Petra's Not Hard Rock?

[Preacherman777]

According to the latest Petra newsletter, the labeling of Petra as a hard rock band is being called in question by JWS webmasters themselves. Granted they've done a few albums over the years that were on the mellow side, but overall, if this band ain't hard rock, than I guess Metallica ain't metal.

[ErioL]

The only "hard rock" albums Petra has released are On Fire! and Jekyll And Hyde. They have hard rock songs, but IMO, the only actual "hard" albums are the two I listed. John and Dino's mixing doesn't help either (its not bad, but its hard to call something hard rock when guitars aren't upfront and in your face).

[adrinux]

did you ever listen to a petra album called by "Waka-up call"?
The songs 1,2 and 6 are very HARD. They're harder than on fire.

[Preacherman777]

Both of Petra's first two albums were hard rock for the time they were released. Every Petra album from NSD to TMW had at least some hard rock songs. On Fire was pure hard rock and even pushed the metal envelope. Beyond Belief was hard rock, a good share of Unseen Power was hard rock and WUC definetly had some hard rock tunes. Both praise albums had some hard rock and Jekyll and Hyde is pure hard rock. That's a pretty good hard rock history if you ask me.

[johntheumfreak]

Both of Petra's first two albums were hard rock for the time they were released. Every Petra album from NSD to TMW had at least some hard rock songs. On Fire was pure hard rock and even pushed the metal envelope. Beyond Belief was hard rock, a good share of Unseen Power was hard rock and WUC definetly had some hard rock tunes. Both praise albums had some hard rock and Jekyll and Hyde is pure hard rock. That's a pretty good hard rock history if you ask me.

what he said...

[brent]

Led Zepplin was metal, Def Leppard was metal, Van Halen was metal all in their day. Petra's catalog now would be considered to me to be just rock. You have to look that the overall classification that the marketing people would use, or that the retailer would put them in. I most certainly would not expect to see Washes Whiter Than in the Hard Rock bin. It should be in the Rock or Adult Contemporary. For the most part rock, I would just call them Rock.

[executioner]

I think it varies from album to album with Petra. I would classify Unseen Power metal not because of the guitars but because of the drums, they have that metal sound. For the mostpart I would have to put them closer to hard rock than anything.

There are some people on here that keep on talking about WUC being hard rock, but I don't see it. I think it is closer in vein with adult contemporary then anything. Yes they have a few rockers(Midnight Oil, Good News, & Underneath The Blood) but those are not even near the heavy stuff Petra has done before and after that. Even though I like WUC alot I think it and ND were both made strictly for radio play and they both falied at it. Petra has never been for the radio IMO.

[ErioL]

Petra metal??? When has Petra played metal? Theres not a single metal song on UP, and off the top of my head the ony "metal" song Petra has done would be Defector. Petra is a rock band, not metal.

[sue d.]

I'm with Brent on this one.... to me, Petra is "regular rock."

"Rock" it's a subjective word... it means different things to different people.

I just wouldn't call Petra HARD rock.

[johntheumfreak]

petra means rock.....

[epdc]

i thini hard rock is just a way to put petra on a rock type but even other bands, not every band is completely speed rock or heavy metal or punk rock or whatever (i`m trying to convince my brother to write a book about that lol he knows every kind of rock).

Every band, like it or not, of all the rock kinds that exist, they have ONE kind that shows up the most in their music. BUT is not all about that particular rock kind. Petra mostly have hard rock but it also have other kinds of rock ya know.

I think people just say they are hard rock so other people can get an idea of how the music sounds like.

[executioner]

Eriol,

Read my first post again, I did not say UP was metal, I said the drums on UP sounded closer to metal than anything Petra has done before. Lars from Metallica said one time in a quote that metal has nothing to do with the guitars it's all in the drums.

[brent]

That's typical. Drummers always think that they and the drums are more important. Ask a guitar player and he will say the same thing.

If drums made the style, Metallica would be pop rock now. And, in actuallity, there isn't much of Lars playing on Metallica records, just like there was never much of Louie. It was all Bob Rocks samples in Pro Tools.

To me, it is a combination of the music structure, the tone, attitude and then mood. Bon Jovi had some metal moments back in the day, if you go by music alone. But the attitude and aggressive hostilities that originally made metal metal were not there. So, Petra to me was not metal. They to me were the Christian conter part of Bon Jovi back then.

[Pethead1]

I have always called petra the best and nothing more.

[executioner]

Yeah, I've always felt they were alot like Bon Jovi and somewhat like Def Leppard, and then some of their adult contemporary stuff sounds alot like Journey. Their early stuff in the early 80's sounded alot like Boston, but I think the album covers had something to do with that.