New Whitecross

[Jesse]

One of my favorite Christian Rock bands at one time. They lost me when guitarist Rex Carroll departed and singer Scott Wenzell carried on with an atrocious version of the group. Now, Rex Carroll is back, but Wenzell is gone. Wenzell, for all his faults, had a very distinctive vocal, almost a dead-on Stephen Pearcy (Ratt). The vocalist here doesn't sound ANYTHING like that, so it's hard for me to accept as a Whitecross song, BUT, it's pretty good! Worth checking out some more of their new material.

[Jesse]

I ended up getting their new CD "Fear No Evil" which features this song, it's good! It's different, but I'm liking it. Their first 3 albums were fairly heavy "Hair Metal". Singer Scott Wenzell sounded a dead ringer for Ratt's Stephen Pearcy and their overall sound was a mix of Dokken and Ratt, but guitarist Rex Carroll may have been better than the guitarists in those bands (Yeah, better than George Lynch who's certainly no slouch). The band drifted into a more commercialized sound for 2 albums before Carroll left. Wenzell carried on for 2 more crap albums (though "Goodbye Cruel World" song was really good) and then broke up the band. Wenzell and Carroll regrouped the band with longtime drummer Michael Feighan and bassist Benny Ramos and re-recorded their first album. Then Wenzell retired (his voice HAD to be shot with the way he sang) and the regrouped band carried on with David Roberts. This is the first album of new material with Roberts on lead vocals. Again, it's really good, but Roberts sounds NOTHING like Wenzell. Actually has more of a Vince Neil sound to his voice (though not really on this song as much) and the songs are a little darker musically than their early material. More Motley Crue than Ratt or Dokken. Not necessarily a bad thing, just different. Good stuff, I gotta keep listening to it though to get used to THIS being Whitecross 2024 cuz it's not really what I was expecting.