Thoughts on Recon

Recon Behind Enemy Lines. Holy crap this is such an excellent record. It's like Deliverance and Sacred Warrior had a baby. A beautifully loud melodic baby. I haven't heard it in awhile and it is maybe my favorite single record from the "glory days" of christian metal.

Looking back with 20/20 hindsight, when George Ochoa left to go to Deliverance, that pretty much killed Recon. What are your thoughts on that move? I sure would have loved to hear another Recon album. But then Weapons and What A Joke wouldn't have came out as they did. It's a double edged sword. I think Ochoa's influence took Deliverance from being a great band to a stellar band, but that's my opinion. What is yours, foo?

spectrefate wrote:

Recon Behind Enemy Lines. Holy crap this is such an excellent record. It's like Deliverance and Sacred Warrior had a baby.

Yup! My thoughts exactly. One of my all time favorite albums. Have seen them live several times as well.

As for the Deliverance comparison, that is right on. Most of Recon was in Deliverance at one time or another. The Deliverance song "Slay the Wicked" was originally written for Recon. The Recon song "Behind Enemy Lines" was written by Jimmy Brown and George Ochoa. So there is a lot of Deliverance in Recon and visa versa.

ochoa followed the trends back then and thus left the pure US metal wagon of recon. i love that lp but i still prefer their light the fire demo. i was lucky enough to score a second vivyl copy of their album, signed by grato( although he didn't want at first because of the things i wrote him about deliverance,hehehe)....i still remember mutillo's review on that....

Great record. One of the best straight up metal CDs in my collection, Christian or non.

Ranked strictly against my other Christian metal CDs, this one ranks #2 all time (#1 being Barren Cross' ATOMIC ARENA)

I couldn't put Atomic Arena above Behind Enemy Lines just because of the goofy intro to "Cultic Regimes".

spectrefate wrote:

I couldn't put Atomic Arena above Behind Enemy Lines just because of the goofy intro to "Cultic Regimes".

Hahaha, yea, I HATE that intro. Y'know how many times that insane cackling has scared the livin' POOP out of me? One time I was dozing off with the album on headphones and when that intro came up I practically jumped outta my skin!!

Awesome Album.I wish they'd done more.I agree with the Deliverance and Sacred Warrior comparisons also.

spectrefate wrote:

Looking back with 20/20 hindsight, when George Ochoa left to go to Deliverance, that pretty much killed Recon. What are your thoughts on that move? I sure would have loved to hear another Recon album. But then Weapons and What A Joke wouldn't have came out as they did. It's a double edged sword. I think Ochoa's influence took Deliverance from being a great band to a stellar band, but that's my opinion. What is yours, foo?

From what I gathered, Recon was already sorta split up, or at least were inactive, at the time George joined Deliverance. According to his liner notes in the M8/Magdalene reissue of BEHIND ENEMY LINES, George sez that when he joined Deliverance he had a meeting with the label folks at Intense and brought up the idea of doing a Recon record for them, because he "didn't want to see all those great songs go to waste." So I suppose we're lucky we ever got a Recon album at all!

That's good information there. Unfortunately my bootleg I bought from M8 doesn't have a lick of liner notes. Just a card that likes to fold everytime I close the jewel case.

But still, I love it.

spectrefate wrote:

That's good information there. Unfortunately my bootleg I bought from M8 doesn't have a lick of liner notes. Just a card that likes to fold everytime I close the jewel case.

But still, I love it.

Yea, that sounds like you got one of the bootleg versions of that CD. The original M8/Magdalene Records pressing was limited to 1000 copies and had the aforementioned notes from George inside the booklet along with all the lyrics.

I have a bootleg copy of Sacred Warrior's OBSESSION with the same problem. The "booklet" is just a card (and a badly copied one at that!). Doesn't really bother me though cuz it was the only S.W. album I didn't have on CD and I was just happy to finally find it one way or the other.

Fat Freddy wrote:

Sounds like you got one of the Greek bootleg versions of that CD. The original M8/Magdalene Records pressing was limited to 1000 copies and had the aforementioned notes from George inside the booklet along with all the lyrics.

