State Of Control - Barren Cross

The penultimate album from Barren Cross, and the final one before their first hiatus, 'State of Control' is an improvement over its predecessor but still falls victim to some of the horrible trends of eighties heavy metal. Fortunately, for every disappointing and generic power ballad such as 'Cryin' Over You' and the piano finale 'Escape the Night,' there are at least two excellent metal performances keeping up the harder edge, and the band's sound has clearly developed over the course of a single year to produce a tighter outfit overall, and tight outfits were a heavy metal staple too. Mike Lee's Bruce Dickinsonesque singing predicts the changing trend of the ...  Read the complete review