7th Heaven
CD: Planet Under Siege
Released: 1992
Label: Retrospect Records ‎– RR-382
Genre: Rock
Style: Hard Rock

Bass, Lead Vocals – Doug Basler
Drums, Percussion, Backing Vocals – Brian Lawson
Lead Guitar, Acoustic Guitar, Backing Vocals – Dennis Bush

The history of the Pacific Northwest Christian metal scene dates back to the mid-eighties. Seattle, Washington based Bloodgood is the first act that comes to mind, one of the more well known and respected players in the burgeoning “white metal” scene at the time. Detonation, Bloodgood’s sophomore release from 1987, is considered a classic while the self-titled debut (1986), Rock In A Hard Place (1988) and Out Of the Darkness (1989) are all essential releases. Watchmen came from the same era and locality. Hitting the scene with an eight song demo entitled Fear No Evil, the group signed with Regency Records prior to releasing its 1989 full length debut Generation. Paragon, who might have been the best of the bunch (but that is another story), also came out of the Seattle area and brought a Rush influenced sound on its two demos, Just Believe and Dead And Alive, from the late eighties. At this point we need to ask: what has Oregon produced? Well, other than lots and lots of rain (not that Seattle is innocent in this area), the state known for the “Rose City” (Portland) and its breathtaking scenery is home to the classic metal band Saint. Hailing from Salem (the State Capitol), Saint ranks with Bloodgood in terms of overall impact and longevity. The group debuted with the 1984 EP Warriors Of The Son before recording the Pure Metal full length releases Time’s End (1986) and Too Late For Living (1988). After going on extended hiatus, Saint returned following the turn of the century with In The Battle (2004), The Mark (2006) and Crime Scene Earth (2008). This leaves us with only one other group from the region deserving mention, Portland, Oregon based 7th Heaven. The band only produced one work: and that is its independently released 1992 full length offering Planet Under Siege. Despite coming out in the early nineties, the album (mercifully) reflects no influence of the grunge scene prevalent at the time. If anything, I might describe Planet Under Siege as a blend of melodic rock, AOR and hair metal – heavily influenced by the eighties – certain to appeal to fans of Stryper, Guardian, Shout, Giant, Action and Line Of Fire. An out of print and hard to find collectors item for years, Planet Under Siege was re-issued the latter half of 2008 by Retrospect Records. Planet Under Siege proves a musically consistent effort bringing a variety of mid-tempo and up-tempo tracks and ballads. The albums current events inspired title track, creative “Child’s Eyes” and metal influenced “Cross The Border” and “Giants In The Land” move in a mid-paced heading while a faster direction is taken on energetic rockers “Shout” and “Get So Mad”. Ballad wise, we have one that is acoustic laced (“Watching And Waiting”), one piano driven (“Stay”) and one-semi ballad (“Rapture”). Doug Basler brings a clean but raspy mid-ranged vocal style that hints at Jamie Rowe (Guardian) and Larry Worley (Fear Not). Balsler also handles bass (laying down some heavy grooves in the process) and rounds out the rhythm section with drummer Brian Lawson (who puts in a spot-on performance). Guitarist Dennis Bush proves every bit as much a talent. He contributes the albums melodic based – and at times metal edged – riffs in addition to its quality lead work (as demonstrated on “Child’s Eyes”, “Cross The Border” and “Giants In the Land”). The albums clean production values allows all the instrumentation to stand out. Yes, the rhythm guitar could have been beefed up a bit but the overall sound is solid for an early nineties independent release.

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