Babylon & Beyond - 30th Anniversary

Roxx Records is very excited to bring one of our very own personal favorite recordings back to life! We are extremely happy to bring you the complete recording history of one of the Bay area's finest Christian metal bands of the late 80's Soldier! The music of Soldier has been a personal favorite of ours, and one we have wanted to release it for many years now, and this year the band's full length release Babylon is celebrating its 30th Anniversary in 2018! This album and band should have been WAY bigger in our humble opinion, alas, like many very talented bands of that era (Malachia and Eternal Ryte come to mind) they somehow got lost in the shuffle or overlooked by the major labels of the day pushing and promoting Christian metal.
We are very excited to bring you not just Babylon, but the band's entire recording catalog back to life on CD and vinyl for the very first time! Babylon was originally released on cassette tape only and 5,000 of those were pressed back then! Before Babylon, the band would also release another demo on cassette tape only entitled "Louder Than Hell" with only 1,000 copies of this one being pressed, both are impossible to find these days. After those two releases, the band would get to go into the studio and work with acclaimed producers, John and Dino Elefante, where they would work on and record two tracks that would be released on the compilation California Metal II. This would mark what would be the last recordings the world would see from Soldier, until now!
Roxx Records released Babylon & Beyond the 30th Anniversary release of Soldier! This anthology style release is a full jam packed release over 2 CD's with a full 16 page booklet loaded with band photos and archived images, with all new liner notes and commentary from lead guitarist Rick Martinez. The CD also features all new cover art designed by Jimmy Arceneaux, with 2 different covers for the CD and vinyl versions!
The disc is limited to a one time pressing of 500 pieces. Disc 1 contains the entire "Babylon" album, the "Louder Than Hell" demo and ends with the two tracks from "California Metal II". Disc II includes 4 previously unreleased tracks that the world has never heard before! These special 4 tracks were recorded in 1992, when the band would go in to the studio and record a 4 track demo after the interest of a record label prompted this reunion. These tracks were ultimately shelved since they were recorded and were released from the band's personal archives for the first time ever! Also on disc 2 there is an entire live show recorded by the band that has also been in the band's archive and never heard before. This show was recorded live at the HIS I Festival in Riverside, California, and was somewhat unofficially dubbed 'The Mormon Show' (You'll have to hear the show for yourself to understand why!). Ending the CD is one more long last track entitled 'Call My Name' that was recorded live, rarely played and was never officially recorded in the studio.
Additionally the entire Babylon album was released on a one time limited edition 'White Vinyl' release as part of the Roxx Underground series as #10 in the series, limited to 150 hand numbered copies only. AND if that still is not enough for you there is a limited edition bonus DVD disc limited to only 100 copies. The DVD is entitled "Babylon & Beyond 'Through The Years LIVE'". This special DVD features various live performances throughout the band's career and pulled from never before seen videos captured live by the father of Rick Martinez through the years. A very special companion piece on that was beautifully compiled by our friends at Kruse FX.

Lineup

Jimmy Arceneaux - Lead Vocals/Rhythm Guitar/Lead Guitar
Rick "Hunter" Martinez (Regime, Walk The Sky) - Lead Guitar/Backing Vocals
Marc Allyn - Bass/Backing Vocals
Albert Whalen (Golgatha) - Drums
Jason Sousa - Drums