Live Report: Immortal Festival 2025, Part 2
IMMORTAL FESTIVAL, 2025, PART 2
BMI Event Center, Versailles, OH 8/29-31/2025
by Chris Gatto
Photos by Chad Fenner of Concert Fotos
We return to Versailles, Ohio, home of cornfields, egg producers, and BMI Event Center, a one time dirt bike racetrack that owner Steve Barhorst has turned into a world class venue. And out of his heart and vision was birthed Immortal. Immortal festival, now in its fourth year, is probably the only place in the country that fans can see multiple classic christian metal bands, as well as some newer to the scene. The camaraderie of the fans and the musicians, draws the faithful back again and again, as much as the hard hitting music and message. Again this year, the festival was split into two parts. The first over the last weekend in July, and the second happening over Labor Day. Here is my overview of part 2.
DAY 1: Friday: Day one of the festival opened with Dayton, OH’s WEAPONS OF GOD for their second Immortal performance.Weapons is: Steve McGowan on guitars and vocals, Leon Black on guitars and vocals, Ed Girard (Four Star Revival) on bass, and Jason Harmon on drums. The band just released their third album on Roxx Records: TRIbulation, and debuted all new material for their setlist. The band is modern metal, as viewed through the lens of Kiss and Pantera (as disparate as those two bands might be), and the newer material adds a doomy tone at times, as well as an apocalyptic note on the final three songs of the trilogy. “Death of Me” has been gaining traction on christian radio.
Next up was the Immortal debut of Frontiers Records recording artist IGNESCENT. Hailing from Chicago and centered around vocalist Jennifer Benson and her blue and purple colored hair, the current band is made up of Jennifer, Andre Leon on guitar, Mikey Green on bass, and Kohl Coryell on drums. Ignescent plays a brand of hard rock that will draw obvious comparisons to Ledger, Flyleaf, and Evanescence. Their stage attire and acting on stage add a visual element to their music, all with the intent of bringing hope to a hopeless world. The band played all original music, along with a cover of Petra’s “He Came, He Saw, He Conquered“ and Les and Joyce Carlsen guesting on a cover of Queen’s “We Will Rock You.”
Texas’ STRYKEN was not an obvious choice to play the festival. Brothers Dale and Stephen Streiker, Ezekiel Vade, and Joey Knight were underground favorites in the 80’s. Their armored stage attire mirrored bands like Twisted Sister and Motley Crue at the time, while their music, covered a wide range of styles from metal to mellower, almost pop tunes- not unlike Queen- putting the cross front and center to a dying world. Dale Streiker (guitar, vocals) and Joey Knight (original drummer) needed a little help to recreate Stryken (Ezekiel Vade passed away last year and Stephen Streiker declined to participate) and that help came in the form of Rex Carroll and Michael Feighan of Whitecross and Tracie Ferrie (ex- Electrik, Seraiah, Whitecross, and Stryper), sans the famous armor. Taking turns on vocals, the band performed some of their obligatory bangers: “One Way,” “Crush the Head of Satan,” and “Rock On,” slowed down for ballad “The Answer,” and the haunting “The Young Men Have a Vision,” and even debuted new songs like “Your Light Touched,” “Run With Horses,” and a rocking cover of “I Heard It Through the Grapevine.” It was a rare treat to see these guys play and I hope they will continue crafting new music.
Also on their maiden voyage at Immortal Festival was former PA, now AZ based progressive metal band IMAGES OF EDEN, made up of Gordon Tittsworth on vocals, Steve Dorssom on drums, Eric Mulvaine on bass, Jeff Wilson on guitar, and Dean Harris on piano and keys. Veterans in the prog metal genre, IOE has logged in 5 studio albums and an ep over 25 plus years, but Gordon admitted this was the first time they ever played a christian show. The band played its keyboard laced modern metal, topped by Gordon’s almost operatic vocals, and interacted well with the audience, also covering Triumph’s “The Good Fight” and encoring with The Beatles’ “Here Comes the Sun.”
