Rank the Bride Albums

It’s been a couple days since I’ve done a ranking. So here we go!

I’m only doing the first 6 since that’s their “classic” era and they’re the only ones I own. But you can throw as many of their albums on your list as you wish! 

1. Live to Die

Metal perfection. Every song rules. 

2. Silence Is Madness

Almost perfection. I’m not big on Rock Those Blues Away, but the other 8 tracks are smoking.

3. Snakes in the Playground 

Great album. So many awesome hooks, a great sound, and more of Dale’s incredible vocals.

4. Scarecrow Messiah

Almost as good as Snakes. When it’s on, it’s phenomenal, but it loses steam a bit towards the end.

5. Kinetic Faith

The production is a bit weak and I’m not big on songs 3–5. But the first 2 songs and the entire second half is prime Bride!

6. Show No Mercy

A bit more hit and miss, but still good overall. You can tell how much promise they had and the good songs are really good. 


Go for it!

Kinetic Faith-really wish they'd remaster this
Snakes in the Playground
Scarecrow Messiah
Silence is Madness
Live to Die

The rest are very hit and miss, and some are real clunkers as they chased the latest sound.

They did remaster KF and Snakes. Picked them up this year.

I was a big fan of their metal sound on "Live To Die."  To me, everything else has been spotty.  But in terms of overall like, I guess I would go with the following:

Live To Die
Kinetic Faith
Scarecrow Messiah
Here Is Your God
Snakes In The Playground

1. Good to see love for Kinetic Faith, it's my favorite too but I thought this was an unpopular opinion. I like the slight southern tang to it.

2. Snakes. Great G'n'R style metal. If I have one gripe it's that it's almost too polished/over produced. But that's probably just me coming from a HC/punk DIY background.

3. Live To Die / Show No Mercy / Silence Is Madness: Those are on the same level for me and if I loved them all as a kid I have a hard time supporting Dales wails (that rhymed!) recently. Still, very good classic white metal stuff.

I don't know the rest of the albums but I gather I should listen to Scarecrow Messiah at least. I just added it to my playlist.

I only really dig that period after their first 3 albums but not more of their recent stuff.

Snakes in the Playground
Kinetic Faith
Scarecrow Messiah
Drop
Oddities

We need more love for Silence Is Madness. That album SMOKES.

1. Snakes In The Playground
2. Scarecrow Messiah
3. Skin For Skin
4. This Is It
5. Kinetic Faith
6. Snake Eyes
7. Here Is Your God
8. The Jesus Experience
9. Fistful Of Bees
10. Tsar Bomba
11. Incorruptible
12. Silence Is Madness
13. Drop
14. Live To Die
15. Show No Mercy
16. Christmas
17. Oddities

Pethead wrote:We need more love for Silence Is Madness. That album SMOKES.

Consider that done...

1. Silence Is Madness
2. Show No Mercy
3. Live To Die
4. Snakes In The Playground
5. Scarecrow Messiah
6. Here Is Your God
7: Oddities
8. Skin For Skin
9. Snake Eyes
10. This Is It
11. Kintetic Faith
12. Fistful Of Bees
13. Tsar Bomba
14. Incorruptible
15. Drop
16. The Jesus Experience

Haven't heard - Christmas
Haven't heard - Bluegrass Gospel

1. Live to Die (This album helped get me into Christian Metal and convinced me it was a serious thing. Reminded me of Slayer's Show No Mercy.)

2. Show No Mercy

3. Silence is Madness

Don't care about anything after that.

Pethead wrote:It’s been a couple days since I’ve done a ranking. So here we go!

I’m only doing the first 6 since that’s their “classic” era and they’re the only ones I own. But you can throw as many of their albums on your list as you wish! 

1. Live to Die

Metal perfection. Every song rules. 

2. Silence Is Madness

Almost perfection. I’m not big on Rock Those Blues Away, but the other 8 tracks are smoking.

3. Snakes in the Playground 

Great album. So many awesome hooks, a great sound, and more of Dale’s incredible vocals.

I'm with you on those 3 but I'd put Snakes at #2 and Silence is Madness at #3.  I've heard all the other albums and they didn't do much for me.  Haven't heard the last couple but I'll get around to them eventually.

