THIS ALBUM CONTAIN(10-TRACKS)
1-JESUS MUSIC
2-LORD OF ALL
3-GOOD FEELING
4-SOUL SEARCHER
5-SKYROCKET
6-LOSE TO LIVE
7-SING(OF HIS GLORY
8-LENGUAGE BARRIER
9-TIME TO WIN
10-TIMELESS
CREDIT:
Scott Springer- Bass, lead vocals
Barry Graul- Guitar, vocals
Mike Graham- Drums, keyboards, vocals
John Elefante- Co-producer
Dino Elefante- Co-producer.
HALO-HEAVEN CALLING-1991
THIS ALBUM CONTAIN(10-TRACKS)
1-JACOB'S DREAM
2-IT'S YOUR DECITION
3-SAVED BY GRACE
4-HEAVEN CALLING
5-THY WILL BE DONE
6-SECRET TO LOVE
7-CLIMB THE MOUNTAIN
8-EYE OF THE STORM
9-MAN FROM GALILEE
1-MY BUDDY
CREDIT:
Scott Springer- Bass, lead vocals
Barry Graul- Guitar, vocals
Mike Graham- Drums, keyboards, vocals
John Elefante- Keyboards, co-producer
Dino Elefante- Co-producer.
Halo are from Birmingham, Alabama and reputedly sound like journey. Listening to this I'm afraid the comparison is a major insult to Journey. To my ears at least, Halo are a second-rate Petra rip off. With titles such as "Jesus Music", "Lord Of All" and "Sing (Of His Glory)", the band are obviously pitching exclusively at the Christian market. The lyrics are straight to the point, or to take the cynics point of view, triumphalistic and shallow. One song which is lyrically thoughtful is Halo released two albums in the early 90's on Pakaderm records and produced by John and Dino Elefante. Simple understandable lyrics and catchy hooks with a strong gospel message, 80's rock with the Pakaderm stamp of approval."Language Barrier", but its arrangement is just too slushy to carry the point home. To add to the depression Tony Palacius, of Guardian, the nearest thing Christian music comes to a genuine guitar great, is featured on the track "Skyrocket" and doesn't even get a solo! Roll on the new Mastedon album.
Halo's second album, their first one creating quite an impact Stateside. Their style is solid, no-nonsense AOR with quite a strong Petra-influence. Still looking for a truly distinctive style, I feel in time they will no doubt identify and develop their strengths, amongst which for me, incidentally, were Scott Springer's powerful vocals and Barry Graul's superb guitar, and so establish themselves as one of the leading rock bands of the Christian counter- culture. Their method of taking verses of Scripture on which to build the lyrics of the songs generally works well and is often inspiring. Particularly worthy of note in this respect is the opener, "Jacob's Dream", based on Genesis 28:10-22, guaranteed to draw you up by the bootlaces if you find yourself on a spiritual low, as is "Climb The Mountain", in which Mr Graul lets rip with a short but spiritually stimulating guitar solo. Other tracks of special interest include "Thy Will Be Done", based on the Lord's prayer. The content is handled sensitively and is put X6 a melody which is simple but effective, giving it a PGF rating (personal goosepimple factor) of 7/10. Lastly, I have to mention the final cut "My Buddy". Being a father of three, I was reduced to floods of tears by the profound truth expressed in the words to this song which deal with our responsibility as parents to 'demonstrate' to our children what Jesus is like. Amongst the credits on the inlay card I found the following... " (We)... pray that many lives will be touched as a result of His (God's) work through us." Here's one person for whom that certainly came true.
