Guns of Fire – Shifting Winds

 

Only a fool says in his heart, there is no God
– King David

Artist: Guns of Fire
Title: Shifting Wings
Year: 1990
Genre: Hard Rock, Melodic Rock, AOR, CCM
Category: 10 Track Album
Format: Cassette
Label: DTS Records
Catalog No: GFC001
Comments: J-Card Packaging
Collectors Status: Very Rare
Estimated Value: ~$75+AUD

Track List – Side A
01. Don’t Keep Waiting
02. Born For Love
03. Are You Ready
04. Won By One
05. Bye Bye Baby

Track List – Side B
01. Are You Still On My Side
02. Crossroads
03. No Turning Back
04. Land of No More Tears
05. Take the Reins

Line-Up
Steve Hibbins • Drums
Anthony Hook • Lead Vocals
Tim Bennett • Bass Guitar
Rowland Moye • Keyboards, Saxaphone, Vocals
David Moye • Guitars, Vocals

Credits
• Produced and Engineered by Dave Simpfendorfer
• Mixed by Jeff Todd
• Additional Vocals by Sandra Crocket
• Art and Design by David Moye
• Photography by Photoserv, Chris Gregory
• Recorded at Windwood Studios, March 1990, Blue Mountains, New South Wales, Australia
• “The Guns Club” For concert bookings, information and merchandise: Private Bag 4, Panania NSW 2213 Australia

Here’s a special treat that just arrived in the mail.

Formed in 1989 from various Sydney rock bands including Lightbearer, O1’55, and Frontline; Guns of Fire were an obscure Aussie melodic/hard rock band who released their debut album ‘Shifting Winds‘ on cassette in 1990.  As can be interpreted from the lyrics on this first release, Guns of Fire identify as a Christian band and are known to have had a following in the Aussie CCM music scene of the early 90s alongside bands such as Holy Rite and Rosanna’s Raiders .  Featuring brothers Rowland and David Moye, formerly of Sydney 80s band, Your Fanatics; the musicians involved here showcase their respective talents in a way that might appeal to all fans of melodic/hard rock music, regardless of the CCM influences.  Several tracks from this debut album would re-appear in 1991 on the bands first CD titled ‘Viva the Revolution‘ (to be featured on this blog at a later date along with the bands 1993 CD-EP, ‘2BWITHU‘).  Guns of Fire called it a day in late 1994 with some material yet to be released.

As always, any more information would be greatly appreciated and in particular if you have clippings from any late 80s / early 90s Christian magazines such as ‘Against the Grain‘, I would love to see them.

Surrender – Demo 1990/91

Artist: Surrender
Title: –
Year: 1990/91
Genre: Hard Rock, Melodic Hard Rock
Category: 3 Track Demo
Format: Cassette
Label: –
Catalog No: –
Comments: O-Card Packaging
Collectors Status: Extremely Rare
Estimated Value: ~$1000 AUD

Track List
01. Love it Loose
02. Just Like Love
03. Time Will Tell

Line-Up & Album Credits
Unknown band line-up
Recorded at JMC Studios
Engineered / Produced by Steve Pomfrey
All songs written by Surrender © 90/91

Now this one is a real mystery!  I stumbled upon it recently while looking for something else and decided to pick it up based on the cover art, year of release and the fact that it was advertised as being an Aussie band.

Apart from the minimal details listed on the packaging, there is absolutely no information out there about this band, not even a mention in Chris Spencer’s ‘Who’s Who of Australian Rock‘.  I can only assume from the phone number that the band is from NSW.

Despite its demo like production qualities, the three tracks featured on this cassette are really good examples of everything I love about late 80s / early 90s hard rock.  In particular ‘Time Will Tell’ is an absolute gem of a track and one that easily ranks among my all time favourite obscure Aussie hard rock songs – pure melodic hard rock bliss!

Note that this band has no connection to Aussie metal band Surrender that featured Dave Compton and released a self titled LP in 1984.  I did check with Dave about this and he seemed to recall another Aussie band of this name from around 1989-93.

Any more information about Surrender would be really appreciated.