***Note: This is not maintained by the band. They disbanded back around 1994 with several small 'reunion' shows over the years. This space is run by BrideFan so please, no e-mails asking for autographs or free merchandise as those will be ignored/deleted.
Update 10-30-2006: Due to lack of time on my part, I won't be updating this page very much. I personally don't have the time to maintain this page these days. Between beinf back in school, all the studying I have to do, my own MySpace page, my website and what semblance of a personal life I'm trying to have and my own personal time for laundry, cooking, sleeping, etc., trying to find time to maintain this page has been hard.
I currently have 6 pages of 'Friend Requests' that got back about 3-4 weeks. To take the time to go through each and everyone to see if I want them as friends take a while to do (this is about what....42-50 requests total?).
So, for right now, I'm not going to accept any more Friend Requests until I can weed these out so bear with me as it make take me quite a while to go through all the current ones. Also, if you e-mail , please understand this is NOT an official band page, nor is it endorsed by the guys, but 1-2 members know it exists. So the e-mails may go unanswered for days (maybe a week at most) so please understand - my time is valuable right now.. I hope you all understand and are patient with me on this.
Thanks,
BrideFan
Barren Cross is another of those great CCMetal bands from the past. I also believe that they are the ones who started all the adding 'Cross' as part of the band name (like Neon Cross, Whitecross, etc.)
Barren Cross wasn't your typical band. They didn't center all their lyrics around the 'turn or burn' style that was so popular back in the day. Instead, Mike Lee and Ray Parris took the route of addressing real world problems in their lyrics and added a Christian solution to them. With song titles like Terrorist Child, Killers of the Unborn, Imaginary Music, you knew exactly what issues they were singing about.
After the release of State of Control and the live CD, Hotter Than Hell, things seemed to wind down for BC in 1990. But in 1994 they raised their metal heads and released a new CD, Rattle Your Cage. While some of the issue tackling that BC was known for was gone from this release, the vocals and musical content was still there on this CD.
After the release of Rattle Your Cage, Barren Cross called it quits. Mike went on to record a new CD with his new group, BareBones. He also formed another band after that called FastDrive . I've yet to see any CD's put out by them. If I missed any, someone please let me know. Ray Parris ran the BarrenCross.com website until sometime in 2004, but it's up for sale right now. Last I heard and know of, Jim LaVerde is still working with Sanctuary International.
Early in 2004, the first 3 CDs were reissued back on CD and are available at several online retailers. Here's to keeping Barren Cross alive.
BC Vocalist, Mike Lee. is going to issue a new Best of... CD from his FastDrive website, but I'm not sure if he's had it issued yet.
If you'd like to contact the band, you can e-mail them directly at [email protected]. Steve Whitaker has set up that e-mail address to specifically handle any and all fan mail and requests for music licensing.
So, I'm guess from all this, this is going to be the official Barren Cross MySpace since both Steve and Ray have seen it and like what I've done. My only goal was to keep the memory of the band alive and what they stood for.