Said to be an acronym for "Heavenly Angelic Light Orchestra," Halo began in Alabama in 1980 when drummer Mike Graham, age 14 at the time, was introduced to vocalist and bass player Scott Springer and guitarist Keith Mims, both seven years older than Graham. Mead and Springer made it clear to Graham that their interest was in pursuing Christian music. Graham, who had already played drums in a Southern Gospel group for two years without taking up the Christian faith, had his reservations, but he liked the music Springer and Mims were playing and assumed he could play with them, just like he had in the Southern Gospel group, without any conflicts of interest.After playing in Halo for only two years, Graham was won over to the Christian faith in January 1982, and, with a unified mission to be a Christian band with a ministry, it was at this point that the group really started to take form. Working to get their stride, Halo toured the Southern Unites States, performing mostly in Alabama, Tennessee, Florida and Georgia. While playing the circuit, Halo had the good fortune of meeting Bob Hartman, founder and guitarist for perennial favorites in the Christian music industry, Petra. Hartman acted as a mentor to Halo, providing advice on song-writing as well as sound equipment. Despite their efforts and advice, Halo was still unsigned after nine years of touring, and their performances were effectively equal to a diversion that consumed many hours.In 1989, Springer announced that God was calling him to full-time ministry. Originally, it appeared that he was going to head off to seminary to become a youth pastor. However, around the same time, Bob Hartman told Graham that he had given a Halo demo tape, recorded in Hartman's studio, to brothers John Elefante and Dino Elefante, owners of Pakaderm Records in Los Alamos, CA and the producers of the last few Petra albums. Not long thereafter, Pakaderm offered Halo a recording contract.
By 1990, Halo had released their self-titled debut album, featuring ten tracks written and played by Springer, Mims, Graham, and the Elefante brothers, with arrangements by Bob Hartman and session players, guitarist Tony Palacios (Guardian) and keyboardist John Andrew Schreiner (Carman, Steve Camp, Petra). Altogether, the album is said to exude the "sound of a cohesive power pop band", drawing likenesses to both secular and Christian artists, such as Foreigner, Journey, Kansas, Petra, and Mastedon.In 1991, Halo released their second album with Pakaderm: Heaven Calling. Following work with Rick Cua, Barry Graul (later to become a frequent session player in the Christian music industry and member of MercyMe) replaced Keith Mims on guitar, and Scott Springer and John Elefante teamed up to write lyrics and music, respectively, for all the songs on Heaven Calling, except "It's Your Decision" and "Secret to Love", to which Mike Graham contributed.This musical pairing proved to be successful because on November 2, 1991, the title-cut, "Heaven Calling," debuted on Billboard's Top Contemporary Christian chart at No. 21.-Additionally, online reports show that Halo had four number one Christian Rock hits in its career, and although no verification has been found at the time of this writing to prove it, high probability is that a
majority of those hits came from Heaven Calling. The album also garnered success outside the U.S. In touring, Halo found an amazingly receptive audience in South America in places like Guatemala, where they played in Christmas 1991 .Speaking of Halo's concerts, they were said to have included a powerful, aggressive, and energetic air; a compact sound and light system that was surprisingly impressive without overpowering the show; vocalist Scott Springer's comments about the songs' messages before playing them; sermons about living a pure life without sex and drugs; prayer; altar calls while getting the audience to join in praise choruses, and the distribution of Bibles. Despite the band's evangelistic tone, Springer was reported as humbly saying, at least once, that he could not force anyone to live a life of Christ, but that it must be a person's own decision.In an interview in February 1993, drummer Mike Graham is reported talking about their new guitarist P.J. Marx and the recording of Halo's third album that, at the time of the interview, Springer was working on in Pakaderm's studios, laying down vocal tracks. Graham says the album was slated for release in May or June of that same year; however, no records show that the album ever came to fruition. Rather, Scott Springer put out a solo album in 1993 called Hello Forever that credited Graham on drums but no mention of a P.J. Marx. The compositions on this solo effort, like Heaven Calling before, were the work primarily of Springer and the Elefantes, and again, the combination gave Springer four No. 1 songs on Christian Hit Radio.After 1993, no other Halo albums or tours are reported, but Scott Springer continued to tour as a self-proclaimed artist and preacher --although an executive hand in the business is also suspected considering its name--for Halo Productions, a booking agency representing ministry-minded Christian recording artists and bands. As Springer began touring with Hello Forever, he took a part-time Student Minister position at a small church. This eventually led him to a full-time youth ministry position, where he took a break from the road, was ordained as a minister, and began teaching and evangelizing youth in his community. He also became chaplain of local youth sports teams.In 2004, Springer became head pastor of a new church with a casual atmosphere in Clanton, AL called New Life Community Church(http://www.holymetalrob.com/)
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