| Show No Mercy | 1987 |
| Live To Die | 1988 |
| Silence Is Madness | 1989 |
| End Of The Age (compilation) | 1990 |
| Kinetic Faith | 1991 |
| Snakes In The Playground | 1993 |
| Scarecrow Messiah | 1994 |
| Drop | 1995 |
| Shotgun Wedding (compilation) | 1995 |
| The Jesus Experience | 1997 |
| Oddities | 1998 |
| Fist Full Of Bees | 2001 |
Bride is a popular Christian metal band who really has had a somewhat decent career starting in the eighties in which they played the good ol’ shred metal style, and later becoming plain old hard rock in the nineties. They aren’t heavy enough or melodically dead enough to be called newmetal, but on occasion they become too heavy to be considered just hard rock. Standout albums include Live To Die and the plain rock album Drop.
--Robert Grazer
Post your comments about Bride
(reviewed by Robert Grazer)
Featuring guitarist Steve Osborne, this is a very good release in the true 80s metal style. Side one starts out with “Metal Might.” Now it may seem like just a normal good song for the two verses and choruses, so just wait for the solo. That is some great shred there. Get used to that “good song, great solo” style there because most of the album is written in it. “Hell No” follows it up and it has a good riff to it to somewhat make up for junk lyrics. I love the intro solo to the song. Just another piece of Steve’s great work. My favorite though is “In The Dark” which has even worse lyrics. The message of the song is to not be afraid of the dark. Seriously, the chorus is “In the dark, never be afraid of the dark.” Ha. That’s pathetic. The thing that gets me to really love the song is certainly not the lyrics; it’s the fantastic clean part in the middle. Once again Steve shows us some great work with his guitar as well as some real beauty there.
The rest of side one is still good even if also below those first three. “Out For Blood” and the title track are somewhat the same as he others: a good song with a great solo. Remember what I told you? It’s actually side two that is the big problem with this album. “Heroes” is a decent metal track and a good closer, but “Fire and Brimstone” and “Here Comes the Bride” do nothing for me, and “Whiskey Seed” sounds like the band had used up all of their ideas by this point in the album. Even so, the excellent first side is enough to make this is the band’s second best offering, to only Drop.
Post your comments / reviews for this album
(reviewed by Robert Grazer)
Bride’s most popular album, and for a good reason. If you’re in the mood for just some good hooks there may not be a better offering from Bride than this one. Plus it starts out with four fan favorites. “Would You Die For Me” is memorable and catchy, as are the title track, “Psychedelic Super Jesus,” and “Fallout.” Well not in that order really, I believe “Would You Die For Me” is actually second and “Rattlesnake” is first. Anyway, that memorable catchiness explains their popularity. I don’t see it the same way. These songs really aren’t all that great when you look at them closer. So believe or not, I prefer the other lesser acclaimed tracks.
Songs like “Dust Through a Fan” and the beautiful “I Miss The Rain” just hit me in a stronger way than those “Bride classics.” Someone tell me the chorus of “Love, Money” isn’t better than anything on those four classics. I feel these three here blow songs like “Rattlesnake” out of the water when it comes to overall quality. What about “Some Things Never Change?” That’s by far more powerful than “Fallout.” There is some mediocrity to deal with (“Picture Perfect,” “Don’t Use Me”) but other than that and the first four that are for the most part just an itty-bitty bit above mediocre you have yourself a solid release. In other words, though flawed, this album is certainly worth a listen or two, and ownership by any Bride fan.
Post your comments / reviews for this album
(reviewed by Robert Grazer)
A step up from Snakes, with the acclaimed songs actually really good this time around, especially “Place,” which may seem to be redundant just using the thing over and over but it’s in a successful style that allows it to work well to become one of the best songs on this album, which happens to be a bigger compliment for Scarecrow than for Snakes. “Time” is also memorable as is the opener. I think that does it for this album’s hits, so let’s talk about the others.
Both “Murder” and “Crazy” pack some power into themselves and come off like some of the better sons on the previous album. “Questions” is possibly the greatest rap song ever. It’s this little piece at the end that is a bunch of questions all spilled out at a very fast rate. It’s more amusing than you might think. Then there is the finest song on this release, “Thorns,” a track that gets the honor for no reason that I can explain other than personal preference. There are no riffs or strong emotional bits or anything like that. It just works better.
And of course there are the mediocre to bad bits of the album (“Doubt” and “One”) that make it typical in the style of quality, but still better than anything since Live To Die. “Thorns” probably hits on my top five Bride songs, and that is something Snakes couldn’t give me. I believe this won one of those Dove awards for Best Hard Rock Album or something. Good for the band. This is a good album. Flawed, just like every Bride release, but not without some highlights.
