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Make a joyful noise unto the Lord!

Psalm 150

1
Praise the LORD. Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty heavens.
2
Praise him for his acts of power; praise him for his surpassing greatness.
3
Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet, praise him with the harp and lyre,
4
praise him with tambourine and dancing, praise him with the strings and flute,
5
praise him with the clash of cymbals, praise him with resounding cymbals.

You can also add to the list screaming guitars and pounding drums. Christian rock has gotten pretty good over the last few years. There have been a lot of good CDs put out that are better than any rock being played on the popular rock radio stations. Some groups that have put out good albums in the last year or so have been Bride, Guardian, Third Day, Smalltown Poets, Skillet, Whitecross, Newsboys... and many others! 1997 has been a great year so far for Christian Rock!

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Bride is probably my favorite Christian rock band. Their latest release, The Jesus Experience, is one of their hardest albums. Overall, I'd say I like their older stuff better, but there are a few songs on this CD that makes it worth getting for any hard rock fan. The Jesus Experience sounds a little like some of the older metal that Bride used to play on their albums before Kinetic Faith, but it definitely sounds different than anything they've done in the past. Overall, its a great, solid, rock album but not as good as Kinetic Faith, Snakes in the Playground or Scarecrow Messiah.

Their two previous CDs are Drop and Shotgun Wedding. Bride originally started out as a metal band, but their genre has shifted into more hard rock and rock. They are best known for the albums Kinetic Faith, Snakes in the Playground and Scarecrow Messiah. On these albums, they kind of sound like the style of hard rock of Guns and Roses. (IMHO Bride sounds much better!) Shotgun Wedding is a greatest hits album with some new remixes. Drop, their 1995 album, is a slight change of style for Bride. The guitars are toned down, and the sound grooves more. The vocals also vary widely from past albums. Overall, the album is great, I'm still listening to it a couple years later, but I prefer their older stuff a little better.

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Grammatrain just released their second album, Flying. Their first album was really great, but their second is even better. Their sound has matured, their guitars have gotten heavier, and their lyrics are creative. If you liked their first album, then you MUST get Flying. If you missed their first album, but are into hard alternative rock along the lines of the secular band Soundgarden, then I'd highly recommend Grammatrain -- they are one of the best Christian hard alternative bands around.

I'm still listening a lot to their 1995 release that I picked up late in '96 (but I wish I had bought a lot sooner!) Grammatrain's Lonely House CD is really cool. They are from Seatle and have the familiar Seatle grunge sound reminicent of the secular bands Nirvana, Soundgarden and othere bands from the Seatle area. They have a unique sound that is all their own, which is refreshing after listening to many of the mediocre alternative bands getting secular airplay. If you like hard-alternative music, like Prayer Chain, then I'd highly recommend Grammatrain.

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DC Talk recently released Welcome to the Freak Show, a live album with some of their best songs and lots of songs off the Jesus Freak album. Overall, the album is very well done for a live album. They start off with 'Help' by the Beatles, and fade into So Help me God. They also cover REM's 'Its the End of the World'.

Their previous release was Jesus Freak. If you haven't heard about this album then you've probably been living in a cave somewhere, because this has been one of the most promoted albums I've seen. But the album is well worth the hype. They move away from rap and more into an alternative sound. They do rap a little, but they sound more like 'Faith no more' with heavy guitars. This is a welcome change to their sound and it really is a well done album. I'd highly recommend this album, and I DON'T CARE IF YOU LABEL ME A JESUS FREAK!

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Guardian is also one of my favorite hard rock/metal bands. Their newest album, Bottlerocket came out in March of 1997. This album was be produced by Steve Taylor (also produced Buzz). I've had a chance to listen to BottleRocket about a half dozen times, and it seems to get better with every listen. The album starts out with 'Are we feeling comfortable yet?', a song that really got its message across to me, as I was laying there on the sofa, headphones on, listening to the album for the first time, trying to be as comfortable as possible to enjoy the album. The song Bottle Rocket is a modern version of the song 'This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine!' Its about how the media and society in general is trying to snuff out the Christian message, but they've got a surprize, because the Word of the Lord cannot be put out, in fact, we've got a bottle Rocket, and its going to explode the message brightly and in a way that God's message cannot be ignored. Coffee Can is one of the more creative efforts on the album (Steve Taylor's influence on the lyrics is evident!) In short, Bottle Rocket is a MUST HAVE album for any music collection!

