THIS ALBUM CONTAIN(14-TRACKS)
1-.I.PANGE LINGUA CERTAMINIS
II.WARRIOR
III.MARCH OF THE ENTS
2-DWELLING PLACE
3-PARADOX(Disciple's Song)
4-REALIZATION
5-GREATER LOVE
6-PRAISE IN THE OLD TONGUE
FIRE FACE
1.EX NIHILO
2.MORNING'S ANTHEM
3.I.ELOHIM CONSIDERS ANTEDELUVIA
II.THE NEPPHILIM DISEMBODIED
III.ARK
4-I.BEASTIA EX MACHINA
II.O A SLEEPING INFIDEL
5-MORNIN'S ANTHEM REPRISE
6-REALIZATION-LIVE(Bonus Extra)
7-WARRIOR-LIVE(Bonus Extra)
CREDITS:Musicians
Kemper Crabb –Lead Vocals,Classic Guitar, Lute,
Recorder, Drums, Tambourine, Finger Cymbals:,
Acoustic Guitar, Kalimba, Dulcimer, Bell Tree,
Tubular Bells, Board Slaps, Electric Rhythm Guitar,
Full Frontal Guitar, Psaltery, High Strung Guitar, Autoharp,
Accordion & Fender Rhodes Electric Piano
David Marshall – Electric Rhythm Guitar, Bass & Full Frontal Gtr
Randy Sanchez – Drums & Mall Toms
Richard Conine – Synthesizers, Organ, Saxophone & Flute ..
Cemper Crabb's Ark Angel combines classic 70's rock with classical music overtones and is a conceptual album, great songs with a great story lines, reminicient of Caress Of Steel-era Rush and classic Yes.Jimmy Hotz,Pink Floyd.Praise God for M8 distribution, an American label specialising in re-releasing classic Christian albums in limited pressings and also putting out a few new releases from alternative/indie rock bands. This 1980 release, originally on Star Song, was on my list of vinyl albums that I longed to see make it onto CD and it still sounds fresh 20 years after its original release. Mixing folk, Celtic and rock styles before Iona made it trendy, the band, led by the talented Kemper Crabb, described themselves as "the spirit of apocalyptic rock" and there is something epic captured in these songs. The title track has always been one of my all time favourite songs with its psalm-like lyrics and powerful music - hey, even the bagpipes sound cool. Got to say a decade before lona started doing it, ArkAngel were creating huge sounds and pieces of music written in different sections with instrumental passages conveying the power of the lyrical ideas. Thus a track with the dubious title "Elohim Considers Antedeluvia" turns out to be a bit of an epic. At the other end of the musical scale, there are rootsy Celtic arrangements, the highlight being the Gaelic prayer "Praises In The Old Tongue". The mellow "Dwelling Place" has also been a song which has inspired me over the years with its call to intimacy with God. There are some amazing musical moments captured here, like the haunting violin, which forms the intro of the brilliant "Morning Anthem" and the simple arrangements and pure vocals of "Greater Love" which captures the pain of the fall of Adam and Eve and the eternal consequences for mankind. Basically, this is a classic Christian music album, musically adventurous and lyrically moving. If you're into prog music or you're an lona fan you should consider checking it out or if you simply want something a little different. Full marks to M8 for the re-release! They don't make 'em like this anymore, more's the pity!: Well, the first thing was that we released an album as the band Redemption. M8 Distribution is getting ready to re-release it. And then we did a single called "The Anti-Satan Boogie" for Destiny, a label for other "Jesus Music" bands. The boogie was our tribute to sha-na-na. Not too long after that, I met the guys at StarSong Records. We recorded a single for Dawntreader One, which was a sampler that StarSong released, and after a couple of years, we recorded and finally released our album in 1980, which was the ArkAngel album, Warrior. In late 1981, I recorded The Vigil, which was released in early 1982. I was still in ArkAngel, but I had become burnt out on guitar rock, and like a lot of the other art-rock bands, we were moving in the same direction as other bands we liked - David Bowie, Genesis and YES. So we re-formed ArkAngel as RadioHalo in 1983. Also in late '83, we made a video, the first video made in Texas, which got accepted to be shown on MTV. But then two weeks later, about the time it was supposed to start showing, MTV changed their policy - you had to have a nationally distributed album, and we didn't. We only had a demo to give to record labels.But the video got shown all over on Qube and other video shows. Meanwhile, we had changed into dance-oriented rock and developed a really big following at Rockefeller's and other regular clubs here [in Houston]. We didn't play in churches; we played clubs and did Vigil-type material to churches. RadioHalo didn't do anything in the Christian marketplace, although our music still had the