80's Bands in the 90's: Holy Soldier- Promise Man

Arin Hancock: On this episode of the Rock and Metal Faith podcast, we decided to tackle the grunge scene. More specifically, we're going to start a series about 80s bands making grunge records in the 90s.

Arin Rockman H: Hello, this is Arin Hancock. As you can see, if you're watching on YouTube, I'm not in my usual studio recording. I'm in the editing studio. And doing some editing, I realized we had some technical difficulty with the following podcast. We had trouble with the music clips that sounded fine during the recording.

Arin Hancock: And we're going to start with Holy Soldier and Promise Man.

Arin Rockman H: and then on the playback and the editing process they weren't so fine. I had done an old school workaround to try and get around this. You might notice this if you're watching on YouTube. And trying the best I Can't seem to get the audio sounding good I've done the best I can, so. Sit back and enjoy.

Arin Hancock: Welcome back to the rock metal faith podcast where it's all about the rock that doesn't roll Christian rock and metal from the classics to the newcomers ⁓ I am Arin Hancock join always with

Kris plamondon: Kris hey, it's Kris Plamondon Welcome. You should have warned me about that. That would have been great.

Arin Hancock: Sorry, sorry, yes, I meant to you I was gonna do that all right ⁓ Yeah, like we said in the intro actually been wanting to do this series for a while about 80s rock bands that Adapted to the grunge and the albums that they made and we'll get into that in bit ⁓ First start with ⁓ news actually hang on here and call up my notes so last time on our main episode we had feedback on from the Narnia episode one of our regular viewers listeners left some comments we were talking our top songs from Narnia. He says his top songs are it was top three are I still believe Decession and you are the air that I breathe the guitar solo in this one really grabs me it's great band ⁓ and great top ten review you liked that so great ⁓ we're hoping you like it we hope the of you like it out there

Kris plamondon: Awesome.

Arin Hancock: We have new followers on our Facebook page. We got Santa Cruz has followed us on our Facebook. Hans Walters and Anthony Streeter. So yes, for you if you do not know we have a Facebook page where I will send information out ⁓ and people know what's going on. You'll also find links to the podcast episode out there. and everything else. We also have a Facebook group page, Maybe we'll throw a few videos up there once in a while. And we're on all these socials. ⁓ Yeah. So be sure if you like this episode to send it to all your friends ⁓ and let them know and grow with the

Kris plamondon: We are everywhere. Let your cat hear it, your dog or your kids. Yes.

Arin Hancock: Well definitely get your kids involved and get them listening Great way to raise them and listen to Christian rock and metal. All right

Kris plamondon: Yes.

Arin Hancock: Alright in news Sweet has said he has I think tracked most of the vocals for the new Stryper record He's also released a new song for the new Michael Sweet solo record

Kris plamondon: When is that supposed to be out in May or?

Arin Hancock: not sure they're both coming out sometime this year and ⁓ You know, we're gonna we're gonna get a whole lot new ⁓ music this year ⁓ see Michael Sweet solo record is coming out. There's a new Stryper record coming out Yeah, Michael sweet there I believe he said it was on the Stryper record he's tracked at the vocals I think he's got mostly guitars done on it Is it this time too that they did it differently where they went in and record each piece separately? I think a lot of times in the past had kind of gone in and done it as a group in the studio and recorded all at once Yeah, Yes, but we got new music apparently there's gonna be new music from Narnia coming out this year

Kris plamondon: Did his part, yeah. Mmm.

Arin Hancock: Liaisons got new one. I remember last year we played actually a brand new song from Liaison It sounded really Makes me actually want to kind of go buy that one. ⁓ And it come out last year, so it's expected to. ⁓ And X-Sinner out with one this year. I know we talked about it at the end of last year. And the album has been released this year now. So lots of new music coming out. ⁓ great. ⁓ although not so great for my pocketbook. ⁓

Kris plamondon: Should be good. We'll be busy when when those albums come out

Arin Hancock: Yes, definitely. And was there anything else on the news? No, that's about it. But we do have this deal with first. All right, so this time for the Plug It In segment, actually speaking about new music, we've got something brand new as well on the Plug It In. This is coming from Kalamity Kills. And if you don't know Kalamity Kills, they are a new band with Jamie Rowe, who has done the vocals for Guardian. So Jamie Rowe's got new band. This is just a single. Coming out a few years back, he put out a whole bunch of singles and then combined them into one album. This is a brand new single. Just got released sort of recently called These Days Are Evil. So there you go, these days are evil by Kalamity kills.

