u/RefrigeratorBest6543

…or at least parts of it from my perspective, as someone that spent time with the band at their 2005 reunion, and has at times been close with Steven Patrick. But I’ve heard a bunch of stories from several members of the band, and this is just my neutral opinion and take on what happened with them:

The Holy Soldier Story

At times, I’ve been friendly and in communication with all members of the band. This is MY perceived version of what happened with them, taken from my own personal observations and conversations with all of them, from both, the perspective of being a longtime fan, but also friendly with them. So some of their opinions/memories may differ slightly from member to member, from what I am relating here.

Holy Soldier’s is an interesting tale. Many thought they’d rival Stryper for the best Christian Metal mainstream band to cross into the secular market, and their first two releases were full of frighteningly good potential.

The abridged version of the Holy Soldier story starts with four California guys that had some success on the Sunset Strip in Los Angeles in the mid to late 1980’s and were actively in the market for a new singer that could help get them to the next level. Steven Patrick of Memphis saw an ad in a music magazine and sent a demo on a whim, not thinking it would ever amount to anything. He soon wound up being flown out to L.A. for an extensive audition and landed the gig, putting an end to a lengthy, exhaustive search by Andy Robbins, Jamie Cramer, Michael Cutting, Terry Russell, and their manager, Daryn Hinton, who also managed Stryper in the beginning.

Things started to take off for them and after a bunch of local successes (and their share of a few failures) in Los Angeles, they eventually landed a contract with a division of Word Records, probably the largest Christian label, that hadn’t signed a Metal act before. Daryn even secured a secular distribution deal with A&M Records, and Holy Soldier went into pre-production to cut their debut album.

After several considerations, they selected ex-Bloodgood guitarist David Zaffiro to produce the album, who helped them rework all of their material into what wound up being that spectacular debut album we’ve all come to love. You can hear some of their pre-first album riffs and ideas from their demos, on the record, but the songs were largely rewritten in pre-production, which is impressive.

The label sprang for a music video and the song the band chose was “See No Evil,” which as it turns out was an anti-abortion song. It began to receive airplay on MTV’s Headbangers Ball, presumably until the network realized what the song was actually about and then most likely pulled it due to its very controversial nature. Was it the right choice for a lead attempt to break into the mainstream market? It’s a great song, but it was a risky choice for sure because of the controversial topic. But that’s who the guys in Holy Soldier were—young, confident and brash.

But even with the MTV airplay disappearing, the band were picking up steam; their album and single, “Stranger” was charting— and after a successful tour of the Western United States and a trip to Japan, singer Steven Patrick abruptly needed to leave the band for personal reasons. In stepped Eric Beaver, who later recorded the ‘Promise Man’ album (Soldier’s 3rd release) under the stage name, “Eric Wayne,” to finish touring the record. There have been many claims that Eric sounded a lot like Steven and even looked somewhat similar to him, to the point where it has been claimed many fans that saw them on the tour didn’t know the difference. Personally, I find that claim difficult to believe because Steven had a very unique voice that wouldn’t easily be duplicated. I’ve always wished there was a bootleg of Eric fronting the band on that tour to verify this, but I’ve never come across one. Eric sings some of the stuff on the Encore record, and to be fair, while he sang well, he didn’t sound like Steven. Then again, by Encore, Steven didn’t sound very much like Steven anymore either.

Soldier finished the tour with Eric and at some point they were approached by the label to do a second music video for the record which would have been for “The Pain Inside Of Me,” but as the story goes, when the label found out Steven had left the band they decided not to fund the video, for one reason or another.

