WhiteCross-Hammer and Nail

From Reign Radio.com

Reviews
WhiteCross-Hammer and Nail
By Greg"BigHair"Brewster
Aug 17, 2002 - 9:50:00 PM

Hello again fellow metal-heads! You know there are some cool things in life. There's Sunday so we can go worship at church, there's payday... which really doesn't matter to me since it's already gone, and then there's the bargain bin at the Christian book store where you can find a rare gem every now and then. I was in the bookstore and BOOM! for $6.99 there it was.... Hammer and Nail by Whitecross. Now some of you are saying "yeah so what?" Well I'll tell ya what! These things are out of print, and sell for a lot more on the web. So I thought since I found this on disc and it was one of my favorite albums I would do a review on it. Crank up the REIGN, grab a Dew and listen up.

Hammer and Nail was WhiteCross' second album, I think they had an ep but I can't remember what it was. Anyway, this album was a departure from their first one, which was really smoking. This album is blues hard rock with a little classical metal thrown in for good measure. Side one starts off with "Living on the Edge." It's a slide guitar, hard rocking tune about a person whose life is headed down the wrong path and satan keeps putting ideas in your head to party til it's over, the whole time God is trying to break through to get to your soul. One thing about Whitecross was that musically these guys were pretty tight. This album their lyrics also became more mature and you could tell they were growing spiritually. "When the walls tumble Down" is the second track and this song has "California metal" written all over it. Lead singer Scott Wenzel kind of has a voice reminiscent of Stephen Pearcy of Ratt. This is talking about letting down your walls that you've built up for whatever reason and letting Christ come into your life and knocking them all down. Rex Carroll the guitarist and chief songwriter always had to do an instrumental....which leads us to track three "The Hammer and the Nail." This has an Yngwie Malmsteen feel to it. Rex was a great guitarist, unfortunately as we'll discover later sometimes the songs were almost stolen from secular groups. "Take it to the Limit" is the fourth song on side one. This is talking about a Christian that always tells God he wants to serve him, but when God comes calling they bolt. Great song, very "Dokken-esqe" is that a word? Well it sounds good anyway. "Walk with Me" is the obligatory ballad. This is a cool rocking ballad. Unfortunately, a lot of these singers in these bands back then thought when they sang a ballad they had to sing like a little girl (no offense to my female audience). The lyrics are great though. It talks about Jesus calling us back after we have back slidden.

Side two starts off with "Because of Jesus". This song ROCKS!! This is a great slide-blues rocker that does nothing but glorify Jesus. One thing I liked about this band is they didn't sugarcoat their lyrics. The album is worth buying just because of this song alone. Ok, remember what I said a little ways back, that some of their songs sounded too much like secular rock songs? This is one of them. "When the Clock Strikes" is the second song and sounds a whole lot like a song that was in a movie called "Trick or Treat." Well anyway the song is about facing judgment without having Christ. "Resist Him" is the next tune, and is practically taken from the book of James. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Great song! "Living in a Lost World" is just like the song sounds. It talks about having to deal with life in this world without Jesus, and how that "Today is the day of Salvation." These guys were really on fire for God. I wish they would come back and do a full scale tour. The last song is called "Top of the World" which was almost a complete copy of Whitesnakes "Give me all your love tonight". It sounds almost identical musically. But lyrically this song talks about having the joy of God in your life. How that when we walk with God we are on top of the world. So that's it. This album is one of the finest metal albums to come out of the 80's. If you can find it, buy it!! Well dudes and dudettes, that's it for this installment of "The Big Hair Files". Next month...check this out. I will be interviewing Disciple! If you don't know who these guys are, go get their most recent album "By God" and check them out. I will have a full interview and some pics to go along with it. Until then, tell me what you think gb@reignradio.com. Just don't make fun of my column name (ha ha). By the way, my new friend from Canada Mike gave me the name I'm gonna use for my interview section. It's gonna be called "Visions of Big Hair" Each month I'm gonna try to have either an interview or another review. It won't always be "hair metal" but that's just what I'm gonna call it. Ok, dudes and dudettes see ya next month, and remember...respect all metal and keep your nose in the WORD!!!!
Peace.
Greg"BigHair"Brewster

Hammer and Nail: 3 and a half cans