Battle Cry

This week is another varied genre week. While mainly focusing on Metal, I'm going to dive into the sub genres a bit. Let out the collective groan now. Today we're going with some Traditional Metal. Could even go as far as calling this early American Power Metal. Sub genres semantics aside, today's band is a very underrated one on my books. Omen were another band that appeared on Metal Blade's Metal Massacre V album. Somewhat forgotten after the late 80's split. The band recorded some very solid records before splitting up in the late 80's. Omen were another band from LA who were similar to label mates Armored Saint. The band formed after guitarist Kenny Powell split from his band Savage Grace. Fronted by vocalist J.D. Kimball, the band released 3 albums and an EP with J.D. on vocals. He was replaced by Coburn Pharr, who would later wind up fronting Annihilator for several years. The band split and reformed in the late 90's and are still releasing albums every so often. The band's debut remains a quality slice of Metal though. 'Battle Cry' was a great traditional metal record. Every song on this album is a headbanger and sounded great live. I've gone ahead and uploaded the remastered expanded edition of 'Battle Cry' from the 20th Anniversary Box set released back in 03. There are two additional tracks, 'Torture Me', which was their contribution to Metal Massacre V and a Live version of 'Battle Cry' taken from a 86 show in San Antonio TX. A forgotten gem of an album that needs some new life breathed into it.

Omen for me kinda gets tossed into that whatever happened to that one band that was on that comp album pile. And they really don't belong there. The albums with J.D on vocals did really well and the band was always on the road supporting bigger bands. But for whatever reason they never broke completely through. Perhaps it was the vocalist change, maybe it was something else. In any case the band did reform with Kenny's son on vocals and guitars, releasing an album in 97, almost ten years since the last. It would be another six years before another new record would see the light of day. 'Eternal Black Dawn' featured current Phantom-X vocalist Kevin Goocher on vocals. The album was a return to form and the band started to gain some buzz. But plagued by lineup changes once again the band has mustered enough to release a live album of an old show and a comp of demos and new tracks since 03. Sadly J.D passed in 03 from cancer, leaving a comeback option dead in the water. New/Old vocalist Matt Storey is fronting the band and new material is on its way in the coming year. Hopefully people will pick up on what a great band this is.

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