Armada – Black and White

Description

Black & White is a cassette-only album by the American metal band Armada, released on E&E Records in 1988.

The band features Doug Oxford on lead and background vocal, keyboards, and guitar; Jeffrey Sipe on lead and rhythm guitars, and background vocals; Dave Dawdy on lead and rhythm guitars; Ed Englerth on bass and vocals; and John Heald on drums and background vocals (and as well lead vocals on track B2).

Armada put out some killer music in their career, but this was probably the best of the best in my opinion. They seemed to leave behind most of the AC/DC and Def Leppard influences or earlier demos and just went for a heavier version of commercial metal (with some nice touches of traditional metal here and there). Songs like «I Wonder ’bout This World» have a serious hook combined with a sing-a-long chorus. But even near the end of the tape they still had enough creative juices to pull off a song like «Suicide» – a song that is easily better than the good songs by other bands. Six of the ten songs here (the first track is a short intro) made it on to their 1998 compilation CD Hope of Glory (which also took its name from a track on this demo). Hopefully this one will also get re-issued like 1987’s Frontline. After this the band recorded some limited release demos like Armada’s Last Stand and Break the Chain (both in 1989), but this was the end of the road for the band. A lot of their music was brought back to life when members of the band started releasing compilation and leftovers collections in the late 90’s/early 00s (including a 2001 CDR reissue of this tape and their others). [Christian Tape Underground, January 11, 2021]

Cassette tracklist:

Side One
A1. “The Missing Peace”
A2. “Black & White”
A3. “I Wonder ‘Bout This World”
A4. “Hail To The King”
A5. “Cry Out For The Children”
A6. “Flesh N’ Blood”

Side Two
B1. “Hope Of Glory”
B2. “Renegade”
B3. “All Day Long”
B4. “Suicide”
B5. “Jesus Is Calling You”