(c) 2022 Roxx Productions
Lost Pakaderm Sessions 1986
- Heart of Stone
- Knock
- Turning Away
- The Wanderer
Final Pakaderm Session 1987
5. Over and Done
Demo 1985
6. City of Gold
7. Wanderer
California Session 1991
8. Don't Take Away
Demo 2006
9. Jaded
Judea 2.0
10. Not Forgotten
11. Purple Haze
California Metal II (1988)
12. Heart of Stone
13. Knock
Randall Drew Smith--Lead Vocals, Backing Vocals(All Tracks)
Norman Stevens--Guitars, Backing Vocals (1-7, 12, 13)
Dan Henry--Bass, Backing Vocals (1-7, 12, 13)
Steve Lamb--Drums (1-7, 12, 13)
Additional Musicians
John Elefante--Backing Vocals (1-4, 12, 13)
Amanda Stevens--Backing Vocals (5)
Considering Judea never made it past the demo stage...albeit the VERY professional (as in full studio) demo stage...there is a lot to unpack for this highly talented, extremely overlooked, and sadly, somewhat forgotten band. Roxx Records has, once again, done an excellent job of pulling together as much quality material as possible to present this career retrospective of this melodic hard rock band.
Originally starting out in Oklahoma, drummer and founder, Steve Lamb, took the band on the road to see what the bright lights of LA held for him and the boys. The cousin of Michael and Robert Sweet of Stryper, Lamb had seen that there was the opportunity, even if it was small, for a Christian metal band to succeed, so the band decided to take a chance. Wanting to put their very best foot forward, Judea made arrangements to have their first truly professional demo recorded at Pakaderm Records' Studios, and quickly grabbed the attention of John and Dino Elefante, owners of the label and producers extraordinaire. What resulted from those recording sessions makes up the first five cuts on this retrospective, and to a large degree, the final two cuts as well.
The first four tracks here were all recorded in 1986, with the first two being the songs that eventually found their way onto the California Metal II release, alongside bands such as Recon, Emerald, Soldier, and others. Fans of the 1980s Christian metal scene have no doubt heard both "Heart of Stone" and "Knock", and are well aware of the strength of these two highly polished, melodic rockers. "Heart of Stone" features an excellent melodic guitar solo, some excellent layered backing vocals, and a strong mid-tempo structure that really should have garnered a lot more attention from people who love what bands such as Dokken were doing at the time. Lamb's drum work is powerful throughout the demo, but especially hard-hitting on "Heart...", and the mid-range vocals of Randall Drew Smith worked perfectly on a track such as this, standing out from the pack as he was not trying to unleash high-pitched screams or use massive amounts of falsetto. "Knock", the other track that made it to California Metal II, is a punchier rock track with a strong bass presence from Dan Henry, more thunderous drum work from Lamb, and those killer backing vocals! I am not sure who provided the supporting keyboard work on this track, but my guess is John Elefante, who also supplied backing vocals to what I think is one of the catchiest tracks of the entire 1980s Christian metal scene, period. I have ALWAYS loved this song, and to hear it in this professional demo stage is a real treat! Not enough can be said about how well-written this track is, especially the structure of that chorus, and the way the BGVs are layered is very much in the vein of what we will later hear from Pakaderm bands such as Mastedon and Halo. Love, love, love this song!
What people may not realize is these songs were not the only tracks Judea recorded while at Pakaderm, largely because very few people ever managed to get hold of the entire demo. In fact, I'm not 100% sure it was ever packaged in such a way that fans could buy it out of Heaven's Metal magazine or anywhere else. I know I have never owned it, and I own a lot of demos from those days. Regardless, "Turning Away" starts off as another mid-tempo number, lumbering along with a guitar tone on the opening few riffs that will remind people of something Iron Maiden might have done. Once the verse sections kick in, however, the tempo picks up and we are treated to a pretty straight-forward hard rock track with some tight rhythm guitar work from Norman Stevens, who also supplies a solid solo here, as well. Once again, some supporting keyboard work can be heard in the background, and there is a nice tempo change coming out of another beautifully layered chorus section that leads into the solo I mentioned a moment ago. There was definitely a lot of talent in this band. "The Wanderer" is a drack that appears twice on this package, and is actually one of the songs that travelled from Oklahoma to LA with the band. A keyboard/synth intro opens this song, soon accompanied by Lamb's drums and Henry's bass, with Smith's vocals joining shortly. Unlike the rest of the songs here, we really don't get any guitar until about the 1:45 mark of this ballad-esque track that never really sweeps into "power ballad" territory...and really, this song was recorded a couple of years before what we now know as the power ballad came into vogue. Again, there is some strong song writing and structuring on this song that I think could have ended up being a pretty big song for Judea had it received that final production polish before being dropped onto an album.
Track 5 is a great hard rocker, very much in the vein of the more uptempo stuff melodic rockers like Dokken were putting out at this point. The guitar work is top notch, the vocals are powerful, the drums nice and tight...there was just no audience. Lamb has indicated to me that they just had a hard time getting their music heard with the way the LA club scene was structured back in the mid-to-late-80s, otherwise we might be listening to "Over And Done" on a Greatest Hits package, rather than on a career retrospective compilation.
