April bonus: Rez Band

Arin Hancock: You're listening to The Rock and Metal Faith. Welcome to the rock and metal faith podcast. It's all about the rock that doesn't roll. from the classics to the new bands. I'm your host, Aaron Hancock, and this is April's bonus episode, where we'll focus on a band, and then we'll get into birthdays. So if you're new to the program, once a month, we will do a bonus episode. We will focus on the band, and some of the bands we're gonna focus on are bands we've already talked about. You can kind go back into past episodes and find out more. We're just going to do like a brief overview. And you might wonder why we do that. Just because I see a lot of people online always asking about bands. Who should I listen to? Who's out there? Who are good bands? So when I started this talking about bands for the bonus, I thought, well, let's cover some of the classics and then we'll get into. some of the other bands. And today's classic band, we're going to talk about Rez or Resurrection Band. They started out under the name Resurrection Band, got shortened down to Rez Band, and then finally down to Rez. They formed in about 72. Took a little while before they got ⁓ a record deal. They were just kind of playing around different events, groups, churches and all this. I started out of what was known as the Jesus People Movement. and kind of took it from there. The band that is Glenn Kaiser on vocals and guitar, Wendy Kaiser on vocals, Stu Heiss on guitar and keyboards, and John Herron on drums. That was the lineup for basically the whole band's career. At the start they had Jim Denton on bass until 1987 and then from then on to 2000 when the band disbanded they had Roy Montroy on bass. Rez is known for blending blues rock, rock and then later a little bit of rena rock and have very strong Christian themes. They were one of the first heavy electric blues based bands out there. often kind of compared now to early Aerosmith or Led Zeppelin. Not that they ever sounded like Led Zeppelin, but stylistically that's kind of where people... They are one of the pioneers of the Christian hard rock. Came out alongside Petra. Also little heavier than Petra. And were very influential in some of the bands later. Come along later in the 80s. Some of the records you ought to check out would be the first one, Awaiting Your Reply, or the second one, Rainbow's End. I would check out. waves off the first record, great song. Later on, great records Heaven and Hell, Silence Screams, Innocent Blood. So yeah, great band. That's all we really need to say about them for right now. On to birthdays for the month of April. We've got an album anniversary, although I don't know the exact date. So I'll just go ahead and mention at the top of the month here. In 2021, Reborn Again was released. We just talked about this record not that long ago. And if you don't know anything about it, Reborn Again is the album released by Michael Sweet under his own name, his solo band. And is the record, same record as Stryper's Reborn, just redone? Reborn came out, was meant to be a solo record for Michael Sweet. The band was in the process of getting back together and reforming after a bit of a hiatus and convinced Michael that they should use those songs for the next Stryper record. The record never really came out the way Michael wanted. in 2021, this is almost 20 years later, about 18 years later, Michael decides to redo the record the way he had originally envisioned it. A few more guitar layers, a more solos. And so yeah, Reborn has come out in April. If you can get ahold of it, definitely worth checking out. April 3rd we have... birthday for Steve Osborne, who is the guitar for Bride during their classic years with Snakes in the Playground and I believe on Scarecrow. We have Ben Milhouse, who is the drummer for Deceiver Down. He also played with Wolves at the Gate. And I should mention too, Steve Osborne was born in 1966. I don't have a year for Ben Millhouse. All right, April 6th, we have John Toopey who plays a keyboard for Signum Regis. Power metal band out of Europe. See Germany Sweden, I'm not really sure exactly where they're from. I just know they're from Europe somewhere Great band. I would check out the Y'all undivided April 7th, we have a couple of birthdays, couple of great vocalists actually. Jamie Rowe of Guardian, born 1970. And John Cooper of Skillet, born 1975. Also April 7th, Michael Sweet released his first solo record in 1994. This was really just the self-titled one under the name Michael Sweet. Later it's been kind of re-released, renamed with the year it came out 1994. April 8th we have the legendary birthday from the legendary artist Larry Norman born in 1947. I would check out one of my favorite songs from him if you have not heard called Why Should the Devil Have All the Good Music. And also April 8th we have birthday well from res band Wendy Kaiser. 1953, like I mentioned at the top of the show. She was one of the vocalists with Rez. Actually, that brings up a little story I was going to talk about Rez, too. I some research into Rez, because for those of you who have the live record called 20 Years Live, on there she tells a story about when her husband, or to be, Glenn Kaiser. first has the idea of forming this rock band and singing about God and Jesus and how they're going to get a lot of flack for it. She calls him Timothy and it always kind of threw me off why she called him Timothy. So I did a little research into that and turns out what she was doing was comparing him to Timothy of the Bible who had a vision for ministry. They were young at the time like Timothy was young at the time and basically comparing the ministry that Rez was going to do. to the same kind of ministry that Timothy in the Bible, in the New Testament has done. So for those who want to know all about that, I have did a little research and figured out the answer to that question. And moving on now, April 10th, we have Rick Forean. He did vocals for White Heart, born in 1962. April 13th, we have Terry Russell, who is a drummer for Holy Soldier. And I believe he's also playing out with Worldview. He's playing with one of these other bands. I think Worldview and possibly Human Cold. I know there's a couple of super groups out there who are essentially the same band, just a different vocalist and doing different sounds. And I believe Terry is part of those bands. April 15th, we have Patrick Judge, who is a guitarist for Demon Hunter. He was born 1987. And we have Ben Casica, who was a former guitarist for Skillet. Played with him from 2001 to 2011. Ben Casica was born 1984. April 16th, have Claus Anderhal who did drums for Jerusalem born 1961. Jerusalem is one of these Swedish bands in the, I believe early 80s playing Christian rock, metal, making a little bit of waves over here. April 17th, we have Noah Henson, who is a former guitarist for the band Pillar. April 28th, another album release from Striper. That was April 20th in 2018. It was when Goddamn Evil came out. Great album from a great band. April 22nd we have another birthday from the band Jerusalem, Dan Gansmar, who played drums with them. April 27th, we have Bejans Dixon play guitar with Leviticus born 1951. Great band, again another, I believe they were a Swedish band. Made a little bit of inroads over here, gained a few fans over here in North America. April 28th, Lester Estill, who is the drummer for Pillar, born 1981. And April 29th, we have George Ochoa, who's the guitarist. Started out with Deliverance, he's played with Vengeance, did a short time with Mortification, and now with the band Worldview. Worldview's a great band too. Again, like I said earlier, one of these super groups, I believe they got Terry Russell, I can't remember everybody who's in Worldview right now, but a great band. worth checking out and I believe George said that he's working on new deliverance materials so we have that to look forward to later this year. George Ochoa was born 1962. Alright that is about it for our birthdays quick little rundown on Rez. and we'll see you all next time and catch you all next time. Remember to like, subscribe and let all your friends know about the Rock and Metal Faith podcast. God bless and keep rocking.