Description
Approaching Light Speed is the third studio album by the American hard rock/metal band Barnabas, released on Light Records in 1983. The album was recorded August-September 1983 by Tom Tucker assisted by John Hurst at Triad Studios in Des Moines, Iowa; with Tucker and the band producing and arranging. Cover artwork by Kernie Erickson.
Featuring Nancy Jo Mann on lead vocals, Brian Belew on guitar, Gary Mann on bass and keyboards, and Kris Klingensmith on drums.
Hold on to your hymnals! Batten down the baptistry! Lock up the ladies’ prayer circle! Now, more than ever, turn it up! ‘Approaching Light Speed’, the new album by the four-person band Barnabas, is probably the first Christian rock ‘n’ roll album I have ever heard that actually sounds like a heavy metal rock album. I know there have been some bands that have managed to get the sound pretty close, but this record goes all the way.
Which is not, by the way, to say it’s a great record. This album, with the exception of a few fleeting moments, has all the subtlety of a runaway truck. This band tends to sound a little like an ultra-conservative Christian Black Sabbath.
“Dressed to kill, and drinking all alone/ Waiting for a lizard to take you home/ Another wham-bam rendezvous/ The script is moldy, but the lines are tried and true/ But, there’s no freedom/ No real freedom/ There is no freedom in sin.” That’s the opening of the record. Things get kind of blunt after that.
Still, there are moments when the lyrics manage to speak to the mind as well as the backbone – take the song «Subterfuge» and sections of «Waiting for the Aliens».
But, it’s the sound that sets this record apart. It has the mid-range crunch that FM rock radio has majored in for the past ten years or so. As a soloist, guitarist Brian Belew is no Eddie Van Halen, but he has his moments, and he simply buries the record in rhythm guitar and secondary harmony leads. There are times when it sounds like a slightly out of control Boston.
This band also has the confidence, rare in religious rock, to trust its own instrumental sound. Several times on the record, the bass and drums just take a ride for several minutes, while overdubbed keyboards and guitar parts bounce off the backbeat. Amazing. This bard even has the lyric-semi-classical-piano interlude-followed-by-guitar-storm sound down pat.
Vocalist Nancy Jo Mann does a pretty good post-Led Zeppelin scream routine, but probably needs work on contrast. The ballad «If Love Brings Love» is one of the only places on the record where she backs off enough to let us hear she has a voice – not just a microphone and an amp.
The work of bassist/keyboardist Gary Mann (Nancy’s husband) and drummer Kris Klingensmith is solid, but slightly buried in the mix – with all that guitar sound, somebody has to lose some volume. [Terry Mattingly, CCM, May 1984]
Approaching Light Speed (Legends Remastered)
This is where the metal started for Barnabas. Find Your Heart a Home and Hear the Light flirted with metal in certain ways that some would consider heavy, but «No Freedom» jumps out of the gate with screaming guitars heavier than any Barnabas song to date. And this wasn’t second rate metal like so many Christian metal releases were guilty of. This was “metalheads” metal that would have gotten even the most jaded mullet moving in 1983. The next track «Stormclouds» features a killer plodding riff and thundering rhythm section. «If Love Brings Love» might seem to break from the metal mold… but don’t forget this is 1983 and power ballads were still a very metal thing (although probably a few years from being called power ballads). «Waiting for the Aliens» tricks you into thinking that it is another keyboard ballad, but then the keys go a bit darker and the rock begins. While there are flourishes of progressive metal in the first two songs, this track is the most prog-rock influenced track of the album. Probably the only weakness on the album is that this song tries to cram too many words into each line. But it was also a common issue back then for many bands. «Warrior» starts off what used to be side 2 by leaning a bit back to the hard rock that was big at the time thanks to bands like Van Halen blurring the hard rock/metal lines. But like Van Halen, the solo is just too fast and heavy for most rock fans. I can’t emphasize enough how talented all the musicians and performers on these Barnabas albums are. In a more just music world, Nancy Jo Mann, Brian Belew, Kris Klingensmith, and Gary Mann would have been featured in every metal musician magazine at the time. «Never Felt Better» shows that Barnabas had enough song writing chops to provide an awesome song even on the second track of side two – usually reserved for the weakest track on the album (most bands wanted to end albums on side 2 with stronger songs back then). Of course, that stronger song was «Subterfuge», a complex song that uses keyboards and guitars weaving in and out masterfully. The album closes with «Crucifixion» – a passionate song filled with strong bass guitar work and impassioned vocal performances that surely left a mark on anyone listening to it back in the day. I could just see metal heads staring at their turntables with jaws hanging down as the last track ended on their Approaching Light Speed record.