Friday night closed with the return of IN’s THE PROTEST, made up of Josh Bramlet on vocals, Jarob Bramlet on drums, and T.J. Colwell, and Adam Sadler on guitars. The hard rock/metal band introed into fan favorite “Paper Tiger” and “Dying Breath.” They played “What Else You Got,” proclaimed I don’t do it for the money with “Greater,” promoted an anti-sex trafficking ministry, encouraged those suffering from depression, played new song “Take It Back,” then “Party Hard,” bid the fans “Welcome to the Freakshow,” screamed their “Legacy,” and then played “Noise Revolution” for an encore. An energetic performance by these young guys. A new The Protest album is in the works.
DAY 2: Saturday: Today we were treated with a performance by the legendary bluesmen of GLENN KAISER BAND. Following the retirement of the seminal christian hard rockers Resurrection Band/Rez Band/Rez in the mid 90’s, singer/guitarist Glenn Kaiser started his own blues trio with fellow Rez alum Roy Montroy on bass and Grrr Records head honcho Ed Bialach on drums. The show started with “Rooster Crow,” a little piece detailing the apostle Peter’s denial of Christ, that both opens Rez’s Innocent Blood album and closes GKB’s Carolina Moon album. Rez fans were not disappointed, as the band tore through electric versions of “Military Man,” “American Dream,” and “Broken Promises,” while also playing some of the songs that Glenn Kaiser Band is known for, such as the aforementioned “Carolina Moon.” The last time Glenn performed at Immortal, he played an acoustic set, with his wife Wendi appearing for a couple songs, and it felt very fulfilling to hear one of the godfathers of Christian rock plug in for this one.
Next up was also a man with a storied history in christian music. Les Carlsen got his start acting in Hair and brought that sense of production to music when he started the legendary christian metal band Bloodgood with his friend Michael Bloodgood. Michael’s untimely passing in 2022 may have retired the Bloodgood moniker, but LES CARLSEN both celebrates Bloodgood’s legacy and showcases new music from Les and his band, featuring Les and wife Joyce Carlsen on vocals, Bloodgood guitarist Paul Jackson, and Craig Church also on guitars, Juan VanDunk on bass, and Jeff McCormack on drums. Bloodgood fans no doubt noticed the insertion of “Holy Fire,” “Killing the Beast,” “Crucify,” Messiah,” and “Lamb of God,” to the setlist, which also prominently featured songs from Les’ recent solo album He’s Coming, including the title track, “Jesus Freak Show,” the excellent “Judas is Dead” and “Scars,” Joyce on the mic for “Return Me to the Fire,” and a tease of new material with the song “Free Will” from Les’s next album, appearing soon. Surprise guests (even to Les) were P.J. Bostic and Jim LaVerde, who appeared onstage in white shirts painted with “I wash my hands” messages and danced and dispensed hand soap or sanitizer to band members. Had to be an inside joke, but hilarious, nonetheless.
Even after 4 Immortal fests running, DANIEL BAND is a band that I never get tired of seeing. The Canadian hard rock legends’ entire discography may have been in the 80’s, but Dan McCabe- vocals and bass and Tony Rossi – guitars, moustache, and vocals, are clearly woodshedding, as they remain incredibly tight. This time around, they were joined on drums by new addition Seppo Salminen, who proved himself admirably. Daniel Band played hits drawn from all 5 of their albums, “He’s the Creator,” “Run From the Darkness,” “I’m Sorry,” “Sixteen,” “Walk on Water,” and “Bethel,” being just some of them. In the interest of “preventing boredom,” the boys injecting a song each from Dan’s post- DB gig Dreamer and Tony’s post-DB Tony Rossi Band. These guys still sound as potent as ever. Man, wouldn’t it be cool to hear new music from these guys sometime soon?
Pittsburgh’s APOLOGETIX returned for their 2nd Immortal performance. Much like Weird Al, the band parodies famous songs from pop and rock culture, by playing the music, but changing the lyrics- in this case to have a christian message. Though some would argue that parody bands and cover bands aren’t on par with original bands, having the versatility to learn and master such a wide swathe of music, and to do so for 35 years and rack up a mind numbing 75 records in the band’s catalog should silence most critics. Apologetix is made up of J. Jackson on vocals, Keith Haynie on bass, Jimmy Tanner on drums, Tom Milnes and Tom Tincha on guitars, and Rich Mannion on Keyboards and drum programming. Highlight would have to be “Heaven’s Metal,” where the band turns Sammy Hagar’s “Heavy Metal” into a treatise on a certain magazine you happen to be reading.
