When Petra regathered for their second project with new vocalist John Schlitt and producers Jon and Dino Elefante, they ditched the flying spaceship guitar, pushed the keyboards way back in the mix in deference to highly processed and crunchy guitars, and embraced a militaristic lyrical and visual theme that was perfectly in step with the Reagan era.
On This Means War The Elefantes brought the rock in a big way, with monster drums, stacked vocals, and everything sounding like it was born for arenas. Hartman’s fist-in-the-air, slogan-ready lyrics continued to define the Christian rock template and Schlitt’s vocal found the perfect balance between sneer and smile. It all came together perfectly and a new era was born for the band. Petra meant rock after all.
01 – Beat the System
02 – Computer Brains
03 – Clean
04 – It Is Finished
05 – Voice in the Wind
06 – God Gave Rock and Roll to You
07 – Witch Hunt
08 – Hollow Eyes
09 – Speak to the Sky
10 – Adonai
Greg X. Volz – vocals
Bob Hartman – guitars
Carl Marsh – Fairlight (keyboards, drums, bass and other embellishments)
Rhett Lawrence – additional synthesizer programming
John Lawry – additional synthesizer programming