Year : 1990 (Pila Music Records Edition)
Style : Christian Melodic Heavy Metal
Country : Germany
Audio : 320 kbps + scans
Size : 86 mb
Bio:
German christian heavy metal band active between 1982 and 1995.This Creed should not be confused with the mainstream Creed of the late 90’s.This Creed came out of Germany in the mid 80’s.Band is from Cologne, Germany.They actually had a demo and 12″ in the mid 80’s both of which are very good.They have also released at least one album called "Sign of Victory" on the Pure Metal label in 1992.Featuring only original member Tichy Casni (bass), Creed would boast their debut in 1990 in the form of The Sign of Victory along with Udo Libutzky (guitars) and Jessy Baron (vocals). Soon after the release, the band would go under a membership change featuring Hans E. Mickel (guitars), Matt Staiger (drums) and Thommy Rausz vocals (1991), in 1991, then in 1994, Joachim Joos (drums) and Andy Gutjahr (guitars) until the band split in 1995. Claus Binder (drums) and DeeDee Huege (guitars) would be an original member until 1988 and 1986 respectively.
Album:
Debut and last full-length album.One of the more properly "obscure" Christian metal bands I know, in the sense that I've hardly ever seen people talking about them. Although I was surprised to find them being covered on Treasure Seeker's 1998 tribute album, making me think that they were certainly somewhat popular in the underground Christian heavy metal scene in the 90s. Creed's debut, and unique, album (not to be confused with the infamous US band by which this one was clearly overshadowed) is a very melodic heavy metal work with large doses of Christianity and love.Creed's style is so markedly melodic that there are times that they remind me of Journey in a non-ironic way, there are real traces of AOR in their sound, in fact at first I was surprised that they weren't from the US because the songwriting really seems made to get into the Billboard, not to say that bands from outside the US don't have those pretensions or that all US bands do, but I think you get the point.The tendencies are clear from the beginning even from a non-musical perspective, such as the beginning of the album with a live track that in my eyes makes clear a pretentious commercialisation in terms of looking for a classic heavy sound that works very well for an extended audience, but yet this is not the case throughout the whole album as we find darker moments throughout the album, making the overall sound an amalgam of registers that form an eclectic cast leaning heavily on the simplicity of their songs to encourage a charisma that can make it seem better than it actually is.When I say that at times they sound like Journey I mean it in the best possible sense, I personally not a fan of all the band's discography but I enjoy their classic songs as much as anybody, and Creed in their most melodic moments gives me those vibes and I personally enjoy them, especially in the song Meet Again that has a precious aesthetic that makes it incredibly catchy, even my girlfriend who feels 0 appreciation for metal defined it as "very beautiful", without a doubt a very high point of the album.And it would be the biggest high point of the album, if it wasn't that for some reason on the last song all expectations are smashed as Creed shows us a song that is pure speed metal with "In The Dark" and the worst thing is that this variant is fucking great! It makes you wonder why the rest of the album isn't approached in the same way as this song. It fascinates me how Creed manages to make two different ways of playing heavy metal work on the same album, too bad that this is mainly on two songs, as the rest of the 8 songs don't even come close to this level.Having personally denied Christian metal for quite some time, I have to admit that this album has grown on me and a part of me wants to give it a higher note, but as beautiful, catchy and even fast as it sounds, I can't deny its poor production, the extremely forced simplicity, and the permanent feeling that something is being passed off as much better than it is thanks to his repetitive choruses.This was one of the albums that made me get rid of my stupid mistake of considering christian heavy metal as not worth it, when I listen to Creed I feel happy for being wrong, that's why every now and then I always come back to it, every time I listen to it I know it won't be the last, I know The Sign of Victory and I will meet again.
Line Up:
Jessy Baron - Vocals
Udo Libutzky - Guitars
Tichy Casni - Bass
Stefan Schütz - Drums
Production:
Engineer – Olaf Ritter
Mixed By – Manfred Lohse, Olaf Ritter
Producer – Norman Barratt
Companies, etc.
Manufactured By – CDT Berlin
Phonographic Copyright ℗ – Pila Music
Copyright © – Pila Music
Recorded At – Tonstudio Leonberg
Tracklist:
01. Sign of Victory 04:05
02. Taken by Storm 04:22
03. Meet Again (Farewell) 04:39
04. Broken Heart 04:27
05. Child 00:38
06. Prayer of Praise 03:02
07. Tonite 03:59
08. Break the Chainz 04:18
09. Forever on Fire 04:04
10. In the Dark 03:54
Download links for all albums only on our blog here: http://goodmetalandhar.do.am/