Christian content, but no one seemed to mind that much. During that same period of time, I recorded an album with John Michael Talbot, called Songs For Worship. Then, John, a guy named Craig Smith, and I did an album called Be Exalted, which John wanted to call "Talbot, Smith, and Crabb", but Craig and I wanted the record to sell well! So, we said, why don't you call it, "John Michael Talbot and Friends"? And it actually did sell very well, so that was good. And then the next thing that came out was RadioHalo's album, Illumination, which was basically a bunch of album-quality demos that had been made over the years and a few new songs, released on Urgent Records out of Austin, TX. Urgent Records went belly-up and defrauded many a person.Then, in 1995,I was invited to join Caedmon's Call around the time they released Just Don't Want Coffee. They asked me to come and play at their release party, which was at Rockefeller's, here in Houston. We hit it off famously, and I started going around with them. A few weeks later, they said, "Why don't you just join the band?" So, I did. In early 1996, I recorded for Rivendell Studios. They had a thing called Rivendell Café, which was a radio program - they would record artists live in the studio. I was invited to do that, and I recorded Live at Rivendell Café with the guys in Caedmon's Call plus some of my old people from RadioHalo and ArkAngel. But before I did that, I recorded a live Christmas record for the same thing, which is A Medieval Christmas. Those records weren't released immediately. Actually, I didn't release them untila year later. In mid-1996 I stopped playing with Caedmon's Call. They had a lot of concerts to play, and I just couldn't make the thing work, although it was on good terms, and I continue to play with them every Sunday night at the Logos service [at Second Baptist Church] here in Houston. Meanwhile, I joined a band called Atomic Opera, and I was invited to come and play and arrange vocals on their album, which became Penguin Dust. After I did that a little, I was invited to join the band, which I did. I also did a lot of work with Operation Rescue, and I produced an album for them which had one song on it called "A Malediction". That song ended up being the soundtrack for Dobson's film, The Hard Truth, which is the best-selling Christian video of all time. My most recent recording is a live album from Cornerstone 2000 with Atomic Opera backing me up, and it's just been released a couple of weeks ago,ArkAngel's 1980 debut Warrior is widely considered a classic in the annals of early Christian rock. And rightly so! Drawing in a creative manner from the rich vein of progressive art rock, ArkAngel showcases influences as diverse as Yes, Kansas and Jethro Tull and combines them with occasional Tolkien imagery to create a powerful and apocalyptic mixture of the acoustic and the electric: The albums first side, "Wind Face", is mostly acoustic, while "Fire Face", its second, moves in a hard rock direction with classical overtones.Kemper Crabb, the bands primary songwriter, contributes a rich and warm lead vocal style in addition to handling acoustic and electric guitar, dulcimer, lute, harmonica, autoharp, accordion, tubular bells, synthesizer, medieval drums and percussion. To say that Crabb is a well-rounded musician would be an understatement! Joining Crabb on rhythm and lead guitar and bass is the talented David Marshall. Randy Sanchez fills in on drums, while Richard Conine does a very fine job on synthesizers, piano, saxophone and flute. The wide array of instruments these musicians play is nothing less than impressive.Production values are quite laudable, particularly in light of the fact Warrior was recorded on a small Christian label, Star Song, using early eighties technology."Wind Face" opens to "Pange Lingua Certaminis (Warrior Prelude)" as Crabb's voice is briefly carried over a classic guitar and lute blended with a recorder.After fading in over its first twenty seconds to bagpipes backed by a militant drum beat, "Warrior" immediately advances to a grand and stately chorus in which Crabb delivers lyrics based around Revelation 19:11-12: The bagpipes drop from the mix as "Warrior" picks up in pace for its verse before an edgy rhythm guitar reinforces its second chorus.As "Warrior" fades out, it transitions to "March Of The Ents": The bagpipes return and combine with a bit of lead guitar to underscore Ent voices coming across in the form of deep sounding chanted vocal harmonies. (The albums liner notes give credit to the Ent voice to Kemper Crabb, David Marshall, Treebeard and