Reviewed by Paul Kerslake

This is the 17th live CD release from Hillsong church in Australia. Unless you've been on a desert island for the past few years, you won't need me to tell you about Darlene Zschech, Joel Houston and Reuben Morgan, all worship leaders and songwriters at Hillsong who appear, amongst others, on this DVD. Recorded live at the Acer Arena in Sydney, the DVD captures the atmosphere, excitement and sense of worship shared with the attendant crowd of over 10 thousand who were fortunate enough to be at the event. Hillsong is renowned for these sort of large gatherings and the high production values, both at the arena and also in the creation of the DVD, are outstanding. But there is no point having a highly polished concert recording if the songs aren't up to scratch. No such worries here. The band appear to have been listening to a lot of Coldplay and Radiohead recently as their influence can be clearly heard in the first few tracks. Hillsong is a well resourced church and it is good to see how they put on an event such as this and rotate their many different musicians and worship leaders over the course of the set. My only reservation for some of these songs is that they may be difficult to translate in a worship setting...while they appear fairly straightforward, rhythmically the first few songs are quite complex and not instantly "singable". Joel Houston and Darlene Zschech make an appearance, as does Brooke Fraser, along with many other up and coming leaders and writers. There is also a behind the scenes documentary on the DVD "In Every Season" where the worship leaders and songwriters talk about their experiences putting the event together, their inspirations and the stories behind the songs. This is a really valuable section of the DVD, I learnt a lot from it. If you already own any of the Hillsong DVDs you will know what to expect, if not then this is an excellent place to start.

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.

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