Post your comments / reviews for this album
(reviewed by Robert Grazer)
HIGH POINTS: I'm The Devil, Nobodies Hero, Life Is The Blues, Mamma, Jesus Came Back Via Jesus In A Pawn, Help. LOW POINTS: Have You Made It?, Thrill A Minute
Then it happened. For one album Bride decided to stop pleasing the masses (Dale Thompson has stated several times that he has never liked heavy metal at all) and do what they really wanted to do. This meant that no heavy metal songs would be written for this album. This meant that they took more time to enjoy writing the music to this album. This meant that it would be by far the most diverse recording they have yet made. And so we are left with Drop, an album that sounds absolutely nothing like any other album the band has released. Not to mention this is easily the best Bride album ever. Some fans were afraid at the time of Drop's release that this would be a sell out effort, but they returned to metal a couple years later, and never sold out. A shame, I think, because they showed so much potential here.
The only signs of real metal on this album come with the opening "Personal Savior" and "You Never Knew Me," each of which have a heavier side to them, but still manage to be quite interesting. Of course we get some really pretty acoustic songs as well with "Mamma" (an extremely memorable chorus of "Mama.... Say a prayer for me"), "Life is The Blues" (a wonderful yet depressing song, telling a sad tale), and "Nobodies Hero" (one of my absolute favorites on the album, a perfectly paced piece of true beauty). And the Bride boys decided to get some gospel singer ladies in on this album as well, seen in the closing "Jesus Came Back Via Jesus in a Pawn." Lyrics are improved too. My favorite line of the album comes in "How Long" with: "Bob Dylan never changed the world, and I don't believe he ever tried." Take that Dylan fans!
The finest moment, though, of the album and Bride's entire career, is the almost seven minute piece of fear known as "I'm The Devil." I'm not entirely sure where I stand in terms of it being the scariest song I've heard (Faith No More's "Jizzlobber" is a worthy contender), but I still think that is the most haunting song ever written ("Jizzlobber" is more horrifying and intense than haunting). It begins with a slow introduction to a riff followed by some freaky verses sung out by Dale's brother Troy. Then the song shifts into slower territory as Dale again begins to call out "Mamas hide your babies...teach your children what the Good Book says..." and other sorts of stuff, before he begins to start mumbling in a most disturbing way. It's impossible to make out a word he says, but when I listen I'm certain that it's something evil. The mumblings and chantings get louder and louder and louder until he begins to scream out two syllables with all he's got. Then it all cool down for a moment before some scary ritual begins on the drums, Dale begins with his mumblings again, soon to be joined by our original riff playing all repeating themselves until the only complete masterpiece this band has delivered comes to a abrupt end.
The only flaws are "Have You Made It?" (where the gospel singers become a bit too much) and "Thrill a Minute" (which is just a standard hard rock song), but these flaws can't touch the overall quality of this release, which I enjoy more with every listen. Indeed the first time I put it on I didn't think too much of it, and neither did my tape player, which tried to chew it up. But over the past few years this album has grown on me a great deal, and I'd recommend it to anyone. Even if only for "I'm The Devil." Go to bed with side two playing, wake up in the middle of the night to that song, and you'll think it's time to die. Believe me. I've had it happen to myself. Anyway it's a great album and a refreshing breath of high quality after lots of flawed albums that couldn't be called anymore than just good.
Post your comments / reviews for this album
COMMENTS
just wanted to say that your review on Drop is right on. I know that you probably did it a long long time ago... but Drop gets trashed by everyone else. I think it is one of the best CDs ever made! My only gripe is that you said that thrill a minute was a bad song!!!!!!!!! I love that song! Probably my favorite aside from Life is the Blues. the Lyrics are really funny..
Listen to it again.. anyway, have a nice day...
(reviewed by Robert Grazer)
A compilation from Bride, basically all of the number one hits they've had, three of which ("Psychedelic Super Jesus," "Time," and "Hired Gun,") have been remixed with awful results. So let's see what we have here anyway, hmm, a few from Snakes ("Psychedelic Super Jesus," "Would You Die For Me," "Rattlesnake," and "Fallout"), of course, and some from Scarecrow ("Beast," "Place," and "Time") but there's more than that here, or else I wouldn't have wasted my time reviewing this album. The song "Same 'ol Sinner," a bonus track from the first Bride compilation End Of The Age, is also included, and that is a fine song.
The other three tracks are from Kinetic Faith, an album I had a few years ago but somewhere along the line I lost it. Anyway, the remixed version of "Hired Gun" totally butchers it, which really makes me mad because the original was one of my favorite Bride songs. Then there's the fairly good "Troubled Times" on here, and there's no way I could forget "Everybody Knows My Name." This song is probably their most popular ever, and it deserves it too. It isn't my favorite Bride song (they could never do anything better than "I'm The Devil"), but it is very good. All in all Shotgun Wedding is a decent collection of the band's most popular material, but if you already have the studio albums don't feel obligated to get this for the remixes.
Post your comments / reviews for this album
Index | Main band/artist reviews page