Billed as "J.R. Rowe," Rowe began with the band, Tempest, as a teenager in the late 1980s. Their debut album,
A Coming Storm, recorded on Pure Metal Records in 1987, features Rowe's vocals with less grit and more high, falsetto screams (à la metallurgist mentor
Stryper's
Michael Sweet) than in his later work, and the lyrics contain a straightforward evangelical candor. The album was not released to compact disc until 1999. Tempest recorded their second and last album,
The Eye of the Storm, on Pure Metal in 1988, wherein, looking at the disc insert, Rowe's former unequivocal lyrics were traded in for those with an ambiguous "you" supplanting references to God in such songs as "True Love (Never Fade Away)" and "Lost Without Your Love." Amid internal turmoil, Tempest disbanded in 1990. Rowe joined the Los Angeles-based band
Guardian after being introduced to the band by producers Dino and
John Elefante. Their second release, 1991's
Fire and Love, was on the Elefante's Pakaderm label imprint and distributed on Epic Records.
Songs for Heaven & Earth, was released in 2004. In 2006, it was re-released digitally by Rowe's own imprint, Peppermint Daisy Music. In 2000, Rowe formed AdrianGale with Vic Rivera, Scott Miller and Scott Novello. They are a melodic rock band similar in style to Guardian. While the band's lyrics were not explicitly Christian, they were generally positive in nature. The band released four studio albums and one live album before issues with their record label forced the band to leave the name behind. The new band, known as Crunch (also the title of AdrianGale's fourth and final studio album), recorded two EPs worth of material and were a featured band at the prestigious Firefest IV Festival in Nottingham, England in October 2007 (their performance was filmed and released as a concert DVD by Transistor Pictures and the Firefest organization in 2010). In late 2012, Kivel Records was able to come to terms with Rowe and Vic Rivera and Adriangale was successfully resurrected, resulting in Rowe and the band quietly recording their latest album, "Suckerpunch!", which was released on September 27, 2013, coinciding with their comeback appearance at MelodicRockFest 3 in Arlington Heights, Illinois. The album and performance were met with immediate praise from critics and fans alike, with Rowe and the band planning to continue recording and playing live as Adriangale. In 2017, Rowe and Guardian bandmate David Bach joined with
Rex Carroll and Mike Feighan of
Whitecross to record
Revival, a new compilation of Whitecross and Guardian tracks and went on a short tour to promote the project. In February 2019, a Kickstarter campaign was launched for a new EP. It met the goal in 11 days and stretch goals converted the EP into an eight-song album. A country-influenced rock album,
This Is Home is set to be released in mid-August 2019 to backers with a public release in September. ==Discography==