Tracks 6 and 7 were songs that the band had put together before departing Oklahoma, and while they don't have quite the polish the Pakaderm tracks do, they are definitely of solid quality and show that the foundation for the band was already firmly in place. The version of "The Wanderer" from this demo is largely the same as far as tempo and approach, although the difference in production values is night and day, as is to be expected. I like hearing this version, however, as it shows that the band wasn't simply a studio product; these guys had the chops and the songwriting talent to make the jump that they chose to make, and it really shows on the two tracks from Soonerville (that's Norman, OK, for those of you not in touch with the college sports world). "City of Gold" is only found on this demo, and I wonder why the band chose to discard it from the Pakaderm recordings, as I think it is an excellent hard rocking track that had the potential to fit in nicely with the other songs they had fully worked up. Starting off with some wind sound effects, "City of Gold" is pretty stark at the beginning, just Smith's vocals and the drums and percussion from Lamb, before the whole band kicks in at about the 1:10 mark. Obviously of lower quality than the Pakaderm tracks on this set, this is still very listenable and shows a band that was coming into their own and likely dominated their local scene in Oklahoma. I really wish we had been given a full-production version of this track; perhaps someday we will get the chance to hear it fully worked up.
Track 9, "Don't Take Away" was kind of a last gasp for the band before shutting things down for several years, although I am not completely sure who is playing at this time. I am almost positive Lamb is not drumming here, as I believe he had already made the decision to move on from the band for family reasons. None of the song's co-writers show up in the credits as being musicians, so I really don't know who comprises Judea at this time. Regardless, "Don't Take Away" is a high-quality sounding demo track...not of the Pakaderm quality, but it sounds to be professionally done...and the track is more of a bluesy hard rock track than the polished melodic rock Judea was recording just a half-dozen years prior. Led Zeppelin is definitely felt in the way this song is delivered, especially in the stark songwriting structure and Smith's vocals, which take on a Robert Plant yowl quality on the chorus sections. This anti-suicide track has some strong lyrics, and I find myself really appreciating what the band is working at here musically. I would put this song in the top four or five songs on this package, no question, and again, I think full studio production would have made a huge difference in the final product here.
Fast forward 15 years, and in 2006, a new demo surfaced with a song called "Jaded". With presumably only Randall is still in the band at this point (it was recorded in RDS Production Studio), and considering more than 20 years had passed since that 1985 demo and there had been a lot of changes in technology, it is not surprising that the sound is not at all classic Judea. In fact, this song shares a lot more with "Don't Take Away" than it does a song like "Knock" or "Heart of Stone", but there is also an undeniable modern rock quality about the song. The guitar work here is excellent, honestly, and I love the solo, although it is far too short. I wish I knew who was playing and maybe the story behind the why and how this is still called Judea, but even without that information this is still an enjoyable rocker.
Adding to some of my confusion about the band are the two songs included here from "Judea 2.0", which, again, is presumably Randall Drew Smith and a new band, as Lamb stated that he knew nothing about these songs and didn't play on them. "Not Forgotten" is a gritty, classic rock-sounding track with a sludgy bass sound, a very sparse drum line, and a chunky rhythm guitar line that really hearkens back to the mid-70s hard rock scene. It fits quite well with "Purple Haze" (yes, THAT "Purple Haze"), which is a pretty faithful rendition of the classic rock standard from Hendrix and not some out of left field take on the track, a la Winger on their debut album.
The last two tracks here are the two songs most likely known by people who previously knew of the band. The versions here are as they sounded on the Regency Records California Metal II release from 1988, and were the songs that were my introduction to this very talented band. Polished up from the Pakaderm demos that start this package, there is a slickness to the tracks that was a big part of the era in which they were recorded, but I kind of think I like the rougher versions from Pakaderm Studio (if you can call anything the Elefantes touched "rough"). I do still love hearing these songs in this fashion, however, as I fondly recall playing both of the California Metal albums, as well as the related East Coast Metal album from back in the day. Sadly, those compilation albums were the only exposure some of the bands ever really got, and the two songs from Judea were pretty much all anyone had heard from the band until Roxx Records put this package together, so they serve as the perfect way to round out this collection.
The total package here is absolutely top notch, from the remastering work done by Rob Colwell of Bombworks Studios, to the excellent booklet, which was laid out in great detail by Scott Waters from NoLifeTilMetal. Lyrics to all of the bands' original songs are included, as are the lyrics to "Jaded", with writing and performance credits, thank yous, and a large number of band pictures, flyers, and live shots included. As seems to generally be the case, Roxx Records has once again shown the industry how a retrospective anthology should be done. Excellent stuff here!
Unfortunately, as Lamb pointed out in his interview here on PositiveRockReview, the scene became as much about the look as the sound, and Judea was never really able to overcome the "pay-to-play" live scene in LA. It's easy to wonder what might have been, especially when so much evidence is laid out for wondering fans to feast their ears upon. If you haven't done so yet, I strongly encourage fans of the 1980's Christian metal scene, or fans of mid-80s melodic metal in general, to check this CD out at Roxx Records. I firmly believe you will not be disappointed.
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