Kris plamondon: What was the sort of Kalamity kills that this song is?

Arin Hancock: These days are evil. yeah, what do think of that?

Kris plamondon: Wow, I I enjoyed that song. I want that song. It's a song. I like the opening, the drums and the singing was wow.

Arin Hancock: There ⁓ you go, Yeah. Well, like I said, that's Jamie Rowe, who back in the 80s was singing for Guardian, you know, and he still got a voice.

Kris plamondon: So that's where he went. ⁓

Arin Hancock: Yeah, occasionally I think he does do guardian stuff or sings with guardian. I know for a while he wasn't but now that he's got Kalamity kills established as a band and people are starting to he's willing to

Kris plamondon: We should have had him on this episode to talk about this album.

Arin Hancock: ⁓ Well, I don't know if he's got an album in the works yet or This is just one song so far. I know last time like said he just released song at a time at a time There's one song here and there and then tell you like ten songs You could buy ten separate singles or you could buy it all as an album now But originally they were just ten separate songs and he may be doing that again You know that that's the way that this whole music scene is changing is people aren't always interested in albums anymore. Yeah, you know, they just want to download one song and that's all.

Kris plamondon: I think that's a song that you would say, mom, this is what Christian music is like now. Or rock Christian music is like. Finally starting the sound like what we're used to in the mainstream. That sound incredibly well done mixed. ⁓

Arin Hancock: Yeah And yeah, you know trends and go and actually I think we're gonna talk about that today But before we get too far into the episode because I know people out there I know there's people out who really like this album that we're gonna talk about. And so I wanna put out a disclaimer. This was kind of a, ⁓ to Kris, this was kind of a, your mission if you choose to accept a type of assignment. if you listen to the podcast for any length of time, you probably got Kris's and mine perspectives ⁓ on music. who really like this album that we're gonna talk about. And so I wanna put out a disclaimer. This was kind of a, ⁓ to Kris, this was kind of a, your mission if you choose to accept a type of assignment. Because if you listen to the podcast for any length of time, you probably got Kris's and mine perspectives ⁓ on music. the stuff we like stuff we don't and you realize that Kris I do not like grunge very much I could very easily not done this kind of episode but we did the stuff we like stuff we don't and you realize that Kris and I do not like grunge very much I could very easily not done this kind of episode we did

Kris plamondon: I still don't understand why we're doing it. I still don't understand why we're doing it.

Arin Hancock: ⁓ Here's the reason. Okay, so we started a series all about the history of Christian rock. Here's the reason. Okay, so we started a series all about the history of Christian rock. We went back to the ⁓ talked about Sister Rosetta Tharp and talked about bands in the 70s and worked their way through the 80s highlighting key moments in the ⁓ ⁓ yes, this podcast is always about history because we're always talking about classic Christian rock as ⁓ as the new bands. And so we often do talk about history on any given program. But I thought it would be good to talk about the 80s bands that were trying to stay alive in the 90s. To do that, you had to go grunge because that's what was in. I thought it would be good to talk about the 80s bands that were trying to stay alive in the ⁓ To do that, you had to go grunge because that's what was in. So yeah, disclaimer, I will try to be as fair as possible to this album. I don't know what Kris is gonna do. He's not happy with this one.

Kris plamondon: I don't care. Don't care. No. No.

Arin Hancock: The other thoughts about this is like said, there are people who like this and I think there's two ways that this goes down. A first of all, you have to like grunge to like this record. Kris and I don't like grunge much. If you like grunge, you might like this record or, know, and there's lots of people out there that do like it. And. The other thing. I want to say about this is this was only their third record. But any band that was around for a while, Stryper or Bride now even Skillet or anybody been around say over 10 years has a number of records out. If you ask any fan what their favorite record from that band was, said band was, it's likely going to be whatever record introduce them to that band. So if your first listening Holy Soldier was Promise Man this is probably your favorite record. And I did actually do a quick Facebook poll Before we getting this on who liked this record compared to the other two records that they put out Who didn't like this record? You know it was kind of a mixed it was kind of mixed reaction a lot of people that really didn't like it a lot of people really liked it doing a quick to yeah

Kris plamondon: really the group I was in, I'm in, none of them wanted to come on and talk about the show. They were like, no. They're like, no, man, no, no, no. I'm ⁓ no.

