Holy Soldier "Promise Man"

Holy Soldier

Promise Man

1995 ForeFront

Produced By: David Zaffiro

album cover

inside

album back

disc

Track Listings

Promise Man

Mumbo Jumbo

My World

Rust

Why Don't You Look Into Jesus

Break it Down

Cover Me

Grind

Love Conquers All

Sand

Musicians

Eric Wayne: Vocals

Michael Cutting: Electric & Acoustic Guitars, Mandolin, Vocals

Andy Robbins: Bass

Scott Soderstrom: Electric & Acoustic Guitars

Holy Soldier is one of those underrated 90's Christian bands in my opinion. They burst onto the scene with their self titled album in 1990 and followed it up with the awesome Last Train in 1992. Then it was radio silence it seemed. We wouldn't hear from the band again until 1995's Promise Man. If you were hoping for more high energy, in your face metal like from the previous two albums then you may be disappointed. I don't mean that in a bad way, but Promise Man is a big departure from their previous sound. 

Now signed to ForeFront, they feature a new lead vocalist. Eric Wayne took over the vocal duties after Steven Patrick left to pursue a solo career. With the change, the who sound of the band seem to "evolve" with the time. Metal was on it's way out, quickly being replaced with that Seattle grunge sound. In order to stay relevant, I guess the band or the label thought they should change with the times? I really don't know the back story, but Promise Man is the start of what I like to call Holy Soldier 2.0.

I remember when I first heard this album during my senior year of High School and I thought, "wow"...is this even the same band? I wasn't sure at first if I liked this new sound, but being that I listed to a lot of music in the mid to late 90's I ended up playing this album quite a bit. With each consecutive listen the songs began to grow on me. The opening title track features a great bass line before you get Eric Wayne's booming, soulful deep vocals. The band helped write all the songs together, but the liner notes also give credit to Michael Anderson for his help on Promise Man. I'm not sure what his contribution exactly was, but I can "hear" his talent in this almost bluesy sounding song.

In 1995 Holy Soldier's new label, ForeFront, would release a tribute album, One Way, of the Christian rock pioneer Larry Norman. Holy Soldier contributed to the album with their rendition of Larry's song Why Don' You Look Into Jesus. This same song would also find it's way onto Promise Man. I can't say that at that time I was all that familiar with Larry Norman's catalogue, including this song, but it has become one of my favorites. Because I heard Holy Soldier's version before the original, I prefer their version, but regardless of who recorded the song it's a great song.

There are several songs that remain favorites of mine to this day, including Cover Me, Grind & Sand. On the opposite end of the spectrum is Love Conquers All, the album's one ballad. The message is fine, I just don't care for the sound of the song...just seems out of place on the album.

While Promise Man may not be one of my all time favorite albums (from the band or just in general), it is fun to re-visit it from time to time. I believe this album did fairly well in the Christian music community, evening winning a Dove Award for  the title track, but would ultimately be a "one and done" with ForeFront. One additional album would be released after this, Encore, on Spaceport Records. This isn't a hard album to find physically if you're looking to add it to your library.