good. Greek Orthodox are definitely Christian (that claim = ), although I don't know if that's what they are.

 

[Parched Earth]

The singer of Black Fate sounds so much like Khan, it's uncanny. Good thing Khan is one of my favorite vocalists. I'll have to explore this band more.

 

[SueNC325]

Black Fate is very good. Greek Orthodox are definitely Christian (that claim = ), although I don't know if that's what they are.

They claim Jesus as savior, but as best I can tell, they believe in a works-based salvation, rather than in salvation by faith alone.

 

[Aletheus]

I wanted to keep my thread revival count low, but I couldn't resist. Black Fate blew me away, this should sate me until Theocracy decides to release an update.