Scepter – Scepter

Scepter
Scepter
1984 (no label)
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

Wendell Koop – Vocals, rhythm guitar
Joseph Madden – Lead guitar, rhythm guitar, Vocals
Darrell Reimer – Bass guitar
Gilbert Vielfaure – Drums

Side 1:

1. Eye in the Sky
2. Presence
3. Nero
4. Hang On

Side 2:

1. Physical Evidence
2. Forgiven Again
3. Star

This is not the same Scepter that released a soft rock album on Star Song in 1982. It’s also not any of the bands named Sceptre. It is the band that became The Keep later this same year and released Never Surrender on Tunesmith Records. “Eye in the Sky,” “Nero,” “Hang On,” and “Forgiven Again” were re-recorded for that album. Their full-length album is hard rock and rock that almost borders on heavy metal at times. This is mostly a rock album with three hard rock tunes. But it is still a good demo, so you can see why they were signed.

Dan Kulp – Nobody’s Fool

Dan Kulp
Nobody’s Fool
1995 (no label)
Tallahassee, Florida, USA

Dan Kulp – Vocals
Dave Hindreth – Guitars
Lee Roberts – Keyboards
Glenn Nasso – Bass
Ted Hurlbutt – Drums

Side One:

1. Follow
2. Are You Lonely
3. Run to Him
4. Somebody’s There for You

Side Two:

1. Nobody’s Fool
2. Master of Life
3. Born Again
4. All the Things
5. Stand Up

Dan might look like a solo singer/songwriter type on the cover, but as you can see by the full j-card he has a full band and goes for a full rock band sound here. They kind of flirt with hard rock here and there but stay mostly in mainstream rock sound (but one that also avoids being pop or folk as well). In other words, the guitars are a bit crunchy at times, but you also get things like keyboards and harmonica in some songs. Some of the songs even have a bit of an epic feel to them. There are even some longer songs, one of those being over 8 minutes long.

White Stone – Love Looks Back

White Stone
Love Looks Back
1992 (no label)
Cedar Falls, Idaho, USA

Janelle Pini – Vocals (side one)
Adam Brinkmann – Piano and keyboard programming (side one)
Anna Brinkmann – Vocals (side two)
Matt Brinkmann – Drums (side one); Keyboards, drum programming, vocals (side two)
Jim Coates – Guitars; bass and background vocals (side one); vocals (side two)

Side One:

1. Runaway
2. Walk Down Member Lane
3. April Without Rain

Side Two:

1. Love Looks Back
2. Do What You Want Me To
3. 180°

This tape starts off with some very 80s AOR style keyboards – but starts layering in some much heavier guitars and darker parts on the first song. Then jumps right into two piano ballads. Then there are two rock ballads. Finally, the tape ends with another hard rock song. So overall it seems to balance out at rock, but you kind of wish they included more hard rock songs because then do that pretty well. There are male and female lead vocals throughout, but mostly female. Other than that, I don’t know much about this band.

Blueprint

Blueprint
198? Red Sky Music
Leeds, England, United Kingdom

Side 1:

1. Rev Houston – Celestial Rock
2. Rev Houston – The Power and the Preacher
3. Rev Houston – My Love and I
4. Kenny Spence – Running Song
5. Kenny Spence – India
6. Kenny Spence – Prodigal One

Side 2:

1. McCurry Co – My Redeemer
2. McCurry Co – The Way
3. McCurry Co – Life is a Symphony
4. Iva Twydell – The Warning
5. Iva Twydell – I Surrender
6. Iva Twydell – The Dance Has Just Begun
7. Pearson – I Want to go to Heaven
8. Pearson – Angel
9. Pearson – We Need a Lot More of Jesus (and a Lot Less Rock ‘n’ Roll)

This is a compilation of songs from albums by the artists featured. I mainly decided to digitize it based on the fact that it had some of the solo songs from Iva Twydell (After the Fire fame). I had also heard the Rev Houston songs before as well (you can find it poking around online) but wanted to hear the others as well. Rev Houston’s 1985 album The Power and the Preacher is a mixture of alt rock, new wave, and rock – even though the three songs chosen for this comp are more of the rock vein. Kenny Spence has put his full album Class of 84 up on SoundCloud, His album has a bit more of a rock edge that almost borders on hard rock at times than the songs on this tape. McCurry Co is a keyboard-driven pop band, but the songs here don’t really have any new age to them. Like the others, their full-length album Pleased to Meet You might be different. Iva Twydell’s songs come from Duel (1982) and Secret Service (1981). Twydell is also a bit more alternative/progressive than the three songs present here. Pearson’s songs all come from his Brighten album. Can’t find that album, but the songs present here are more avant-garde and experimental than the other artists here. No date is given for this compilation, but the Rev Houston album was released in 1985, so probably not much later than that.

Jerry Elder – Rock & Soul

Jerry Elder
Rock & Soul
1996 (no label)

Jerry Elder – Vocals, drum programming, bass, keyboards, rhythm guitar, slide guitar, lead guitar

1. Rock and Soul
2. Lay the burden Down
3. Saved by His Grace

This is kind of fuzzy guitar rock album that doesn’t really ever cross over to hard rock or alternative rock, but gets kind of close to hard rock. Almost. It is one of those one person band projects, with Elder doing everything. But Elder really can’t sing. Which is a thing in rock much – there are many “can’t sing, don’t care” type of vocalists out there. They usually stay in punk and metal, though. I’m guessing the soul is a reference to the Christian lyrics, as there really isn’t any actual soul music influences anywhere that I can find. And actually, the lyrics to the first track do confirm that.