I don't have any Bride albums. I can't get into them enough to buy their muisc. If i do, I will likely start with the classic era from 1986-1993. Most of their albums from that period has been reissued by Girder and Boones.

1. Silence Is Madness

I count this as my favorite Christian Metal album. 

2. Snakes in the Playground 

Great album. When it came out I couldn't believe what I was hearing. They were at the peak of their powers and I'm so glad they followed God and didn't go secular, because they had the talent to do so easily. 

3. Live to Die

Metal perfection. Every song rules. I have used Here Comes The Bride to help me workout since High School in the 80s/90s and it's still one of the three songs I use to get me through my annual 2000 meter row test. 

4. Scarecrow Messiah

This is pretty much Snakes in the Playground 2.0  - it's so incredible it's a shame it's not as loved. 

5. Kinetic Faith

This was the beginning of a change but this has aged incredibly well and is a genre tour-de-force. 

THIS top-5 is really an insanely great stretch of Metal that for me matches up with any band's 5-album stretch. 

6. Show No Mercy

A bit more hit and miss, but still good overall. You can tell how much promise they had and the good songs are really good. 




Others:


Drop is...just okay. I've owned a few after this but got rid of them all. It always hurt my soul that my all-time favorite band seemed to lose their way musically and never really got it back. If you took their 10-12 best songs since Scarecrow Messiah you might have one good album.

1. Silence Is Madness

2. Live To Die

3. Kinetic Faith

Iv been listening to Here is your God and it's growing on me.

I’ve been checking out and enjoying their post-2000s stuff. I just have to ignore a few lyrics.

Soldier777 wrote:I don't have any Bride albums. I can't get into them enough to buy their muisc. If i do, I will likely start with the classic era from 1986-1993. Most of their albums from that period has been reissued by Girder and Boones.

I'm [almost] in the same boat. I bought Snakes in the Playground b/c I enjoyed their songs on The Extremely Loud Guitar Tape CD. Overall the music was too polished for my tastes. A few years later I sampled some of the newer stuff and it was softer and stranger. But after seeing this thread I'd like to give Silence is Madness & Live to Die a listen; I don't think I've heard either of these.

Sevenoneself wrote:

Soldier777 wrote:I don't have any Bride albums. I can't get into them enough to buy their muisc. If i do, I will likely start with the classic era from 1986-1993. Most of their albums from that period has been reissued by Girder and Boones.

I'm [almost] in the same boat. I bought Snakes in the Playground b/c I enjoyed their songs on The Extremely Loud Guitar Tape CD. Overall the music was too polished for my tastes. A few years later I sampled some of the newer stuff and it was softer and stranger. But after seeing this thread I'd like to give Silence is Madness & Live to Die a listen; I don't think I've heard either of these.

Live to Die and Silence Is Madness are just flat-out great classic metal albums. They even border on USPM and speed metal at times.

Black Rider wrote:Iv been listening to Here is your God and it's growing on me.

I've tried multiple times. It just doesn't click. 

Dale still sings in that lower gravelly voice. I want him to wail! 

If the songs are going to be slow they either need to be heavy
or melidic, and these are neither.

Sorry Dale and Troy! ‍� Thanks for the 80s-mid-90s. You were the best!

1. Live To Die
2. Silence Is Madness
3. Show No Mercy
4. Snakes In The Playground
5. Here Is Your God
6. Scarecrow Messiah
7. Kintetic Faith



The rest is hit or miss for me, or I haven't digested enough of it to rank.

Do I remember somehow that Dale and Troy weren't/aren't really into metal; that they just used it as a ministry tool.

My daughters think I'm remembering this wrong, that they're too good to be non-fans of metal.

never heard that about Bride but I remember reading
that about Glenn Mancaruso from Vengeance...

crucifyd wrote:never heard that about Bride but I remember reading
that about Glenn Mancaruso from Vengeance...

I thought it was that he just wasn't into thrash or death metal. 

He seemed a lot more suited to Die Happy's sound, although I did enjoy his "drum-roll blast beats" in VR.

This thread has me going through the discography again starting with Live to Die.

Kinetic Faith! It gets better every year.

When it first came out it was such a departure from the pure metal (ha!) of Live to Die and Silence is Maddness that it took me forever to come to grips with it.

Reality? It's an insanely catchy well written and performed masterpiece of gritty Southern Hard Rock/Metal.