Of course, fans at the time had to see this transition coming – just compare the cover art for Approaching Light Speed with the previous two albums. If there was an award for “most metal album covers of all time” – this one would be a contender (only to be beaten out by the next Barnabas album cover). The re-issue captures the artwork perfectly, as well as including everything that you would possibly want to know about the release (band pics, full credits, complete lyrics, and historical write-ups). The remaster itself is stellar – never sounding like it came from a vinyl rip (only a few minor pops here and there give it away). The big question at the time would have been: was this a one-time side trip into metal for Barnabas, or a permanent change of style? They answered that definitively on the next album… in a very loud fashion. [Matt Crosslin, The Phantom Tollbooth, March 21, 2018]
PROMO, Retroactive Records CD re-issue, 2017
Layout: Full color 12 page booklet insert with lyrics and band pics
Part of the Legends Remastered series on Retroactive Records
Release Date: November 11th, 2017With the 1983 album Approaching Light Speed, Barnabas released what many still consider to be one of the very best albums in Christian progressive metal. With this release the band pulled everything together and upped the Wow-Factor to a new level. With the raging guitars of “No Freedom” launching the album to new heights, the album continued to progress and show artistic growth and maturity in astounding ways. Combine that with cutting-edge lyrics, spacey keyboards interlaced throughout, and textured guitars building to new sonic extremes, and metalheads everywhere were hooked. The recording and the mix of the album also went to new levels, allowing the depth of the music and songs to shine. Each instrument can be heard perfectly, and Nancy Jo’s vocals penetrate the soul. Did we mention the guitars? They are LOUD! They are METAL. And, from this point on, they would define the Barnabas sound.
Any band is lucky to make one album that is truly elite. When I say “elite,” I don’t just mean great songs and great execution. What I mean by “elite” is that this album is something that strikes a chord deep within the souls of many people… that steals the hearts of fans in sweeping fashion… that adds up to much, much more than the sum of it’s parts… something that is truly transcendent. With Approaching Light Speed, Barnabas nailed it. They nailed it with an album that is just as musically, lyrically, and spiritually transcendent in 2017 as it was in 1983. And, let’s get one thing clear: there was NOTHING like this album in Christian music in 1983! The good news at the time was that fans were ready. They were ready for something quality, something authentic, something real. And, with this release Barnabas did what they did on every single album they wore their hearts of love for God and people on their sleeves. Their new record label, Light Records, encouraged the band to tone it down a little bit. Thank God Barnabas chose to be more radical than ever. Their courage and conviction would go on to help them achieve critical acclaim and widespread popularity amongst a growing population of people who needed exactly what they were offering. Approaching Light Speed has been digitally remastered by Bombworks Sound (Rob Colwell) and we are confident the album has never sounded better than now!
In honor of 40 amazing years of Barnabas, this Retroactive Records reissue is packaged in a jewel case featuring a 12 page full color booklet with lyrics and band pictures, and writes-ups from both the label owner, Matthew Hunt, and Doug Peterson of Down The Line Zine. For fans of Rush, Dio, Resurrection Band, Vixen, Daniel Band, and Kansas (if they were metal!).
LP tracklist:
Side One
A1. “No Freedom” – 4:30
A2. “Stormclouds” – 4:39
A3. “If Love Brings Love” – 4:03
A4. “Waiting For The Aliens” – 6:10
Side Two
B1. “Warrior” – 3:55
B2. “Never Felt Better” – 3:20
B3. “Subterfuge” – 5:47
B4. “Crucifixion” – 5:59
Note: Simultaneously released on cassette and 12-inch vinyl LP by Light Records. All five albums were remastered by Rob Colwell at Bombworks Sound and re-issued on CD by Retroactive Records in 2017, packaged in jewel cases with 12-page booklet inserts. (All albums were remastered from virgin sealed vinyl or cassette because all master tapes have been destroyed and are unavailable.)
A full-page advertisement for Light Records’ reissue of Barnabas’ first two albums as well as Approaching Light Speed, the band’s third release, was featured in the June 1984 issue of CCM Magazine.
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