Accounts differ on this part of the band’s history. Holy Soldier were nominated for several Dove Awards for their debut album, and the ceremony was held at The Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, which is only a few hours from Memphis. Founding member of the band Andy Robbins attended the ceremony, along with new Holy Soldier guitarist Scott Soderstrom, who replaced departing member Michael Cutting (Michael would eventually return for the Promise Man album). Steven, who lived only a couple of hours from Nashville, also attended the ceremony, and pictures show them being photographed together with the two Dove Awards they took home that night. I’ve heard some people say the idea that Steven would return to do the Holy Soldier sophomore release, ‘Last Train’ was planted that night, but I’ve also been told that no such thing happened and Steven continued working with his solo project “Bang La Desh,” which included his brother Sean O’Donnell on guitar. Much of what came of that project would wind up on Steven’s solo album, ‘Red Reign,’ which was produced in part by popular Tennessee musician Shawn Lane, but a few of the tracks were produced by David Zaffiro as well.

However it came about, it wouldn’t be long before Holy Soldier and Steven Patrick eventually rejoined forces with David Zaffiro to record their heavily-anticipated second album, ‘Last Train.’ The band had lost their secular marketing deal with A&M, and Daryn Hinton was no longer managing the band. Some accounts say the label was adamant about Steven’s involvement, and so he was asked and convinced to return. For his part, Steven has admitted that while he had some reservations about returning (there were some personal differences within the group cited as reasons Steven left the first time, besides some personal family issues), he really missed the guys in general and wanted to give it another try. And so it was that once again, Holy Soldier (minus Michael Cutting) went into pre-production in Seattle with David Zaffiro and new guitarist Scott Soderstrom to work on ‘Last Train.’ Because they’d been apart, they had very little material written for the album, and so once again the album needed to be completely written in pre-production, pretty much from scratch. That would be the reason that the album only contained eight new originals and one cover song—they simply ran out of time for what had been budgeted for—but what an album it was! At first listen you’ll notice that the overtly Christian message seems somewhat dialed back, but it is still there. They had matured from the first album, and somehow, Steven Patrick’s voice had grown even stronger….

I should take a moment to mention that Holy Soldier’s 1st album came out in 1990. This was an album that I feel would have done really well commercially, say, two years earlier. And so when ‘Last Train’ was released in 1992–an incredible album, in my opinion—it was released during a time when their style of Metal music was really beginning to take a back seat to the burgeoning Grunge scene, which was a problem for many popular metal bands such as Ratt, Warrant, Stryper, Poison and Motley Crue, to name a few.

So ‘Last Train’ was completed and the label (Word) insisted that they tour the record or the label would drop them. To make matters worse, they were offered no (financial) tour support and the band had to finance the tour themselves. Everything from travel arrangements, paying staff, lodging, meals, all had to come from money that ticket sales, album sales and merchandise would hopefully bring in. Because of things that were going on in Steven Patrick’s personal life, Steven was reluctant to leave home for an extended tour, especially one where income could not be fully guaranteed because it was dependent upon how much money the band would take in—but arrangements were made and agreed upon, and the five of them eventually agreed to hit the road in support of ‘Last Train.’

The tour took them all over the United States and back to Japan and Central America. There were huge successes and devastating lows in terms of gigs. Steven suffered a broken arm at one show in a stage-diving accident, and he can be seen with his arm in a sling in a bootleg that exists of one of the highlights of that tour—opening for Petra at Red Rocks in front of more than 10,000 people. But not all was well within the band. Because of the lack of tour support there were financial struggles and disagreements within the group, and that strife ultimately tore them apart at the seam. Steven was dismissed—or left the band, depending on viewpoints, near the very end of the tour. The incident is best told by the band members themselves, and Steven has a biography in the works that is likely to mention the incident in detail as he remembers them. Also, I think Doug Van Pelt of Heaven’s Metal magazine posted something about it on YouTube. It’s not for me to tell.