Arin Hancock: Well I did do a shout out asking if anybody was a fan of this and wanted to come on. There were a few people that were fans this but nobody wanted to come on. Everybody else was shy. ⁓ Everybody else was shy.

Kris plamondon: Nobody they don't want to show the picture there I think I'm almost going to send an email to Guardian and say, what the heck was this? Come on. Holy soldier. That's right. I did this album and be like, what were you thinking? You had a kick butt album Right? ⁓

Arin Hancock: You mean Holy Soldier? We're talking Holy Soldier. ⁓ Well this, okay, we're talking Homie Soldier. Now the first record was the self-titled one with Stranger, Cry Out For Love, and See No Evil. The second record was Last Train.

Kris plamondon: okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Now I, okay, okay. And this is the third one.

Arin Hancock: Okay, and yeah, so we'll get into that. So, Man now is the third record from Holy Soldier. Came out in 1995 and was produced by David Zaffiro He also produced Last Train and David Zaffiro, if you know, was a former guitarist for the band Bloodgood. And then after being with the Bloodgood for a while, got into producing. The line up for the band is pretty much the same as it was on Last Train. You have Andy Robbins on bass, Scott Soderstrom on guitars, Michael Cutting on guitars, Did mandalin. He joined the band for the Last Train. Drums, was a change. They didn't have a steady drummer for this album, and brought in different drummers for different tracks. So Terry Russell, Terry the Animal Russell is out of the band. So is Steven Patrick, I want to say, who was the vocalist on the first two records. He was kind of in and out of the band and is gone for this record. They bring Eric Wayne in. Steven Patrick, sang for Holy Soldier first. But he was of in and out of the band during the first couple of records. ⁓ And then Leaves for good. And they bring Eric Wayne in record the last record. ⁓ After this, they won't really record anymore. They do release Encore, is a great hit with some live tracks on it featuring songs from both singers. Now this record actually did do well for the critics. won two Dove Awards in 1996, won Dove Award for Hard Music Album of the Year, and then Hard Music, yeah, and Hard Music recorded Song of the Year with the song Promise Man. critically it was well liked you gotta remember Kris. This was the ⁓ 90s ⁓ Hair metal is out grunges in ⁓ that's really how it goes critically it was well liked you gotta remember Kris. This was the ⁓ 90s ⁓ Hair metal is out grunges in ⁓ that's really how it goes

Kris plamondon: I know. I know.

Arin Hancock: Alright, we'll get down to our first track now and try listening to Promise Man. I man, so your thoughts on that one?

Kris plamondon: Can I go to sleep now?

Arin Hancock: You didn't like that one?

Kris plamondon: No, it was just too... For me, it's too much stop and go in that it almost felt like when I heard it the first time, Arin, why are we going back to the 70s?

Arin Hancock: All right. Well this is in the 70s, I think even the 70s music was better than most 90s.

Kris plamondon: ⁓ well, yeah, well, okay, well, this was just... No, not for me. I'm glad when I heard it back in the day, didn't like that. I sure don't like him now.

Arin Hancock: So your overall thoughts on record. We know you don't like it much but your overall thoughts on this record.

Kris plamondon: Well, the record, I'll put it this way. It's not on my lifetime best albums. It would be way, probably not even on the list. Like it just didn't, it didn't attach to me. didn't, not like the song that you played in the section.

Arin Hancock: Right. That plug it in you like that plug it in a section you like right? Okay. Yeah I'm with you there like said you and I kind of have similar tastes although you tend like balance when I don't like balance as much as I Do like a good ballot. I don't like all balance put it that way But my thoughts on this yeah when this record first came out I did not like it. I did not buy it

Kris plamondon: before. That's right. Yeah, that's right. I like ballots and you don't.

Arin Hancock: I still ⁓

Kris plamondon: I hope they don't send us an email. well. Yeah.

Arin Hancock: I'm trying to be fair, but I will, like I said, I will try to find things about the songs that I do like.

Kris plamondon: I will add that's okay. the good view of it, on Promise Man, lyrics were really good. ⁓ I just think that they, the way they presented it, it could have done so much better. But that's me.

Arin Hancock: Yes. Yeah, think... No, I'm with you on that. I think it could have been better. there's just two strong songs on the record. This is one of the two songs I really like It would have sounded better, you know, a little more distortion on the guitars. But again, remember this is the ⁓ 90s. you ⁓ know, this isn't what's going to sell to... I don't know.

