It is very hard for me to believe that this album is 35 years old.

DMZ
Artist: Resurrection Band
Label: Retroactive Records
Length: 10/33:57 

It is very hard for me to believe that this album is 35 years old. (Of course, it’s even more difficult to believe that I’m turning fifty.) I was 14 when this album was released, a kid in search of Christian rock that actually ROCKED, not a pale imitation of whatever loud music was being played on the radio. 

Enter Rez Band…the first Christian rock group I’d ever heard that could compete with and often surpass what I had heard. “Military Man” came across as a heavier version of Foreigner. There has never been any doubt about Glenn Kaiser’s ability on guitar, and he shows it throughout this disc. 

“Babylon” is Ratt meets Van Halen, and features the line “Heard the voices again crying/Refusing to ever learn.” “I Need Your Love” and “Reluctance” are repetitive, but true. “Area 312” resembles Ratt as well, even down to the vocals, and name checks The Ramones song “Teenage Lobotomy”. “No Alibi” and “White Noise” are built around Kaiser’s guitar solos, but unfortunately, the drums on the latter are muted in the mix. 

After 35 years, a lot of DMZ sounds dated, but in 1982, this was state of the art. It was a keeper then, and it’s a keeper now. 

Brian A. Smith

21 March 2018