California's Focal Point is probably the heaviest Christian hardcore band to ever hit the scene. If you like Earth Crisis' Destroy the Machines record, then Focal Point is a must. I believe they made their debut in the hardcore scene, writing and playing, when a few, if not all, the members were still in high school. They only put out two releases in the short-lived career, but what was great about Focal Point was their willingness to mesh into the rest of the hardcore scene and not limiting themselves to only the Christian hardcore scene. Their first release, a 7" titled Neglected, was released on the straight edge record label Life Sentence Records, and featured the original recordings of two songs, "Neglected" and "Upright", that would later appear on their full length, Suffering of the Masses, released on Christian label, Tooth & Nail Records. Sadly, members of Focal Point did not go on to form great bands, and were a part of bands such as Training for Utopia and Demon Hunter. One good project that Training for Utopia was a part of was a split with Zao in 1998 that featured two awesome Zao tracks, but the Training for Utopia were not impressive.
Suffering of the Masses (1996 - Tooth & Nail Records)
Neglected (1996 - Life Sentence Records)
this was one band i did want more from. i really liked their music :)
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ReplyDeleteloved focal point. were my favorite of the christian HC of the time they came out. i disagree though about TFU, while their final cd was a huge disappointment, their split with zao, their first ep and first full length were really awesome chaoscore. it wasnt till TFU that christian HC had anything comparable to bands like Coalesce. their first full length still gets regular listens from me. still love the rant in Single Handed Attempt At Revolution - http://youtu.be/O3exrUhLT9U
ReplyDeleteI was just never a fan of Training for Utopia. Love Coalesce however.
ReplyDeleteSaw focal point at conerstone 97 or 98 where they played some awesome new song that were gonna be on their second full length album that sadly was never released. I was so disappointed that I never got to hear those songs again.
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