Kris plamondon: To me it almost sounded like they made this album just for the northwest part of the US. Like that kind of music of the 90s. ⁓

Arin Hancock: Yeah, talking about that Seattle grunge sound. Well, that's exactly what they did.

Kris plamondon: That's right. That's right. So it did an appeal to the rest of the world. That's right. It went to the dove award It won it. Yeah.

Arin Hancock: I think I did though. That's the problem is remember We're you remember we're well into the 90s, you know 92 you could get away with a hair metal song a record But even in 92, you know, once Nirvana hit hit the scene everybody was was shifting away from from the hair metal. I Don't even like the term hair metal and then I was originally meant to be a derogatory term that everybody has embraced But I know I think a better term is pop metal because there were pop songs with heavy guitars, metal guitars, pop metal is a better term than hair metal, but that's a side note. But yeah, know what? So Promise Man, song I do like, wouldn't be my favorite out of their catalog. I haven't gone on YouTube to find any clips, but I have heard reports Eric Wayne was able to handle the older material fairly well. You know, this is a case again of a band going through a vocal change. And this time it's hard for bands to do that anyways. I it's only recently as we've kind of gotten older, as recently as we've seen it kind of be a thing where bands are either forced to do a vocal change through death or die off ⁓ or the just gets too much that they switch vocals and still carry on that we've we've seen it enough that we we started accepting it back in the nineties it was hard for bands to do but holy soldier did this album does seem to you know do as well as the other ones I think I don't know how he did in sales

Kris plamondon: Hmm. to interrupt. What was ⁓ the top ⁓ ever for Soldier? Do you know?

Arin Hancock: No, I haven't looked that one up. I don't know, and some of their best songs may not have been singles. Sometimes a band has a great deep track as their... Anyways. All right, let's move on to this next song on the record, Mumble Jumble.

Kris plamondon: Okay. Yeah.

Arin Hancock: so your thoughts,

Kris plamondon: I have no comment at this time.

Arin Hancock: Is that gonna be a comment all the way through this record? Alright, so trying to find something positive about this one ⁓ Well one thing

Kris plamondon: I like the name of the album, that's about it.

Arin Hancock: Did you like the cover?

Kris plamondon: I even see that. I think I saw the cover.

Arin Hancock: ⁓ can you, I can't tell that because of the.

Kris plamondon: Yeah, it's okay. Yeah, yeah, it's alright.

Arin Hancock: and stuff. Yeah, I know that the cover is kind of plain basic. It's looks like like a clay bust on a white background with Holy Soldier prompt. It's not very imaginative. I don't know. ⁓ Well, okay this song a mumbo jumbo Yeah, I don't know it's too slow for me It is man ⁓ One of the things that did bring in more in I don't know if they brought in more on this record than last train last train was getting a little bit bluesy kind of bringing some blues elements in they did that again on this one you can hear it on mumbo jumbo there are some blues elements the only problem with that is this is the grunge record you're bringing blues elements into a grunge record I don't know if it works You this is if it was a straight blues record. I probably would give this a better review. I actually like blues Would have liked it in the 90s. You know what I might have I don't know I know the was about the time I was starting to get into the blues Just as everybody else was getting into grunge I was gonna I was staying away from grunge, but finding out What the bands that I liked what they were originally influenced You know, they were influenced by the 70s, and the 70s was influenced by the 60s and 50s and blues and blues artists all the way through. And lot of even the 80s was bringing blues elements into their stuff. So this is kind of like a blues based grunge record, if you can imagine that, I guess. I don't know.

Kris plamondon: Wow.

Arin Hancock: I do know and I can't remember what song it was and we're not gonna get go as far as any solos on here. There was one song I know was very blues based solo. And I thought that solo's kind of cool. I can't remember what song it's from. But yeah, it's as far as it goes. We gotta find something we like about this record.

Kris plamondon: No, I tried, I tried. Our audience knows that when I do my research, I do it well. no. I mean, just like I said a few minutes ago, the only thing I really liked was the guitar tracks to Promise Man. The rest of it, I was like, no, no!

Arin Hancock: think there's a few of them where they come up on strong with a great opening riff and then it really dies off, fades off on the verses. We might get into a couple like that, I don't know. Okay, this is my world. Alright enough of that one

Kris plamondon: I was gonna make a sign and say stop the madness!

