State of Control

Following the remarkable Atomic Arena the band entered in the studio for the next outstanding release and it took actually only 1 year under the Enigma label to release it.

First and foremost the vocals now took the same approach Bruce D. in Fear of the Dark with a raspy voice and the operatic vocals show only for the higher notes and choruses. Mike Lee incorporated more variety in the singing (textures and vocal range). We have the same lineup and they added more choruses in the back ground which I think are very cool. This time they gave more room for the bass to come up and show Jim LaVerde’s skills and also to Steve Whitaker in the drumming department. The production is very clean and it was under John and Dino Elefante who were the responsible for producing Petra’s most famous and heaviest releases in the 80’s.


The lyrics took a more social emphasis dealing with alcoholism (the title track), violence (in the LA streets by the way), spiritual warfare, psychological problems and even two romantic songs (which is not the same as ballads, only one is a ballad, ok?) and the last song which is entirely focused on Christ.


When it comes to the music this one is kind of strange to classify. The killer songs are the best they ever put out (yes, even better than AA) saying: The Stage of Intensity, Hard Lies, Inner War and Two Thousand Years. The problem is with the bad songs: Out of Time, A Face in the Dark, Love at full Volume and Bigotry Man are really filler/bad/average and not remarkable at all. Cyrin’ Over You is a very good power ballad that can be compared easily with Wasting Love because it has the same structure, vocal style, pace, and the solo is very similar only this one has a more sad and gloomy feeling. This one had a video clip all shaped in blue and very good I must say. The Stage of Intensity with its acoustic intro to set the mood and killer riffing is the best song in the album without any doubt along with Inner War and Two Thousand Years are for me the killer songs. They have exquisite rhythm parts, amazing solos and everything you expect from very good heavy metal. Two Thousand Years is very similar to King of Kings with the same pace and song structure. Again what sucks here is the artwork because the cover being not that bad due to the concept the band ‘logo’ is terrible and totally lacking creativity.


This was the final release before they split up (or took a hiatus) and since Enigma went down they could not go on with more after a few years when they put out another kick ass hard rock/metal release. But back in 1989 when heavy metal started to change to harder and sharper tendencies this was a solid release by these guys. Trust me that this album can compete with some of Maiden’s or Scorpions’ heaviest albums and you can enjoy the best songs here as their best songs ever and the bad ones you can skip since they are not that good.