The rest is left to history. Steven went on to release Red Reign, and Holy Soldier retooled and released Promise Man. Jamie Cramer left the group after the Last Train tour and was replaced by returning first album member Michael Cutting. Terry Russell left the group prior to the recording of Promise Man. Promise Man is an interesting record; it took me years before I would even give it a chance because I couldn’t fathom listening to the band without Steven. The only original first album members on the record are Andy and Michael. Scott remained from the 2nd album, and Eric had toured with Soldier early on when Steven left. Terry remained with the band until just before they recorded Promise Man. I asked him once why he didn’t play on the record and he said it was a complicated story. The record is a complete departure from what they sounded like before, but that said there are definitely good cuts on it.

In 1997 there was a reunion of sorts, with both Steven and Eric singing on stage together. The performance was captured and released as a live album entitled ‘Encore,’ which also contained two new songs, one with each singer doing lead vocals. Unfortunately that reunion did not include Jamie Cramer or Terry Russell. As to whether they were never asked, or just couldn’t make it work out, I am unsure.

A few years later in the mid-2000’s (Either 2004 or 2005) there would be one more reunion, this time with all five original first album members. It took place in Anaheim, CA, and for the most part went off well, though it was supposed to be filmed and yet had to be scrapped due to technical difficulties. A few months later they played another California show, but Steven would again be gone, this time replaced by Terry Russell’s brother, Don, on lead vocals. The performance was filmed for a home video release.

I regard Holy Soldier’s first two albums among my favorite all-time records, and often think of them as a “what could have been” tale that sadly, I don’t think was meant to be. But they did leave us some great music that will endure forever.

Further listening: Steven Patrick did a song that is clearly inspired by his break up with the band on David Zaffiro’s album, “Yesterday’s Left Behind.” The song is called ‘Winds of September,’ and it is a terrific listen.

Keep calm and SOLDIER on.

-Arthur Adams
Creator of the former HolySoldierFan website, and Holy Soldier Art on Facebook.

https://youtu.be/bO8OvK4\_6wY?si=AY-1zHyoX4lj82-n

https://m.facebook.com/holysoldierfan/

https://www.instagram.com/p/DbJSCaKOa8x/?igsh=bDA5cmVoZmxiY3l2

These UCS Locals will go to the table for the first time September 30, 2026. Unless there’s something going on behind the scenes, they should be the first UCS Locals at the bargaining table for this successor agreement, 2026-???? (mostly likely 2030).

We already know what the raises offered will be (18% over 5 years) based on what PEF and other CSEA non-UCS Locals were offered.

So what are the wild cards at play here?

UCS Employees have always gotten MORE Location Pay than PEF Employees. Prior to this negotiation, PEF Employees received $4000 a year in Location, while Unified Court System Employees received $4920. With this successor agreement however, PEF held out for and were offered a 66% increase to Location Pay, including $1000 raises in both 2027 and 2028 to Location. Their offer increases their Location Pay from $4000 to $6650 by 2030.

So why is this concerning? Because so far other CSEA (albeit, non-UCS/Judiciary CSEA) Locals have tentatively accepted far LESS in Location Pay than PEF were offered.

What can you/we do about it? Let your leadership and negotiators know that we are undervalued, underpaid and paying way too much for NYSHIP, and we NEED them to go hard after a minimum of the percentage increase to Location Pay that PEF were offered (66%, minimum).

Also, if you’re a Court Officer, these CSEA Locals will likely negotiate an increase to SLED—BEFORE the other NYS Court Officer units even get an invite to the table.

If we don’t make our voices heard, that silence is likely to be reflected in the outcome of these negotiations. If you care about your compensation, make your concerns known to your leaders/negotiators, and share this with your fellow UCS employees.

Do it respectfully and with appreciation towards those that represent us.

COBANC
SCCEA
NYSCCA
NYSCOA
NYSSCOA
DC37
NYSCALA
ASSCR
CSEA

These UCS Locals will go to the table for the first time September 30, 2026. Unless there’s something going on behind the scenes, they should be the first UCS Locals at the bargaining table for this successor agreement, 2026-???? (mostly likely 2030).