Arin Hancock: Well, I don't know. Yeah, I'm almost with you on this one, you know this I Guess the redeeming quality of this one is at least it gets a little bit heavier during the course You know, you got a very mellow Verse and then it picks up a little bit heavier on I think that's of course. I don't even know this whole thing just Too many songs on this album I think drag as far as tempo wise I think that's

Kris plamondon: It's just, yeah, they drag it on and on and like, and they don't write.

Arin Hancock: But know, this one kind of worked like the style of like, like Metallica's Unforgiven, you know, like a, a slow, plain verse and then heavy on the chorus ⁓ or even vice versa, you know, go heavy. I think, ⁓ yeah, Unforgiven was, was reversed that, but you know, kind of something like that, or it worked this into like a ⁓ power ballad. But then you got to remember that was the eighties. This is not the eighties anymore. This is 1995. There wasn't much music I liked in the 90s, I don't think.

Kris plamondon: There's probably a reason why I didn't watch the Dove Awards that year.

Arin Hancock: Well the Dove Awards was the next year in 96, but anyways Yeah You know, I don't I didn't look at what month this came out in this might have been one of those where came out like late in 95 so it was a 95 release but Started selling in 96. So, know again if this was really a

Kris plamondon: ⁓ they want it a year later.

Arin Hancock: you know, towards the end of 95 and did the bulk of its sales in 96. It's more of a 96 record. This is well into the 90s by the time this comes out, so yeah.

Kris plamondon: If I would have got this cassette for Christmas, I would have refunded it. it's... Oh my goodness. It's just... To me, this is just my opinion. I just think it's a boring... out. It just doesn't... When I heard it, I thought, okay, I can give it a chance. But when I had to listen to it once through... No, I didn't want to put myself through that again.

Arin Hancock: You I did I listen to it ⁓ numerous ⁓ just especially when I realized like the first time a Lot of times I was listening to while I was doing other stuff and I didn't have chance to write down my notes actually I didn't write notes down on this one other than the overall notes about the ⁓ and But I remember the first time I was listening to it. I was

Kris plamondon: ⁓

Arin Hancock: I'm like, oh, this song is kind of good and it's got a good solo to it. I didn't have a chance to write down which song that was. So then I listened to it a few times over and over trying to figure out what song it was that I thought had a good solo. And I couldn't pick it out anymore after that.

Kris plamondon: Maybe your brain put the guitar solo in place of that.

Arin Hancock: I don't know. don't know. it's because if you were asked, you know, like on Facebook, your favorite song from this, everybody would pick a different song. There are people who like songs off of this.

Kris plamondon: The group I was in, I was almost banned from talking about it. I'm like, Arin, what are you doing to me?

Arin Hancock: Alright, we'll move on to... I don't know what group you were in. Like I said, I was in a couple groups kind of asking people's opinions and I got kind of 50-50. I got some people who really hated it, but I got people who really liked it too. ⁓

Kris plamondon: I got people who were like, why are you talking about such an old band and an old record? I'm like, not my fault.

Arin Hancock: Well, first of all, lot of times we do talk about old bands and old records. I know if we're talking about the first one to be even older, we've been talking about Stryper who's an old band. We've talked about their first records.

Kris plamondon: Yeah. Yeah, well that has merit. In this doesn't. ⁓

Arin Hancock: Yes. Hey, and we talked about Siloam, which was an even older band with an, you know, that was back in the eighties. So, and we got more of those to talk about too. I mean, we're always going to keep going back to the eighties. So for those who aren't into this record, we are going to go back to the eighties. going to, you know, we'll do some of our favorite stuff from the nineties and two thousands as well. But we kind of want, I thought we'd balance out and we're going to be talking about more nineties records as well. So.

Kris plamondon: Yeah.

Arin Hancock: This isn't the only one in this series either, unfortunately. This might be the worst of the 90s records though. I'm going to have to do lot of editing on this one to try and keep it somewhat positive. Anyways, we're going to a song called Rust.

Kris plamondon: I hope so.

Arin Hancock: ⁓ what I going say about this? It started off with kind of a cool riff and then it ⁓ got mellow on the first part of verses and I didn't really like that to it. It ⁓ to has a bit of a Alice in Chains ⁓ feel it I think.