Their previous album Buzz is incredible. It's mostly rock with a mixture of grunge. It was produced by Steve Taylor, which I believe helped to add an ingeneous creative edge to the music. The combination of one of my favorite band and the creative genious of Steve Taylor makes Buzz an album that, so far, I haven't gotten tired of listening to.

Swing, Swang, Swung was Guardians album prior to Buzz. It is a more acoustical rock album that also spent a lot of time in my CD player.

Fire and Love and Miracle Mile were their two previous albums, which are much harder metal albums.

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The Newsboys haven't been one of my favorite bands, but their latest album is pretty good. Steve Taylor wrote or helped to write all of the songs, and also produced the album. Going Public and Take Me To Your Leader are two pretty good Christian pop albums that I'd definately recommend. If you've never listened to the newsboys, they have a pop rock sound that is unique in Christian music.

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One of my aquisitions early in 1996 was Fleming and John's album Delusions of Grandeur This is one coooool album. Fleming's vocals are great, operatic (sp?) at times, and rock at others. The music is also well done. It's hard to describe the style. They have a female vocalist, and the sound is rock/alternative. If I had to recommend one album for this year, THIS IS IT! Fleming & John are definately the best new artist of the year. They did have one song out last year on the Steve Taylor tribute album I Predict a Clone. They remade Steve's song 'Harder to believe than not to'. I hate to say this Steve, but I like their version even better than yours (Steve's version is good too though.)

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I've been a fan of the Prayer Chain since I picked up their Mercury CD. The CD was great! Mercury sounds like Pink Floyd with a harder, heavier on the guitars, alternative sound.

After Mercury, I picked up Shawl. It was EVEN BETTER! Shawl has mostly a hard-alternative sound to it. Very different from the Mercury album.

After Shawl, I figured I'd pick up the only other CD I could find of theirs - the Whirlpool EP. Whirlpool has the same sound as Shawl, but I like the lyrics a little better. Its a toss up between Shawl and Whirlpool EP as to which I like better - I'd recommend picking up BOTH!

Just recently, I got their Antartica CD. I was a bit disappointed with it considering how much I liked their other stuff. Antartica has concert recordings from their last concert (yep, the Prayer Chain isn't together anymore!) and other unreleased tracks. The live stuff doesn't sound as good as the originals. I would recommend this CD if you are a big Prayer Chain fan and have all their other CDs, but if you aren't sure if you would like the Prayer Chain then I'd pass by this CD and buy Shawl or Whirlpool first, and then progress to Mercury and Antartica if you really like the sound.

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Skillet is a new hard-alternative band. Their first, self titled album, is not too bad. They sound a lot like grammatrain, and other alternative/grunge bands, and I'll probably get a lot of play out of their first CD. It came out late 1996, and I didn't get it 'til Christmas, so I've only listened to it a couple times. I'll probably come back and update this after I've either grown tired of it - or grown to love it. One cool thing is that the CD is interactive and comes with a video of the band - pretty cool.

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Smalltown Poets is a new alternative band that sounds a little like Jars of Clay, but with a harder edge. Their first, self titled album, is really great! Musically, they are an excellent band. I like the sound better than JOC because it has more depth to the sound and more variety than JOC. Their lyrics are very creative, and are much more listenable than most of the contemporary Christian music being released. This is one of my favorite CDs and I suspect We'll be hearing a lot more from this band. The CD is also CD-ROM enhanced and contains 5 videos, making this a CD well worth picking up!

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Third Day is a new alternative band that sounds a lot like the secular band Hootie and the Blowfish. I would highly recommend picking up Third Day's self titled album or Conspiracy #5, they are both really great! They've even gotten some airplay on some secular alternative radio stations around the country (some well deserved publicity!) They have kind of a milder alternative sound, that also rocks at times. My favorites from the album are: Forever (really rawks!) and Thief (ballad from the point of view of the thief crucified next to Jesus). 1997 has been a great year so far for music!

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Great Music Links

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