We already know what the raises offered will be (18% over 5 years) based on what PEF and other CSEA non-UCS Locals were offered.

So what are the wild cards at play here?

UCS Employees have always gotten MORE Location Pay than PEF Employees. Prior to this negotiation, PEF Employees received $4000 a year in Location, while Unified Court System Employees received $4920. With this successor agreement however, PEF held out for and were offered a 66% increase to Location Pay, including $1000 raises in both 2027 and 2028 to Location. Their offer increases their Location Pay from $4000 to $6650 by 2030.

So why is this concerning? Because so far other CSEA (albeit, non-UCS/Judiciary CSEA) Locals have tentatively accepted far LESS in Location Pay than PEF were offered.

What can you/we do about it? Let your leadership and negotiators know that we are undervalued, underpaid and paying way too much for NYSHIP, and we NEED them to go hard after a minimum of the percentage increase to Location Pay that PEF were offered (66%, minimum).

Also, if you’re a Court Officer, these CSEA Locals will likely negotiate an increase to SLED—BEFORE the other NYS Court Officer units even get an invite to the table.

If we don’t make our voices heard, that silence is likely to be reflected in the outcome of these negotiations. If you care about your compensation, make your concerns known to your leaders/negotiators, and share this with your fellow UCS employees.

Do it respectfully and with appreciation towards those that represent us.

COBANC
SCCEA
NYSCCA
NYSCOA
NYSSCOA
DC37
NYSCALA
ASSCR
CSEA

These UCS Locals will go to the table for the first time September 30, 2026. Unless there’s something going on behind the scenes, they should be the first UCS Locals at the bargaining table for this successor agreement, 2026-???? (mostly likely 2030).

We already know what the raises offered will be (18% over 5 years) based on what PEF and other CSEA non-UCS Locals were offered.

So what are the wild cards at play here?

UCS Employees have always gotten MORE Location Pay than PEF Employees. Prior to this negotiation, PEF Employees received $4000 a year in Location, while Unified Court System Employees received $4920. With this successor agreement however, PEF held out for and were offered a 66% increase to Location Pay, including $1000 raises in both 2027 and 2028 to Location. Their offer increases their Location Pay from $4000 to $6650 by 2030.

So why is this concerning? Because so far other CSEA (albeit, non-UCS/Judiciary CSEA) Locals have tentatively accepted far LESS in Location Pay than PEF were offered.

What can you/we do about it? Let your leadership and negotiators know that we are undervalued, underpaid and paying way too much for NYSHIP, and we NEED them to go hard after a minimum of the percentage increase to Location Pay that PEF were offered (66%, minimum).

Also, if you’re a Court Officer, these CSEA Locals will likely negotiate an increase to SLED—BEFORE the other NYS Court Officer units even get an invite to the table.

If we don’t make our voices heard, that silence is likely to be reflected in the outcome of these negotiations. If you care about your compensation, make your concerns known to your leaders/negotiators, and share this with your fellow UCS employees.

Do it respectfully and with appreciation towards those that represent us.

COBANC
SCCEA
NYSCCA
NYSCOA
NYSSCOA
DC37
NYSCALA
ASSCR
CSEA

For perspective, I’ve seen every important men’s National Team match since the loss to Brazil in 1994. Every Gold Cup, WC Qualifier, Confederations Cup, Copa America, Nations League and of course, every World Cup match.

Having time to organize my thoughts, this is exactly what I thought of last night and our performance at this tournament:

For starters, this loss felt EXACTLY like the Netherlands 4 years ago.

I can’t get around feeling dissatisfied that we did NOT go out playing our best soccer (like perhaps Mexico did), and that's what I expected from this squad--to at least lose having done our best--especially in front of such great support. But instead we were capable of better, but went out EXACTLY like 4 years ago—feeling like we were capable of better soccer and unsatisfied not to have proven it. It’s the whimper instead of the roar that we saw in the other 3 wins.