Kris plamondon: All I gotta say is, can we talk about Kalamity kills now? ⁓

Arin Hancock: I know a great band I do know there was one song on this on this album you did like you brought it up when we were talking about Holy Soldier before we'll get to that one down the road ⁓ I Know this was one where it started off kind of cool and like starting to my attention and build into something really nice and then it just dropped out and like ⁓ why did you do that?

Kris plamondon: I think this is the one where you have to be into that genre to like it, right? You know? Yeah, like... It's not for me, that's okay. That's fine, right? ⁓

Arin Hancock: Yeah, well, this whole thing is like that. Yeah, I think did a little bit of slide on this solo Kind of a blue slide to it, which is made it sound kind of cool There was some redeeming qualities. Yeah, so there's parts of this song that I liked overall. Not really. This one, I think this was the one I was saying earlier where I did like the solo to it. And that's about all I think I really liked from this.

Kris plamondon: Yeah. Nope, nope, nope.

Arin Hancock: Alright, so this one I remember last time we were talking about Holy Soldier you brought this one you So that section may have got edited out of the episode But I know you you were talking about this song you did like this song So there's any redeeming parts to this album. This song was one you said you liked earlier this is the cover of Larry Norman. You know Larry Norman, right? So this is a Larry Norman song that they cover. Why don't you look into Jesus? one line in there, I don't know what he says I know the original Larry Norman is something about ⁓ Was it Something about STDs Valentine's Day sipping looking for perfect layer or something like that ⁓ Larry Norman writes some great lines and this song I guess I could say it isn't a bad song, it's not a bad version of his song. So this one do you kinda like?

Kris plamondon: Not really, because... I don't like the drums and the way he's singing it. It almost made me fall asleep. I'm like, buddy, like even if it's cover, I thought he would more to it, you know, maybe guitar, some, you know, but it's just, no, no.

Arin Hancock: Yeah, he seems a little he seems a lower than Larry Norman does I think they want thing about this throughout this record too, and I'm not sure if it's every song stylistically They went for the the drop Tunings, I think the drop D or even tune the whole guitar down a step or half a step make everything sound a little deeper a little lower and Yeah, this one might have been better in you know a little higher Especially if Eric's got the capability of singing high instead of staying low, could have gone higher on this one.

Kris plamondon: It is what it is, right?

Arin Hancock: yeah all right you know let's see what else ⁓ here we go this one might be not bad ⁓ break it down Alright your thoughts on that one

Kris plamondon: Do I have to answer that? ⁓ I always was expecting him to go and do a rap. know? Like he just... So, no. I'm gonna throw it right back to you, ⁓

Arin Hancock: Do it! Alright, I Listened that that one. kind of like at least it's upbeat It's not it's kind of heavy without being heavy You know, if you look at the ref and add distortion to it, it would be a nice heavy riff actually the other one there was a song let me go back a little bit here. Was it my world or no? Not my world probably rust one of them started out with kind of a funky riff. I think that was rust So i'll throw that in there that That one piece we listened, you know, I had like this funky bass starting off That was actually kind of cool. ⁓ you know, I may be grasping a straw i'm trying to find something about this record that like but break it down I did like

Kris plamondon: guess.

Arin Hancock: Is it the best song? No. When I rate this against the first two, it's still going come out third, I think. But that's me. That's us. ⁓

Kris plamondon: No, no, not for, no. I'll say this was an album I saw, I heard, that was it.

Arin Hancock: Alright, well we got a couple songs for you to suffer through to get through this and cover me Okay, that one kind of me for a loop. I know I've listened to this, but I don't remember that one so much. I don't know why, but... I want to go on the record too saying I don't hate all grunge or all the 90s bands that came out. You remember the band Grammatrain?

Kris plamondon: ⁓ yeah.

Arin Hancock: Okay. What were your thoughts on that?

Kris plamondon: I did not get in the grammar training. I saw them three, four times. Yeah, okay, three times. And I just, tried, I tried to get into them. No, no.

Arin Hancock: ⁓ okay. Really? Okay, I didn't know they were even here three times. I knew about them one time when they came here in support of their second album. I think they only had two records out, so they couldn't have been here too many times anyways. But I just want to throw that out there just so that people realize I don't hate all grunge. I actually like Granmmatrain. And as far as the mainstream bands, after the fact I kind of got into Soundgarden,

Kris plamondon: Yeah, I think they have two, yeah.

Arin Hancock: You know, Yeah, so they weren't all they were not, you know, the 90s bands weren't all bad, but they were few and far between, I think.