Saturday’s headliner was the mighty BRIDE. So glad that seeing Bride live again has become a possibility now that frontman Dale Thompson has moved back to the US! The KY band, centered around brothers Dale and Troy Thompson, originally formed as Matrix more than 40 years ago and has been playing rock and metal ever since, changing their name to Bride for their debut album Show No Mercy. Though many band members have come and gone, it’s very cool to see Bride alums Frank Partipilo on bass and Michael Loy on drums, returning to join Dale Thompson on vocals and Troy Thompson on all manner of stringed instruments. (Also spotted another Bride alum Lawrence Bishop in attendance.) The band opened with “Would You Die For Me,” from their biggest hitting album Snakes in the Playground, and special guest Les Carlsen joining in on vocals. What followed was a trip through a good portion of Bride’s discography, from “Thunder in the City,” on their debut, with Rey Parra (Sacred Warrior/Worldview) guesting, to “Million Miles” off the band’s current double disc Vipers and Shadows, even the underrated Fistful of Bees was represented with the addition of “Soul Winner.” The obligatory hits from the band’s early 90’s heyday were on full display: “Beast,” the ballad “I Miss the Rain,” “Hired Gun,” “Everybody Knows My Name,” “Psychedelic Super Jesus,” but it was also great to hear deep cuts from the band’s 80’s catalog: “Whiskey Seed,” “Fool Me Once,” “Under the Influence.” The night closed with a real surprise- a cover of the Beatles’ “While My Guitar Gently Weeps,” with special guest Rex Carroll (Whitecross/ King James) tearing down the house on the guitar solo. Highlight of the weekend for me!
Day 3: Sunday: The day opened with an acoustic set by veteran ccm artist RANDY STONEHILL. Since being introduced to Christianity by his friend Larry Norman in the Jesus People days, “Uncle Rand” has had a long and extensive career playing folk music, ccm, and occasionally straying into rock territory, such as on his The Wild Frontier album, collaborating with some of the industry giants, such as Phil Keaggy, Larry Norman, and Keith Green. Armed with only an acoustic guitar, his humor, and occasionally his wife singing BGV’s, Randy sang, talked, and high-kicked his way through a set featuring some of his memorable songs, such as “Shut De Do,” “King of Hearts,” and the song he co-wrote with Keith Green “Your Love Broke Through.”
40 years ago, southern California was a hotbed of up and coming metal bands and LA’s NEON CROSS still lives to tell about it. Founding member Don Webster- guitar, and 40 year veteran David Raymond Reeves- vocals, are joined by Holy Soldier/Human Code/Worldview veteran Terry “The Animal” Russell-drums and his son Dylan Russell- bass. After a funny “are you really gonna wear that, dude?” moment backstage, singer David reluctantly changed out of his purple pants and opted for a safer option- black, and on went the show. Pre-dating the pop metal explosion that occurred later in the 80’s, Neon Cross plays a straight ahead brand of metal, much like their peers Barren Cross or Bloodgood. They played songs from their only 2 albums, 1988’s self-titled and 1995’s Torn, such as “Run Into the Light” (my first encounter with the band’s music on the radio in 1988), “Heartbreaker,” from the debut, “I’m Free,” and “Backlash” from Torn, “Nothing But the Blood” from former NC member P.K.Mitchell’s metal hymns project All Hail the Power, “Son of God,” from the California Metal compilation, and “Snake Eat Snake,” which they wrote for the late Justin Murr’s Liberty ‘N Justice. It feels like a rare sighting to catch this band in action, but something I’d like to see more of.
