Press Release / Christian metal veterans BARREN CROSS commemorate their 30th anniversary by releasing their first new album in 18 years, Birth Pangs. Recorded live at the 2012 Elements Of Rock festival in Switzerland, it captures the entire BARREN CROSS performance in encompassing 18 songs and over an hour and a half of music.
The album, which reunites the original lineup of vocalist Michael Drive, guitarist Ray Parris, bassist Jim LaVerde and drummer Steve Whitaker, saw a digital download release on December 21, 2013. The group plans a CD release for February of this year, and is selling the CDs as pre-order from its web site: www.barrencross.com
Commented Drive: "I personally have never been as excited over an album in its performance as I am with Birth Pangs.
"I would like for every BARREN CROSS fan to own this; they must hear it.
"I feel stronger about this concerning Birth Pangs than any other album we have ever released!"
Birth Pangs draws its material from each of the four BARREN CROSS studio albums, in addition to including two new songs and a third which was previously unreleased.
Birth Pangs track listing:
1. “Living Dead”
2. “Stage Of Intensity”
3. “Close To The Edge”
4. “The Unsuspecting”
5. “Two Thousand Years”
6. “Return Of The Light”
7. “Believe”
8. “Light The Flame”
9. “He Loves You”
10. “Dying Day”
11. “Bigotry Man”
12. “Here I Am”
13. “A Walk With God”
14. “Whitewashed Love”
15. “Rattle Your Cage”
16. “Deadlock”
17. “Cultic Regimes”
18. “Killers”
Check out audio samples at: www.barrencross.com/albums/51
BARREN CROSS represents one of the foundational bands to have emerged out of the early eighties and played a pioneering role in the "white metal scene" that followed. The group independently released its six-song debut EP, Believe, in 1985 prior to signing with Star Song Records for its first full-length album from 1986, Rock For The King. A contract with mainstream label Engima Records ensued, which resulted in follow-up full-length releases Atomic Arena (1988) and State Of Control (1989). BARREN CROSS remained productive into the nineties, releasing its first live album on Medusa Records in 1990, Hotter Than Hell! Live, in addition to its 1994 Rugged Records swan song effort Rattle Your Cage, which some say is their best studio album to date.