My boot says it was manufactured by Seoul Records, Inc. Korea. Which just HAS to be authentic with that name. The actual label just says YBM. I bought it from M8 Distribution on Amazon. It was $9.99 so I knew what I was getting, since that's the same way I got Sacred Warrior's Obsessions and Wicked Generation CDs. I guess it was better than downloading it for free.

spectrefate wrote:

Fat Freddy wrote:

Sounds like you got one of the Greek bootleg versions of that CD. The original M8/Magdalene Records pressing was limited to 1000 copies and had the aforementioned notes from George inside the booklet along with all the lyrics.

My boot says it was manufactured by Seoul Records, Inc. Korea. Which just HAS to be authentic with that name. The actual label just says YBM. I bought it from M8 Distribution on Amazon. It was $9.99 so I knew what I was getting, since that's the same way I got Sacred Warrior's Obsessions and Wicked Generation CDs. I guess it was better than downloading it for free.

Yea, my copy of "OBSESSIONS" sez it's from a label called "ERMI Music," supposedly in the Netherlands. Never heard of 'em before and likely never will again.

Fat Freddy wrote:

I have a bootleg copy of Sacred Warrior's OBSESSION with the same problem. The "booklet" is just a card (and a badly copied one at that!).

Yeah they got us both, I remember us talking about that a couple of months ago.

spectrefate wrote:

Fat Freddy wrote:

I have a bootleg copy of Sacred Warrior's OBSESSION with the same problem. The "booklet" is just a card (and a badly copied one at that!).

Yeah they got us both, I remember us talking about that a couple of months ago.

Them b**tards.

mine are all originals. and i have them on vinyl and cds. sometime i'll give of course the cds....hehehe, i know who made these s.warrior boots......

syrus wrote:

hehehe, i know who made these s.warrior boots......

Tell him Spectrefate and I said "Thanks for nothing"

if i recall right actually they were pressed in croatia after a greekgerman coalition....

I enjoy the album and definitely think it's good but I don't think they were as good as, say, SACRED WARRIOR, SCREAMER, or DEADLY BLESSING.

Temple of Blood wrote:

I enjoy the album and definitely think it's
good but I don't think they were as good as, say, SACRED WARRIOR,
SCREAMER, or DEADLY BLESSING.

I agree. Great album, but the vocals held it back a bit. Some of those notes he had no right to reach for.

When Recon played Calistone, they hinted at a possible reunion album.
Sure would be nice, because their current vocalist is much better, IMO.
They also did a killer version of Slay The Wicked, which I appreciated,
especially considering Deliverance had to cancel.

i love recon more than s.warrior. sure screamer and deadly blessing are the mastrers(but gargoyle have them both,hehehe)

Fantastic disc, one of my all time favorites. The band is currently working on a new disc. They have a different singer now who's name I can't remember and myspace is blocked at work. I do know that George Ochoa and Mike Grato are in the band still. They played at Cornerstone California.

syrus wrote:

i love recon more than s.warrior. sure screamer and deadly blessing are the mastrers(but gargoyle have them both,hehehe)

When I say SACRED WARRIOR, I am referring to "Master's Command", which I think is a masterpiece. The rest are merely meh to pretty good to me.

kethdredd wrote:

Fantastic disc, one of my all time favorites. The band is currently working on a new disc. They have a different singer now who's name I can't remember and myspace is blocked at work. I do know that George Ochoa and Mike Grato are in the band still. They played at Cornerstone California.

The new vocalist is Rod Arias (or Rod Dickenson). I've seen Recon with him twice, the first time in 2002. He is a fantastic singer and can nail all those high notes even better than Recon's original vocals. He will not disappoint longtime fans, should the band ever finally decide to record their sophomore release.

The rest of the band is still the same. George Ochoa and Eddie Starline on guitars, John Gonzales on bass and my good friend Mike Grato on bass.

Myself with Eddie Starline this past September:

Well the official Myspace that Eddie Starline runs says Recon's new album "The Chosen Few" should be out in '08. I hope that's true.

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=168641657

ultmetal wrote:

Myself with Eddie Starline this past September:

ult, you should have arm wrestled him.