TRYTAN is a top notch progressive metal band that’s had a reboot in recent years. The band had 2 albums back in the day, 1987’s Celestial Messenger and 1990’s Sylen Tiger, before fading into obscurity. In 2021, singer Lary Dean, now a pastor in the extreme sports field, returned with new recruits Jim LaVerde (Barren Cross/ Sanctuary band) and multi-instrumentalist Eric Gillette (solo/Neal Morse Band) to release the phenomenal Blood of Kings album. Live Trytan is Lary on vocals and guitar, Jim on bass, and Paul Roraback (P.J.Bostic/Grammatrain/Bloodgood) on drums. Ignoring the 2nd album, Trytan performed songs from their first- “Mr. Electric” (featuring an army of air guitarists onstage because “we love the way you play air guitar!”), “Genesis” and “Rip Van Winkle,” from Blood of Kings– “The Descender,” “Shadow Racer, “ and the instrumental “The GodStorm.” The band played another Rush tribute (a band Trytan is often compared to because of Lary’s vocal style), teased a new song “Boomerang,” and closed in worship with “Revelation Song” from their current album.
KING JAMES started as something of a super group, when Rex Carroll, who had left Whitecross in 1993, got together with Sacred Fire vocalist Jimi Bennet, and recruited Robert Sweet and Tim Gaines, Stryper’s rhythm section, also fresh out of work, to start a melodic hard rock band. With a revolving door of members joining Rex and Jimi on each album, KJ released their self-titled debut in 1994, the much underrated The Fall in 1997, and Maximus in 2013. For the Immortal performance, Jimi Bennet on vocals and Rex Carroll on guitar were joined by Benny Ramos (Whitecross) on bass and Lufe Pereira (Oficina G3) on drums and Jean “Headrock” Carllos (Oficina G3) rocking the dreadlocks and keyboards. Listeners will quickly take note that King James does not sound like Rex’s other famous band Whitecross. Yes, it’s still centered around his formidable skills on the axe (his solo is noted on the setlist as “Rex on fire- 3min.!), but the vocals are uber melodic and the sound overall is melodic hard rock. After opening with the theme from “The Highlander- In Exile”, the band played a couple of the hits from the debut- “Prisoner” and “”Hard Road to Go,” some newer songs from the 3rd album, including “Black Stone Woman,” and “Mississippi Kid,” which is a eulogy to a fallen band member Ean Evans, then “Desperate” and “Miracles,” both of which appeared both on the 1st and 3rd albums, the latter being about Jimi’s daughter, the Come to Jesus hymn “Just As I Am (Lamb of God), the aforementioned 3 minutes of Rex on fire, and closing with “Waiting for the King.”
Closing out Immortal festival this year was perennial favorite SACRED WARRIOR. Hailing from the Chicago area, Sacred Warrior started in the mid-80’s when guitarist Bruce Swift got saved and then shared his faith with some of his bandmates, who then formed a christian metal band playing a brand of power metal and progressive metal, much like their mainstream peers Iron Maiden and Queensryche. Founding members Bruce Swift- guitars, Steve Watkins- bass, Tony Velasquez- drums, and the one and only Rey Parra- vocals, are joined by Tom Sanderson- keyboards, and Larry Worley (Fear Not) on guitar. The band played songs from the 4 SW albums with Rey on vocals (there was a 5th with Eli Prinsen singing), playing headbanging anthem after anthem- “Wicked Generation,” “Temple’s On Fire”- Tony is a beast on drums on this one!, “Rebellion,” “No Happy Endings,” “War Torn Heroes,” “Stay Away from Evil,” “Obsessions,” and “Day of the Lord,” lightening up the mood every few songs with “Remember Me” about the thief on the cross, “Sweet Memories,” and “He Died” the band’s only real ballad. Warrior closed out their show the way they often do- in worship, with dozens of fans joining them onstage to help them sing “Holy, Holy, Holy.”
Reflecting back on 4 years of Immortal festivals, I’ve had a blast. I’ve made friends and connected with musicians. We’ve talked, ate together, prayed together, hung out, shared life with each other, and I look forward to each road trip out there. Yes, I’ve invested time, money, vacation, and many miles on my vehicles to make it happen, but this is what I do, and what I believe in, and I find it to be a worthwhile investment. There’s no guarantees of another festival. Many, like Creation and Cornerstone, have come and gone. Each of us personally is not guaranteed tomorrow either. Immortal exists solely as the vision and generosity of BMI owner Steve Barhorst. Revival has been stirring in christian metal- I would argue directly as a result of Immortal festival. Feeling the love of the fans, many bands have received that spark to reunite again and record new music, renewing their passion for reaching the lost. Please consider joining us next year, if the Lord should tarry. I think you’ll be glad you did!
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