Dayspring 1990
Review by Kimmo Toivonen,
30 April 2003

Although Petra has sold hundreds of thousands albums of their best selling titles, they remain virtually unknown outside the Christian Music genre. It is a shame, as they have released many excellent albums and are a good live act. They were formed in the 70'ies, and are still recording and touring - in fact you can find a review of their gig in Finland, Nov. 2000 in the live section.

I've chosen this album as for me it represents the band at the peak of their career. In 1985 or thereabout they replaced their orignal vocalist Greg X. Volz with John Schlitt, and that union proved to be a winner. All three albums Schlitt and Petra did together prior to this one - "Back To The Street", "This Means War" and "On Fire" - are all highly recommended too, but I'll concentrate on "Beyond Belief" this time.

Just like the three albums before it, "BB" is produced by brothers Dino and ex-Kansas vocalist John Elefante, who have created an powerful and pompous sound for the band. Lots of layered keyboards and big, almost "Hysteria"-like background vocals grace most songs. The songs are written by Bob Hartman, with John Elefante getting a co-writer credit in three of the tracks. Hartman was the creative force in Petra during their heyday, and although he left the band in early nineties, he's still writing for them.

The album is opened with the hard-rocking duo of "Armed And Dangerous" and "I Am On The Rock" - both good tracks with big shout-along choruses. "Creed" follows, a track lyrically based on the "The Apostle's Creed" and musically representing the progressive/pomp rock side of Petra, with keyboard layers that would make Gregg Giuffria green with envy. A great, athmospheric track!

The title track is a bit of a breather after the rockers and prog'ers, as it is a joyful pop metal anthem with yet another catchy chorus. It also showcases the two sides of Schlitt's vocals: most tracks feature his "gritty, raspy rock voice", but on this track you'll get a taste of his "smooth, clean voice" as well. The latter dominates the first of the two ballads, simply titled "Love". I never used to like Petra's ballads because I used to think they were too wimpy for me. but I've grown to like them more over the years. Much like Stryper ballads, they are usually very keyboard driven with very clean and nice guitar sounds, not typical hard rock or even AOR ballads. Well, the melodies are good and at least Schlitt doesn't sound as girly as Michael Sweet! :)

"Underground" is a hard rocker with a strong hook and one of my favourites, while "Seen And Not Heard" is a curious one: it features such an obvious musical theft that it's...eh...beyond belief! Yes, the main riff and the chorus is straight from the Kiss classic "Heaven's On Fire". There's no denying that it's a powerful riff/hook and it works in this song as well. Let's just hope that Paul Stanley and Desmond Child won't sue.

Refuge 1987/88
Review by Urban "Wally" Wallström,
28 April 2003

Jerusalem is best known as the first Christian, hardrock band from Sweden. Their history dates back to the mid-70's and their debut album, saw the light of day in 1978. "Dancing On The Head Of The Serpent" was their 7th album, released in Scandinavia in 1987.

It was remixed, remade, and released, by Refuge Records for the US market the following year. The album cover caused a lot of problems and attention to the band. This resulting in many record stores decided to ban the album. Gotta' love that boot-crushing-head punk style. Well... he's actually dancing on the head, of course.

??
Review by Martien Koolen,
10 May 2003

White Heart was founded in 1981 by Mark Gersmehl, Billy Smiley and Dann and David Huff, who later started the famous AOR band Giant. Sometimes people call White Heart the christian equivalent of Toto and if you listen to the debutalbum of the band called "White Heart"(1983), you will understand why. As singer Rick Florian joins the band in 1985 White Heart turns into one of the best AOR christian rock bands ever and they prove this with excellent albums such as: "Don't Wait For The Movie"(1986), "Emergency Broadcast"(1987) and "Freedom"(1989). "Power House"(1990) is their heaviest album and although AOR music turns out to be "old-fashioned" and "not done" in the nineties, White Heart continues to make records.

Frontline Records 1988
Review by Satu Reunanen, 12 May 2003

Many aor fans are familiar with the name Ken Tamplin even from his Shout days and from the band Joshua, but did you know he’s got his fingers involved in a bunch of things these days like producing music for films and tv and that he’s the cousin of Sammy Hagar ? All very interesting facts, but what about that Shout released an album in 1999 called „Shout Back” ? The rest of the gang on this album with Tamplin is: Chuck King, Loren Robinson & Joe Galletta. For „It Won’t Be Long” the line-up though was: Ken Tamplin-lead vocals/lead/rhythm guitars, Chuck King-lead/rhythm guitars/vocals,Loren Robinson-bass/vocals, Mark Hugonberger-keyboards and Dennis Holt-drums.