If you want to say we won 3 games at a WC for the first time, and won a knockout round game for the first time since 2002, great.

Personally, I’d tabbed the quarterfinals as a minimum for a measure of success in this tournament, because it would have been a step further than 2002 (in '02 we needed one knockout win to make the quarters, this time it would take 2). But I couldn't really grant them that success without knocking off someone significant--and Belgium would have been perfect--a team that is a lot like the Netherlands team of 4 years ago, and a team that eliminated us in the 16 in 2014. So this leaves a bitter taste in my mouth, unfortunately. If we’d left it all out on the field last night, and still lost it would have at least felt different.

You know what was the one moment that infuriated me more than any other? Fairly late in the first half and Pulisic, who's been drawing a double team all game on the left, finds himself with a good ball one on one with a defender--no double team. A perfect chance to dribble and take him on, and he elected not to take it, made the wrong choice to pass, and we turned it over. I flipped out, and that was the moment I felt like the goose might be cooked early.

And in the end it was what I said would be our Achilles heal: We were suspect at center back. Ream was flat footed on one of the goals and out muscled on another one where he should have been able to do enough to not give his mark a clean header. The mistake by Freese was the nail in the coffin and it was the Netherlands all over again.

When they took Dest out and put Reyna in at the half (a move I didn't like at all at the time), we actually started to progress through the center of the park and Belgium couldn't double us off the ball so easily in the middle, and that changed things for a bit, but then the Freese mistake killed all that.

In 2002 we lost to Germany, and when we lost that match you kind of felt like we’d left it all out on the field and we really went for it, but came up short. THAT was satisfying.

If this was a college student, they hand in their final paper and you say, "You didn't really understand the assignment, I'll give you one more chance to get it right. You get an incomplete for now." And that's what we get--an ‘incomplete.’ But with no chance for a do over, it's a failure of sorts for me.

The only place this WC was a resounding success was with how Americans caught on to it and this team, which is not to be taken lightly, but damn, what could have been here.

I agree with what Lalas said last night, however you might feel about him—he got this right: “I’d like to believe we’ve grown enough as a soccer nation to be above moral victories, and I’m sick of moral victories.”

That’s damned right. Qualifying starts again in two years.

—A frustrated and dissatisfied FOREVER USA 🇺🇸 fan

Hello XXXX,

I’m making a conscious effort to reach out to many of the downstate union Presidents, because I’m concerned about the upcoming negotiation.

CSEA Local 010 (Executive) have signed a tentative deal, which means the Judiciary branch is likely coming soon.

My concern is not with the 18% that I figure we’ll get over the 5 years, I figure that’s pretty much happening unless those CSEA and PEF units shockingly vote it down…

…My concern is with Location Pay. Prior to this negotiation PEF’s Location was $920 behind downstate UCS Employees. ($4k, vs our $4920). I assume you’ve seen that PEF’s tentative agreement is taking them from $4k to $6650 by 2030, a total increase of 66%. PEF represent many Professional titles, and let’s be honest, Court Reporters, Court Attorneys, Clerks, Officers, Interpreters… We have many professional titles as well.

What worries me is that thus far, PEF appear to be the ONLY unit that have held out and fought for an increase to downstate Location Pay, and they deliberately waited for a bunch of CSEA units to announce tentative agreements before announcing theirs. So far, the CSEA units are all showing FAR LESS in Location increases than PEF was offered.

That NEEDS to change once the UCS/Judiciary bargaining units begin negotiating. A 66% increase would take us from $4920 to above $8k, and would be warranted at this point. Downstate NYC/Long Island has become oppressively expensive for families, especially with what the state have done to us on NYSHIP.

I’m hoping that our UCS units actually discuss with one another what the negotiation plan is, as we really don’t need ANY of the UCS associations settling for less in Location, which would set a complicated pattern for other UCS units to overcome.

