The Petra Zone

Hey! if 30-something means "old fart", well...

I sure liked this album, at least the first 5 or six songs. I had no use for the rest of the album. I am not sure that I would call this their heaviest album though.Compare the title song with Mine Field from On Fire! and see the heaviness in both but in different ways. I do miss the keyboards though. Could you imagine a really dirty organ sound mixed in with all of this, kind like a John Lord style organ sound? I could. Keyboards always add a dimension of air and depth no matter how many guitar parts are played on the album.

I think that this album was too short though and almost seemed like an afterthought for music, like they were simply fulfilling contractual obligations (even though this was on a new label).

I was very excited to get it and listened to the first half quite a lot. Now it sits in rotation on my iPhone along with about 850 other songs ranging from Air Supply to Wilgelius to Stratovarius to Yanni.

I also think about the live footage I've seen and such and I would think that this album was a hard one to replicate live because of the guitar layers on the album. The live version sound thin by comparison.

I saw them in concert before and with the keyboards and adiditional parts pre-programmed or on CD or DAT (at least DAT back in the day) helped fill out the sound.

Of course, this is Petra and since they are my favorite band, it is another great album Their ministry is alive and always will be

Grace,
Harry

executioner wrote:Life As We Know It got my vote; what a song and what an album. The song and album both are in my top 5 rankings for Petra. Some think the album is short but it is about 1 song short time wise; most Petra albums have come at or under the 40 minute mark. Over the years I've heard a lot of people complain because the lack of guitar solos on the album and I've discuss this with Bob at a couple meet/greet and he has always maintained that he NEVERS puts a solo in a song where it doesn't belong or just to put it in there(his quote) and he felt like none of the songs for this album should have one. Bob likes his solos to flow with and be in trenched with the song and not to be just thrown in just to have a solo; If he doesn't feel it, it won't happen.

I voted "Life As We Know It" also. I'm surprised, I thought it would be more popular given its excellent blend of distortion guitar sound. This reminds me of 80s rock/classic rock that I grew up with. As for solos in the songs; I remember reading about Phil Keaggy whom tried to make inroads with his 220 album. It's all instrumental guitar in which he admits was not well received by the Christian community. I sometimes think Christians just don't understand instrumental guitar, except only if it is accoustic.

O well, when I need a six string fix, I'll pull out my Joe Satriani CDs.

Chris

Jesus is the living water.....catch the wave.

You know, that brings up a good point. I am a musician myself and mostly release instrumental albums.

How does one classify themselves a Christian artist in their music if it is instrumental? I am a Christian but again release mostly instrumental music. Of course, some of my albums have very obvious song titles that are Christian. But what about the other artists who have song names that are not overtly Christian, but they are Christian artists?

I love the acoustic album Beyond Nature from Phil Keaggy. Great acoustic stylings and I really love it. I also like Satch and Eric Johnson and so many others.
Since I am a keyboardist, my main influences are Yanni, John Tesh, Jonathan Cain (Journey), and of course, Michael W. Smith. All are fantastic and accomplished musicians, but not all of them are Christians. Does this make their music less relevant?

Not all Christian music needs to be acoustic or slow and stuff. It can rock too

Not all of us are lead signers and such and praise God with our hands.

I think that I may be getting off topic, so I will close for now... Maybe we can open up another topic about this very subject.

Grace,
Harry

Instrumental albums don't sell well anyway, regardless of the genre. There are a few exceptions. Phil was raised a Catholic, so I don't consider his music Christian anyway. Bwuhahahahaha.

Harry, I do not believe your going off topic... the post is quiet... this sort of thing reinvigorates discussion.

Going to bed now but I want to respond later.
Chris

musicwithharry wrote:You know, that brings up a good point. I am a musician myself and mostly release instrumental albums.

How does one classify themselves a Christian artist in their music if it is instrumental? I am a Christian but again release mostly instrumental music. Of course, some of my albums have very obvious song titles that are Christian. But what about the other artists who have song names that are not overtly Christian, but they are Christian artists?

I love the acoustic album Beyond Nature from Phil Keaggy. Great acoustic stylings and I really love it. I also like Satch and Eric Johnson and so many others.
Since I am a keyboardist, my main influences are Yanni, John Tesh, Jonathan Cain (Journey), and of course, Michael W. Smith. All are fantastic and accomplished musicians, but not all of them are Christians. Does this make their music less relevant?

Not all Christian music needs to be acoustic or slow and stuff. It can rock too

Not all of us are lead signers and such and praise God with our hands.

I think that I may be getting off topic, so I will close for now... Maybe we can open up another topic about this very subject.

Grace,
Harry

voted for life as we know it but i enjoy them all.

I voted for "All About Who You Know"; It has a very interesting song theme. In general, my critique for this album is that most of the songs sound very similar... It would have been nice if they had at least shaken it up with some different special FX. NOTW had a similar problem.
I'm also not a big fan of the thundering riff style of rock music, although it certainly is a more modern sound than they would have otherwise. But I'm still living in the 80s, even though I was born in '98

I also missed the keyboards and reverb...

I can remember when I first put the Jeckyl & Hyde CD into my car player. The guitar chords thundered through my speakers and I found myself immediately reaching for the volume knob. Goosebumps crawled up my neck and arms and my mouth turned up into a wide grin. Next I found myself yelling "YES! JESUS YES! THEY'RE BACK! THANK YOU THANK YOU!". A person walking to their car next to me in the parking lot thought I was nuts!

Talk about going out with a bang! This album was a reverberation of the Petra identity and you could tell they were back home and actually they seemed to have their heart back into the music. It's such a shame that it had to end here, but I'm glad they went out in a blaze of glory. I love this entire album (as short as it is), but my favorite song is obviously the title track: "Jeckyl & Hyde".