Kris plamondon: I didn't mind them for a while. I always get Soundgarden mixed up with what's that big pop band? Savagegarden, that's what it was. I always got the two mixed up.

Arin Hancock: Well, the names sound similar, but musically they are totally different in opposite end of the spectrum.

Kris plamondon: I our audience might know truly madly deeply.

Arin Hancock: I don't know if our audience would know that you know that

Kris plamondon: Hey, we can all post that on our page. ⁓ Well, we love it all here at the Rock in the

Arin Hancock: Alright Well, we're finding out Kris doesn't love it all. ⁓

Kris plamondon: ⁓ hey, come on, come on!

Arin Hancock: You don't love this record.

Kris plamondon: No! No! And I have no problem admitting that!

Arin Hancock: Yeah, trying to be fair like said I know we've got listeners who like this record and I don't want to Alienate I guess yes is the word ⁓

Kris plamondon: I mean if we ever get them on the show, mean, I don't know how that'll work, but, you know, because...

Arin Hancock: I tried to reach out to a couple of listeners asking if they wanted to be on and they're too shy to come on.

Kris plamondon: Well, after this, they're gonna want to...

Arin Hancock: No, because you keep cutting the record down. I'm trying to be nice to the record.

Kris plamondon: Well, they might want to be interviewed to you, but not for me, right?

Arin Hancock: Alright actually that brings us up to the next song this one actually it was another one I didn't mind I don't want to say I liked well I guess you could say I like it ⁓ There was very few songs on this record. I did like this was one. I think I did like grind

Kris plamondon: ⁓ nice guitar solo. ⁓ the drums are pretty good. I tried.

Arin Hancock: Okay, I think that was the chorus there. That was long and wasting to the song before you get the chorus. I think found a song Kris might kind of like.

Kris plamondon: My might that court the chorus of the guitar that was good, but it was short-lived so I'm like I Try they they they tried no

Arin Hancock: you This was one that kind of grabbed my attention, you know, it starts off with actually a cool guitar riff. It's upbeat, fast paced, very nice tempo. I like the tempo behind this song. You know, the vocals were actually weren't bad on this one either. I think the vocals work. This was probably one of the few ones on this album that I liked as well. But at least we got some positive comments out of you on this one.

Kris plamondon: Barely.

Arin Hancock: You said you liked the guitars, you liked the drum beat. ⁓

Kris plamondon: Yeah, for the second last song.

Arin Hancock: I think that's it, yeah. No, there's, I think three to go yet. ⁓ Here we go. Love conquers all.

Kris plamondon: That's it? ⁓

Arin Hancock: Okay, enough of that. think this is meant to be their ballad on the one. This one just drags. There was some... ⁓ You know, one thing I want to say overall about the vocals on this one, and this really threw me, because people said that he could do the old stuff, so he could sing high if he wanted to, but he's singing so low on most of this record, on pretty much all this record. You know who he reminds me of? The singer from crash test dummies.

Kris plamondon: I could, yeah, that's actually a pretty good comparison, yeah.

Arin Hancock: I don't know that must be what he was going for. I don't want to say that was Negative, maybe you know, that's what they were trying to do I'm thinking there was a stylistic choice ⁓ ⁓ It was a decision that they made, not by accident, but they meant to make that choice, meant to come up with that sound. ⁓

Kris plamondon: Yeah. Although back in that time, it was doing them well, Like, so whatever for whatever reason. Maybe those people don't like the album now. Yeah.

Arin Hancock: I don't know, yeah, that would be interesting. Alright, we got one more to get through here. Sand.

Kris plamondon: Mike! Come on!

Arin Hancock: That was kinda cool, yeah!

Kris plamondon: You go from a slow to a like 50s opening. Like, no, no.

Arin Hancock: For us you Why not? You gotta counteract that slowness.

Kris plamondon: Listen to it. It doesn't fit.

Arin Hancock: I don't know, you know what, it sounds like a lot of my problems with the Siloam record. There was too many ballads on that Siloam record.

Kris plamondon: Yeah, uh, yeah. For a band that's been known to rock back in that day, I guess, maybe, I don't know. I don't know. All I know, grunge is not for me. I have boundaries. I'm sticking to it.

Arin Hancock: Overall I say the same thing

Kris plamondon: Ed punk, Ed. And I don't like punk. No, no.