Quickbeem!)"Dwelling Place" slowly moves through its first and second verse to orchestration underscored by a punchy bass line until it picks up in pace for a chorus driven by vocal harmonies. Conine tops things off with a very well done saxophone solo.The acoustic guitar opening the haunting "Paradox" blends with Marshal's lead guitar after a few seconds. Once the acoustic guitar in question carries the song through its first verse, keyboards help give the chorus that follows a nice eerie feel. The lead guitar returns to highlight a thirty second instrumental break.Bekah Crabb handles lead vocal duties on the acoustic based "Realization" in addition to the medieval flavored "Praises In The Old Tongue". Subsequent to an acoustic guitar standing in support of Crabb during the first verse to "Greater Love", the song picks up in pace for its second when he is joined by the rhythmsection and a touch of vocal harmonies."Ex Nihilo" introduces "Fire Face" to just under a minute of Kansas-like violin before keyboards underline Crabb as he describes the new heaven and the new earth,The progressive rock masterpiece "Morning's Anthem" begins to keyboards before a driving guitar riff pushes the song through its first and second verse. After a hard hitting combination of rhythm guitar and bass carries a lengthy instrumental passage, "Morning's Anthem" takes on a worshipful tone during its third and final verse as it points to the person of Christ:On Mount Zion God's people song to their Lord To Jesus who dwells in their midst as the KingAnd the song that is sung is the song of the KingdomThe song of the Kingdom of Jesus our LordCome and sing, come and sing Marshal contributes some of the albums best lead guitar work over the songs last minute."Elohim Considers Antedeluvia", an adaptation of "Tocatta and Fugue in D minor", is a fluid minute and a half open air guitar solo allowing Marshall to display his abundant abilities.The bizarre "The Nephilim Disembodied" combines a bell tree and piano with groaning "nephilic" voices featuring band members Richard Conine and Kemper Crabb backed by a Nazgul. (That's what the albums liner notes say!)A biting hard rock rhythm guitar drives "Ark" through its first verse at a mid-tempo pace as Crabb details the faith of Noah,The song continues in its guitar driven direction during its second verse as it portrays God's judgment during the time of Noah: Oh, Lord, how the people laughed when I built Your Ark But how the people screamed and when the storm-clouds turned the sky dark I knew Your judgment was fallen on menAnd there was hope for them no moreFor the clouds were opened to wash Earth clean againFollowing several seconds of blistering lead guitar work, "Ark" closes by presenting the salvation message,Beastia Ex Machina" features thirty seconds of counting down "various mechanized tones" that start out fast before ending slowly.Set in motion by a flute solo, the apocalyptic "To A Sleeping Infidel" slowly advances through its first verse to a quietly played guitar line. Abruptly picking up in pace to an upfront mix of crisp rhythm guitar, the song transitions to a sweeping chorus that opens to an aggressively delivered riff only to slow in tempo at its end. Conine's flute returns at the start of an instrumental passage highlighted by a heavy duty combination of rhythm and lead guitar. "To A Sleeping Infidel" also conveys a no-nonsense salvation message,The songs ending comes in the form of a warning: Don't take the number, don't take the number, don't take the number... The albums closes to a short acoustic based reprise of "Morning's Anthem". It has now been twenty-five years and we are still yet to hear a follow-up release from this talented band. Why? Did Conine and Crabb suffer an untimely demise as a result of singing harmony with the Nazgul? Seriously, the quality of the music on Warrior is such that a lack of talent on the bands part has not led to the delay of any potential follow up effort.Please note that in the early nineties Kemper Crabb recorded an album with band mate David Marshall under the name Radio Halo, while in recent years he joined Atomic Opera and performed on its fourth and most recent release Gospel Cola.Warrior was issued on CD for the first time in the early nineties with live bonus tracks in "Realization" and "Warrior"; however, in order to gain a full appreciation for the albums packaging a purchase of a vinyl copy is essential.IF You Want To Read A INTERVIEW With KEMPER Made By CHRISTIANE:http://www.feverdreamrecords.com/html/kc-interview-gr.html
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