COBANC, SCCEA, NYSCOA, NYSSCOA, NYSCCA, DC37, CSEA Judicial, Court Attorneys (NYSCALA), Supreme Reporters (ASSCR), etc.

We NEED a united front on Location Pay.

Thanks for taking the time to read this.

—A concerned fellow UCS Employee .

PEF are holding a contract rally in Albany at noon on Thursday, June 4th. Among the issues they’re expressly pursuing are increases to Location Pay.

Good on Darlene Williams, VP and Chair of PEF’s Contract Team. The 18% increases over 5 years negotiated by CSEA, while the best percentages I’ve seen over 5 years in 25 years, is still NOT enough when you factor in inflation since 2021, projected inflation, and the cost of NYSHIP being $355 per CHECK.

State Legislators want to hurry up and get these contract negotiations done, so they can vote themselves the 26% raise they’ve been on about by 2028.

Thank you Darlene Williams for taking up this fight for us. PEF can put their stamp on this deal with an acceptable Location Pay addition/increase. It’s important for PEF members to get out there for this rally.

Does anyone have the signing bonus, Geographic/Location Pay, Longevity Bonus, SLED and Uniform Allowance for officers and NYSHIP Contribution info on the new tentative CSEA deals that are starting to be announced?

Thanks.

Regarding the recent LIRR contract, detractors will inevitably say, "MTA are not technically a state agency," however, under NYS collective bargaining law (Civil Service Law §209), arbitration and bargaining panels MUST consider wages of similar public employees in comparable work settings.

CSEA/PEF/LIRR workers are ALL unionized NY public sector employees competing in the SAME labor market, AND what others in the market get can reasonably be used as a benchmark for regional wage competitiveness.

Remember, an arbitration board determined that they should have gotten nearly 5% for 2026.

HOW we present this argument will be critical for our success, in lieu of the ability to walk off the job.

Thanks for representing us,

Your hopeful PEF and CSEA Members

Twice The LIRR/MTA negotiations have gone to non-binding fact-finding over their April 2026 raise. The rest of the contract is not in dispute:

2023 3% (we got 3% as well)
2024 3% (we got 3%)
2025 3.5% (we got just 3%)
2026 ???

The first time was October 2025 and the review board found that the workers should be entitled to a 4.5% raise; the union was demanding 5%.

MTA didn’t want to give them the 4.5%. Instead, they’re playing games and suggesting the union take a 3% raise and a cash payment to make up the difference. But the union isn’t dumb, they want it in their base for future compounding. They’re also aware of current and recent inflation.

They’ve now gone BACK to PEB fact finding and due to inflation, the board is NOW recommending a raise even CLOSER to the 5% that the union originally demanded. The union is threatening to walk off the job tonight if they don’t have a deal.

Even though the negotiations are not directly involved with the Governor, she is involved heavily with the board and financing of the MTA.

PEF and CSEA should be watching THIS negotiation and what they ultimately get for 2026 VERY CLOSELY.

LIRR’s raises for the other 3 years are extremely close to what we got for 2023-2025 (it’s off by just .5%). If LIRR workers ultimately get 4% or more for 2026 (which would be the first year for OUR next contract), there’s NO reason why PEF and CSEA shouldn’t be drawing a line in the sand here.

After all, she’s running on affordability, and our raises have been way under water vs inflation since 2021.

The bottom line is THIS: an independent review board is RECOMMENDING employees get a 5% raise for 2026. The raises are there IF we want it. Hold your negotiating committees and union leadership responsible for what they bring to us for a vote.

But FIRST, let’s see what LIRR gets for 2026.

PEF and CSEA CAN get a GOOD contract, IF YOU WANT IT.

*Edit: PEB stands for Presidential Emergency Board. It won’t let me edit the title.

Anyone have anything credible rumor-wise?

Raises?

Signing Bonus?

Location/Geographic Pay?

Premium % Reduction to NYSHIP?

Let’s have it.