Arin Hancock: It depends on the band and the artist. have good news for you. This is the last song on the record. we played that one. That was sand. We played that one, didn't we? ⁓ right, all I gotta say to you listening out there, please do not hate us for this episode. I tried ⁓ best. I don't know about Kris, but... ⁓

Kris plamondon: Yay! We're over! ⁓ Ha I can't say... More Kalamity kills! That's all I got to ⁓

Arin Hancock: you Check them out actually, yes. Check out the latest single that was These Days Are Evil. Okay, so this is gonna be tough for you. Was there ⁓ anything at all about this record liked?

Kris plamondon: Well, like I said the opening Promise Man ⁓ musically was was good. I like that.

Arin Hancock: Okay, promise man, okay. Right. I'm with you on Promise Man. I like Promise Man. I think I remember when this album first came out. I kind of liked that song. Again, I would not say it's my favorite Holy Soldier song. Overall, what's your favorite Holy Soldier song?

Kris plamondon: Wow, that's a good question. ⁓ What are my options?

Arin Hancock: Well we got three records to go from me, remember?

Kris plamondon: I know. I know that it's not any songs on this album.

Arin Hancock: ⁓ Okay, I'm not gonna worry about that like promise man break down. I kind of liked grinds you were kind of getting in the grinds So if I asked you for a second sound you like you probably agree on grind. I think you like

Kris plamondon: I-I-If I was stuck on our stranded island and that was the only song I had to listen to, that would be okay. That would be okay.

Arin Hancock: You didn't like very much this record. was the worst of the record?

Kris plamondon: I don't really like to think negative,

Arin Hancock: You don't like to think negative, you don't like anything about this. I'm just trying to think.

Kris plamondon: Where do I start? need like an hour. ⁓ I just think, I mean, some of the songwriting was pretty good, but I just felt that it was, no, no. Like it just, it didn't jive with me. It didn't catch me. There was moments that maybe the guitar riff or the opening or the drums were good. I mean, I will say the production was pretty good. It sounded solid. were consistent. So there's three things!

Arin Hancock: Okay, so found one positive out of it. Okay. So what was... There you go. What was the worst sound though?

Kris plamondon: The song after promised men.

Arin Hancock: Oh, okay. Mambo Jumbo? That kind of makes my list. I don't think that was the worst of it though. I would say... Probably Love Conquers All or Cover Me. It almost reminds me, we're talking to Dale Thompson, a bride.

Kris plamondon: Yes.

Arin Hancock: He says the number of he describes ⁓ as groove rock. And I think you could kind of put that term to this. Some of the more upbeat sounds are kind of more the groove rock orientation. Is that heavy note? ⁓ If he added a little more distortion in the records, think some of these sounds would have been better. I would say, know, my absolute... Well, I don't know, even sand, I don't think it was that great. It was kind of okay, I don't know. Alright, enough of that. ⁓

Kris plamondon: Don't torture our audience any more than they already need.

Arin Hancock: Remember, some people actually like this and some of our audience does like this.

Kris plamondon: that I guess but if you do tell us on my other Facebook page why I mean I understand if it's if it's you grew up with it you saw them a lot that I understand and I respect that that cool but but just no yes no it's not for this Canadian boy no Not this album.

Arin Hancock: Okay. Alright, well, thanks for sitting with us through this episode. I hope you sat with us through most of this episode. I don't know if you made it to the end or not.

Kris plamondon: Yeah, if you made it to the end, thank you so much.

Arin Hancock: Thank you so much for sitting through Kris's negativity on this record.

Kris plamondon: Hey, I tried, man. I tried, okay?

Arin Hancock: You know what actually if you made it to the very end let us know I'd like to be interested first of all who listened to The entire episode and who was had the patience to sit through everything that Kris had to say and all his All right With that once again if still with us, thanks for being with us share this out ⁓ everybody else know about it ⁓

Kris plamondon: I know, we'll have to look at the numbers in a couple months. Yes, thank you. But let them know, let them know we do better episodes than this, okay?

Arin Hancock: If he didn't like the I was gonna say if you didn't like the content on this, we will do other episodes. We'll bounce around between 80s, 90s, 2000, 2010, rock and everything. Well, no, we're not doing everything else. We're not doing country, we're not doing rap. It's gotta be rock and roll. All right, God bless and keep on rock and rolling.

Kris plamondon: Yes. Boo! See you later.