THE DANIEL BAND — Straight Ahead (review)

THE DANIEL BAND — Straight Ahead album cover

Album · 1983 · Hard Rock

3/5 · 2020-08-30
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I remember getting into Stryper and the Christian heavy metal thing going on in the eighties. In those days I only knew about Stryper. But one night, a current trends in entertainment program was on TV and the topic was Christian heavy metal. Because the program was from Toronto, the local boys from The Daniel Band were included in the program. I later bought their album, “Running Out of Time”, which was their fifth and final studio album. The band has never officially broken up, according to Wikipedia. They perform from time to time but haven’t released any new material since 1987 except for a few bonus track new recordings on re-releases.

I never heard any of The Daniel Band’s other albums. I think they were not so easy to get a hold off. After some years, I got rid of about half of my Christian albums, but “Running Out of Time” I kept. Then recently, I felt inspired to dig the remaining albums out and I listened to a couple of tracks from that old album. Man! It sure sounds dated! It’s that late eighties big production sound except that it’s a four-piece band who are not playing big production music. Something is amiss. But I was curious enough to check out the band’s discography, listen a bit on YouTube, and decide to get a hold of their second album, “Straight Ahead”, from 1983.

I am not going to come out and say that this album is a lost classic, a gem, a killer album that everyone should hear. But I do think it’s a really good album of the day. First of all, I guess because they were from Toronto, it’s very easy to hear a Triumph/Rush/Coney Hatch sound to the music – those held keyboard chords like Triumph used, that bass sound that Geddy had, those hard rock chords like Coney Hatch played, and vocals that sound like Rik Emmett with a bit of Geddy Lee mixed in. The band’s style moves between rock and hard rock. The overall sound quality is rather good, though I feel there’s a bit of extra scratch in a couple of tracks near the end. Nothing too detrimental though. This is a really good guitar rock/hard rock album from the early eighties but sounds more like late seventies!

One thing I have to appreciate is that even though this is a Christian album and the lyrics mostly all deal with a Christian way of life, the messages in the songs are not in-your-face praise but laid out plain and simple. (I find the praise songs to be a little uncomfortable.) In fact, some of the songs could actually be heard as love songs because I didn’t hear the lyrics actually mention who these love songs were about, assuming that many if not most Christian songs about love are about Jesus or God. Unlike a band like Petra who are leading the faithful on in their faith and commitment with every song, The Danial Band just seem less obvious if you’re just listening casually. “What? Did he just say something about Jesus?”

Guitarist Tony Rossi should get some credit here. I've read a couple of reviews of Daniel Band albums that call him an unsung guitar hero of the eighties. His style is rooted in seventies hard rock but he is good!

Anyway, if you like Triumph, Rush, and Coney Hatch but without the highly advanced skills of Rush and Rik Emmett and more like Coney Hatch, then this album is a strong piece of work. On the strength of the music presented here, I am now curious to hear what their other albums sound like. Word is that “Running Out of Time” was remastered in 2012 and the sound quality difference in the original release and the remaster is like day and night.