Reviewed by Les M Wilkes

I'd previously felt that traditional praise and worship lyrics blend with metal about as well as a pool of highly refined oil fits on the surface of the deep blue sea. The way I saw it praise and worship, was the pure, delicate product of tried and trusted writers loved by congrega­tions everywhere. While metal was loud, louder, LOUDEST creations let the ever growing band of Christian moshers'. On listening to this, conceived by veteran metal produce Caesar, my preconceived ideas on the subject were quickly eroded. Here I found a collection of tracks performed by some of the luminaries of white metal including most of Sacred Warrior and Glenn Kaiser from Rez and they weld these seeming irreconcilable styles together so expertly that you can hardly tell the join. The vocals on most of the tracks are pure, gritty rock, the guitar work inspiring and the production imaginative enough to use the dynamics of the metal music in such a way as to com­plement rather than overwhelm the richness of the more traditional lyrics. Most notable are the Les Carl­son interpretations of "Holy, Holy" and "We Exalt Thee" (the latter along with Glenn Kaiser) and Whitecross' Rex Scott's "Rock of Ages". Also worth mentioning is Ray Parra's masterly vocal contribution on "O Come, O Come Emmanuel". The arrangements on one or two other tracks do seem to fall a little short of the high quality of the rest. If you like to make your praise offer­ing on a metal altar, then this album can be recom­mended

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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