The Woebegone Brothers – Get on Board!

The Woebegone Brothers
Get on Board!
1989 (no label)
Hoddesdon, England, United Kingdom

John Griffiths – Vocals, guitar
Nigel Griffiths – Vocals, double bass
Glyn Griffiths – Vocals, harmonicas, drum, guitar

Side 1:

1. Gospel Train
2. Sinner Man
3. Gonna Live the Life
4. Well Well Well

Side 2:

1. Jordan River
2. Mean World
3. Walk All Over Heaven
4. Trying to Get to Heaven in Due Time

This band started as a one-off concert at Greenbelt 1988 that got so popular that they decided to record this tape. The sound is kind of a throwback to acoustic gospel-tinged skiffle blues. There isn’t much like it that I have encountered in the tape underground – maybe Sass O’Frass Tunic with skiffle instead of soul music. They also have a follow-up tape of mainly covers in 1990 called Satisfied, but I haven’t heard that one yet. You can find this tape on BandCamp if you would like to take a listen.

Calculated Risk – A New Day’s Dawning

Calculated Risk
A New Day’s Dawning
1986 (no label)
Washington, DC, USA

Christine Kenyon – Lead vocals, keyboards
Steve Hughes – Keyboards, vocals
Brent Stone – Bass, keyboards, vocals
Mike Eastham – Drums

Side 1:

1. A New Day’s Dawning
2. Front Page News

Side 2:

1. Live in Love
2. Forgive and Forget

I had no idea what this was, but decided to give it a spin due to the slight computer edge to the graphics, as well as the facts that there are no guitars on the album. I was hoping for a new wave hidden gem. But it’s mostly a keyboard-driven female-fronted AOR album with some new wave leanings. Not a disappointment, just not what I was hoping to hear. “Live to Love” is probably the most rocking tune (and the most new wave-ish, although still very slight), but hard rockers might find it too tame. They also really only have one ballad, so this is not a cheese fest by any stretch of the imagination. Not sure what else the band did, but I did find that the song “Front Page News” did beat out 1,100 other entries to win a Washington DC demo competition probably back in 1985-86.

LMX – No Turning Back

LMX
No Turning Back
1992 (no label)

1. Show Me My Heart
2. No Turning Back
3. Blinded
4. Feel the Rain
5. Touch of Your Hand
6. One Night

LMX stands for “Lewis Miles Expedition” in case you were wondering. I’m guessing Lewis Miles is the lead singer and guy in the center of the cover photo? Or it might be someone else – not much information online. Not sure what they are exploring either, other than faith maybe? The name seems to indicate progressive music, and there does seem to be a hint of that here and there. But the style is mostly pop-leaning rock. They do rock out a bit on songs like “Blinded,” so it’s not a CCM demo by any stretch. This might sound strange, but they kind of sit somewhere between Vector and Petra. I hope I am not making this sound bad – I kind of liked it. Nice bass guitar work on it as well.

Missing Information: Who played on this?

High Voltage – Demo

High Voltage
Demo
1997 (no label)
Marksville, Louisiana, USA

Dana Normand – Lead guitar, vocals
Jake Dardar – Rhythm guitar, percussion, vocals
John Riddle – Rhythm guitar, bass guitar, vocals
Josh Dardar – Bass guitar, percussion, vocals
Addison Riddle – Percussion
Danny Wright – Percussion
June Normand – Keyboard, vocals

Side A:

1. Powerline
2. We Come to You
3. Appletree
4. On My Knees
5. Jesus is Comin
6. Sinner’s Prayer

Side B:

1. Spirit Fall
2. Seed
3. Reinforced
4. Sacrifice
5. Hey, What’s Your Answer?
6. Powerline (Recharge)

This seems to be a different band from the one that had their demos re-issued on CD by Retrospect Records in about 2015. This is a hard rock-ish band that released this demo in 1997. The guitars tones are a bit lo-fi on this, as well as the recording levels – but they are going for a sound that is sometimes rock and other times almost hard rock. But they seems to sit just short of the hard rock line even in their hardest moments. It would be interesting to hear what this band sounded like live – did they go for a more rock direction, or a more hard rock direction?

Bill Glennen – The Soul Question

Bill Glennen
The Soul Question
1993 (no label)
Salina, Kansas, USA

Bill Glennen – Vocals, everything except:

Ted Cramer – 1st guitar lead on “Unfavored Grace”
Christina Glennen – Voice sample on “I Need You Now”
Doug Johnson – Lead guitar and drums on “I Need You Now”
Jesse Seigand – 2nd lead guitar and classical guitar on “Unfavored grace,” country lead guitar on “There’s a Time”
Chauncey Walker – Guest rapper on “Praise”

Side 1:

1. Love Can Do
2. Strange World
3. Proverbs 31 Woman/Ephesians 5 Man
4. The Soul Question
5. There’s a Time

Side 2:

1. I Need You Now
2. Risen One
3. Praise
4. Unfavored Grace
5. When We Say I Do

Based on the name of the album and the album cover, you would expect this to either be an attempt at soul music or hard rock. But those appear just to be used for the cover, because this is a rock record. The first song starts off as a pop rock mid-paced number with some power pop influences. It almost reminds me of The Stand. The second song cranks up the guitars with some almost-hard rock distortion. The rest of the songs kind of move back and forth between ballads, rockers, and a few rockers with some crunchy guitars. One song even has a breakdown with some rap. But it never really gets to the point of being hard rock, so I would put this as a rock record. Not sure if he made more albums or not, though.