A Christian heavy metal/speed metal band from San Fransisco! After the demise of Golgatha, who released the 'Prisoner' demo in 1985, bass-player Adam Alvarez teamed up with Jim Maxwell (drums), Chris Price (guitars) and Michael Brueck (vocals) to form Valor. They recorded one demo, entitled 'Masquerade', and a full-length album before disappearing.

FIGHT FOR YOUR LIFE/PRISONER (1988/1985, 2004) RETROACTIVE

Retroactive Records are releasing some "lost" gems from the Christian metal vaults. And when I read that Valor were a speed metal band from the mid-eighties, I just had to check them out. I seemed to have overlooked quite a few bands from that era. I guess very few of these bands had any distribution in Norway back then. This CD is a split album which contains both Valor's only full-length album, entitled 'Fight For Your Life', and Golgatha's demo, entitled 'Prisoner'. We also get some live-tracks from the latter. Valor were classic heavy metal with some faster speed metal elements thrown in for good measure. They sort of remind me of Haven at times. Golgotha played pure heavy metal in the vain of Saint, Messiah Prophet and LightForce. The production on these old recordings are not exactly top notch. But that should not be a hindrance if the material provided is good. Unfortunately I cannot say that Valor lives up to what I expected. I'm not sure why though. The musicianship is good enough, and although the vocals are in the high-pitch range that is so common in speed metal, I still think they leave something to be desired. It all boils down to whether or not one likes the songs. And I just find most of them to be quite uninteresting. Golgatha, on the other hand, are more appealing. Yes, they have a rougher sound, and aren't as technically skilled as Valor. But they deliverer songs that makes my head nod along, choruses that I remember, and are just all over more appealing. In fact, I like of the tracks from 'Prisoner'! Too bad they only recorded this one demo. Some of the members went on to form bands like Crossforce and Mercy, and one of them joined Soldier. So while this is Christian metal music history, I am left a little indifferent to this release.

Killer tracks: Valor, Didn't I, Prisoner, Cry Of The Heathen, Follow Me