Girder Music and Word/Curb Records presents an exciting collaboration, releasing for the first time remastered CD’s of three strong PETRA albums: “Beyond Belief,” “Unseen Power,” and “Wake-Up Call.”
Ready for its 30th Anniversary and meticulously remastered by esteemed audio engineer Rob Colwell, the sound quality obtained on 1993’s “Wake-Up Call” is excellent, bringing a potent, crisp sonic output.
After a long and successful tour for previous album ‘Unseen Power’, the band took a year off before recording and touring for the follow-up “Wake-Up Call”. With a changing musical climate, Petra decided to not produce with the Elefante brothers for the first time in six records.
Looking for a more organic sound they worked with Brown Bannister, who at the time had won eight Grammy awards. The move proved to be successful as “Wake-Up Call” stayed on Billboard’s Christian albums chart for more than five months and was the third consecutive Petra album to receive a Grammy for Best Rock Gospel Album. The band also won a Dove award for Rock Album of the Year.
At the time, “Wake-Up Call” maked a noticeable shift in tone for the band, still polished in sound yet more rocking, less keyboards and more acoustic guitars in the mix instead.
Petra starts this album in a great way with “Midnight Oil”: driving guitar and pounding drums. In fact, the drums are fast and constant, perhaps more so than almost any song in the Petra catalog.
The band sought to make different choices in the recording and production, and second song “Good News” is big time proof why this album is different from the previous. This is a raw rock n’ roll tune. We really like how the verses start a little slower and then kick into gear in the second half before the chorus.
“Strong Convictions” also sounds different, especially the drums, providing a more funky midtempo drive. It’s very ‘1992-93′ American hard rock, almost similar to Extreme.
“He’s Been In My Shoes” is the first ballad of the album, and it’s a different kind of Petra ballad. Starting with a little guitar, it then settles in with no drums and just a bit of Bob Hartman guitar behind Schlitt’s voice. Acoustic guitars were in vogue, Mr. Big, Extreme and many more did this type of earthy ballads. Great song.
Midtempo rocker “Praying Man” is very melodic with nice guitar and keys. The chorus backing vocals on this song are different from practically ever other Petra song and I really like it. The chorus is catchy and made for a concert, and somehow brings to mind some later ’80s Stryper.
Next we have the hardest rocking song from the album: “Underneath the Blood”, a short broken tune with sharp guitars and a huge chorus. “Sleeping Giant” is not far from the band of the same name (Giant) did on their first album, a cool melodious song with a stunning John Schlitt performance.
Petra had often in its past closed albums with ballads, but Petra had never closed an album with three consecutive ballads. But Petra always did what they wanted, and not all the 3 tracks are exactly ballads.
“Believer In Deed” is midpaced, almost AOR – the type of early ’90s AOR – with experts in the genre Tommy Funderburk, Bob Carlisle and Joe Pizzulo providing backing / harmony vocals.
“Marks of the Cross” is calmer, with Weaver hitting the cymbal just a bit, Hartman’s guitar is in the background at most, while Ronny Cates’ bass is really the instrument keeping the rhythm, along with the lead vocals.
Schlitt’s voice is made for closer “Just Reach Out”, a sweet midtempo melodic rock tune, with a typical sound for the genre circa 1991-93 which we like a lot.
Highly Recommended
01 – Midnight Oil
02 – Good News
03 – Strong Convictions
04 – He’s Been in My Shoes
05 – Praying Man
06 – Underneath the Blood
07 – Sleeping Giant
08 – Believer in Deed
09 – Marks of the Cross
10 – Just Reach Out
John Schlitt – lead vocals
Bob Hartman – guitars
John Lawry – keyboards
Ronny Cates – bass
Louie Weaver – drums
Tommy Funderburk, Bob Carlisle, Joe Pizzulo – backing vocals