This album cover was one of the most horrifid ones I can remember from the 80’ies, particularly because of the guys hair-do’s that were reaching for the sky and defying the gravity and the terrible outfits. But that was the case back then. Who’s to blame really, everyone was doing it ! And what their looks took away from them, their music brought it all back tenfold. It was glorious times for Christian metal and people were going nuts for Stryper and such, melodic metal was ruling the earth. And „It Won’t Be Long” was one of the greatest albums from that period of time. Though in Finland Shout never reached a place as high as Stryper. But their music worked for me.

Eventhough I never was that much of a true believer and today even less of that, I always liked the positive message these bands brought out. I didn’t mind the other message that came along with it. And Shout were so damn positive and cute, even when they were rocking in great songs such as „Never Stop”. One of the things that really brought a positive touch to their music was the sound they have in their keys, it’s as pure and clean as crystal ice and that is the thing that really sticks out here, along with some heavy guitar parts and great vocal harmonies. The title track is one of the rockers here, starting with an acoustic guitar and then off it goes to a kicking beat. But this track could be even better, one thing that kind of ruins the rock from it is the backing vocals and the chorus, they’re too lame for the guitar that is shredding off here. There’s a few lame moments here, but most of the songs give you a lot.

Shout managed to do touching ballads as well that had all the great chichés you could think of, but in the positive way. There’s only one brilliant ballad here with the biggest hooks you can think of; „Find A Way”, but a few midtempo songs that are as moving as this ballad, such as „Winners Or Losers”, „Timeless Love” and „Without You”. And I still think that when you have as catchy and working tunes as „Never Stop” and „Winners Or Losers”, you really don’t even notice those missing ballads.

Word 1992
Review by Urban "Wally" Wallström,
28 April 2003

Legend is/was one of those bands who really deserved a break. Marvelous music and great musicians makes this one fine album indeed. Another thing by the way, you wouldn't know this to be a Christian band in the first place really, since the lyrics are mostly about "ordinary" things, even if God is always present. Don't get me wrong! They do not hide their beliefs or sumthin'.

This was their only release under the "Legend" banner. Due to copyright problems with another band, the switched name to "Legend Seven" and released a CD in 1993. They were unfortunately a couple of years too late with their music. The grunge thing was just around the corner and the label didn't push this as much as they should have.

1986
Review by Martien Koolen,
10 May 2003

Sony 1991
Review by Satu Reunanen, 11 May 2003

Guardian was one of those Christian metal bands that caught my attention in the mid 1990’ies through a friend, but to this day I’ve only managed to hear two of their albums, the other one being „Miracle Mile”, released in 1993 and that one didn’t do nothing for me. The band had turned their backs to where they came from and the music came out in a more rock’n’roll and bluesy way. That good melodic hard rock was pretty much gone and I felt like these guys were now making music for the raunchy dudes. It was too harsh and the only song that worked was „Do You Know What Love Is”. For me that one was the only thing that had some feelings in it.

But eventhough „Fire And Love” to this day has been THE album from Guardian for me, the band has never been bad, no. But let’s look at the songs here. There’s great ballads in the world and Guardian definately has done those. „Forever And A Day” and „Never Say Goodbye” are great, though I’m not too fond of the country slide guitar on the latter one, but the song is good no matter what.

Then you have to have those party songs too and „Power Of Love” is the first track of the album, a powerful rock song followed by „Send A Message”, this one is a bit lame though, but has a good, hard beat in it. But what would be better than the midtempo „Time Stands Still”, it’s a bit from the moody side though, but it catches you like the flu and has a damn good chorus. Guardian is kind of a strange band, most of their songs are touching in a way, yet at the same time they are really ballsy and at least some of the thanks from that go to the good production here. Another midtempo song in the vein of „Time” is „Time And Time Again”, again the chorus really kicks in and the guys are working well together with the vocals. For a faster track you can check out „Takin’ On The World”, it really is fast for a hard rock band. „Rain” is the only song here that doesn’t have much to offer. Well, „Fire And Love” doesn’t do much for me either, it’s a midtempo song and a straight rocker. „Turnaround” is more faster, but it’s also too straight and simple for me.