most under rated album

[rexreed]

Grunge was still very much alive, and besides, Christian music trends tended to be at least a year behind mainstream.

[brent]

Christian music is about 10 years behind, so that is about right.

[separateunion]

Grunge was still very much alive, and besides, Christian music trends tended to be at least a year behind mainstream.

Nope. The death of Kurt Cobain coupled with the abrupt break up of several key grunge bands pretty much brought grunge crashing down in 1994-1995. Sure, a few grunge bands still exist, but the movement was dead and the musical trends were no longer popular. Post-grunge started to form around that time, but it was a different breed altogether.

There was really only one Christian grunge band of any note, and that was Grammatrain. Grunge never really made much of an impact on the Christian market, and any bands that were grunge ended up changing styles pretty quickly (Skillet would be a good example).

[knotodiswrld]

Grunge is hard to make work as a Christian music style. Christian music needs to have words you can understand, and that's hard to do with grunge. Not impossible, just tricky.

I remember Crimson Thorn, the only Christian "Death Metal" band I ever heard. When I read the lyrics sheet that came with the CD, I thought, "These guys are great!" But without that, I doubt I could have understood enough of the words to make out what they were saying.

Of course, I have the same problem with Southern Gospel. I often can't tell what they're saying.

Yes, I'm serious.

[Mountain Man]

I voted "Double Take". This is a criminally under appreciated album.

[Shell]

Poor "Double Take"...Although I realize it won't be to everyone's taste, it isn't a bad album; the arrangements just weren't the ones the fans were familiar with. I believe I voted for "God Fixation" or "No Doubt" - I don't really remember.

[Jan]

Personally Wake up Call did the most damage. The prior three non Praise albums went On Fire (awesome), Beyond Belief (awesome + 2), Unseen Power (back down to awesome) and then Wake up Call( uhhh, ok I guess). I mean really, there are some decent songs on the album but a couple of real clunkers and the sound, well it sounded really watered down. It barely sounded like a Rock and Roll band. Thank goodness they never used that producer again.

I LOVE Wake Up Call! Just Reach Out is one of my top 3 favorite Petra songs. Also, Sleeping Giant was one of the very few Petra songs to ever get any airplay here.

[pmal]

I just heard "woman don't you know" off Come & Join Us ... amazing amazing drum solo. Perhaps one of the best off any Petra album.

Yeah, you guys are missing out big time on "Come and Join Us" if you haven't heard that album. I love it! Every song on that cd is a keeper.

[Vic]

I like God Fixation, though I disagree that St Augustine's pears is the best overall song in that album and being the only "classic Petra", why- its musically dumb compared to Matter of Time and God Fixation.

On the other hand apart from being penned and played by Bob, Matter of time is on an uncommon musical scale and has a sweet complicated bridge that that ends 1/2 a note lower for the soloing section. Its also quite banging guitar-wisely, with a great intro and ends with an imperfect cadence.

It therefore cannot be compared to St Augustine musically which is on a overused 4 Chord major scale except for lyrics, off which St Augustine's is superior.

As for 'Classic Petra', I can't be the judge but "words and music by Bob Hartman" tells it all. A definition of what is 'classic petra' and what is not requires to be first agreed on before songs are put on such a scale and weighed.

I also like double take second best, which I consider, a re-interpretation of Petra's music, but I wouldn't find a basis for comparison with other albums.

As for Revival, I don't like the computer/keyboard (or whatever-generated) blings layered in the music that make it sound sonicfloodish. I'd prefer raw instrument sounds that all the other albums feature. BTW why would an album with so many blings be classified as adult contemporary, I thought adults would prefer music raw over blings.

[Edward]

Not a fan of Double Take. Awful. Puke. But, it was what it was, a way to get radio back into playing Petra.

God Fixation was good and more organic rock sounding.

Revival...oh I really do not like that one at all. It was not a Petra record. We all know who the album sounds like cause they made it.

[cvs2kids]

Not a fan of Double Take. Awful. Puke. But, it was what it was, a way to get radio back into playing Petra.

God Fixation was good and more organic rock sounding.

Revival...oh I really do not like that one at all. It was not a Petra record. We all know who the album sounds like cause they made it.

Agree with Revival. Although I respect Inpop for signing Petra, I feel the direction they led them was a poor choice.

Double Take was a gret produced album, but again, it was at the wrong time. I too can barely stand to listen to it.

God Fixation took awhile to grow on me, but I would reccomend it to others today.

I think No Dobt is a solid CD from start to finish. It had a new direction and I still like that cd. Is it under rated? I'm not sure what the general concensus was, but I thought it was mildly successful.

[imc]

Double take in my opinion was a totally missed opportunity. The songs include some absolute classics, and a more modern re-recording of them with original tunes would have been amazing. The problem with these classics is how dated the production now sounds, most people listening for the first time can't get past that. An updated recording could have done wonders, but there was nothing wrong with the original tunes!

[separateunion]

I was just thinking about how a lot of people blame the change in sound on No Doubt for Petra's troubles. However, if you were to take that approach, wouldn't it be more fair to blame Wake-Up Call? After all, Outside of two songs, it was a fairly mellow album compared to previous efforts. Not to mention, it was a very uneven album, especially compared to No Doubt. I think that people just don't want to take their hate out on Wake-Up Call because Bob was still playing with the band, but really, imho, that was the album that really started the slide. No Doubt would have been a good transition if they'd kept that alternative rock sound going, but they continued to get mellower and mellower after that.

[gman]

Everybody's tastes are different. I think Wake Up Call was a fantastic collection of songs. The more raw, live production was spot on. Good News and Praying Man are smokin'. I would have preferred a few more albums with Brown. In my opinion nothing they did after WUC is even in the same league, except of course for Jekyll and Hyde. Just my opinion.

[Mountain Man]

Personally Wake up Call did the most damage. The prior three non Praise albums went On Fire (awesome), Beyond Belief (awesome + 2), Unseen Power (back down to awesome) and then Wake up Call( uhhh, ok I guess). I mean really, there are some decent songs on the album but a couple of real clunkers and the sound, well it sounded really watered down. It barely sounded like a Rock and Roll band.

Barely sounds like a rock album? On the contrary, it sounds like a quintessential rock album from the days before producers and studio techs cranked everything up to 11. It sounds like guys actually playing real instruments in a studio with very few mixing tricks and overdubs to artificially make it sound "punchier". Easily one of Petra's best and best sounding album.