Petra


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Petra Myrrh 1974
 Get Back To The Bible
 Parting Thought
 Walkin' In The Light
I'll admit to not being the greatest of Petra fans - I lose interest somewhere in the middle of album number three. But long before the high-tech sound, "bold new frontiers", and flying spaceship guitars, Bob Hartman and crew were cranking out solid guitar-driven rural rock 'n roll with loads of lengthy rip- snortin' leads. Had this been a private pressing from an unknown band you can bet collectors would be coughin' up bigtime bucks to nab a copy. Seriously, this thing cooks as good as Joshua or Wilson-McKinley's 'Heaven's Gonna Be A Blast' with only a couple minor clunkers. Hartman's definitely no Greg Volz in the vocal department (Volz joined on the second lp) but given the rawness of the music and the lack of polish, it's no detraction. 'Back Sliding Blues' is a classic. Back cover states "Petra is... Rock - massive - with spiritual overtones". Agreed. KS


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Come And Join Us Myrrh 1977
 Come & Join Us
 Ask Him In
 God Gave Rock 'n Roll To You
More loud hard-drivin' Jesus rock with Greg Volz making his first appearance by exercising his impressive set of pipes on 'Woman Don't You Know' and Argent's 'God Gave Rock & Roll To You'. This hunk of plastic (along with the second JC Power Outlet lp) provided good riffs through my college years, filling the void of discarded Kiss and Blue Oyster Cult albums. Resurrection Band's 'Colours' came later and blew them away, but listening to this one years later, it still has an appealing low- budget raw feel to it with no hints of the polished commercial sound that was to come later. Only one ballad, the invitational concert-closer 'Ask Him In'. KS


Washes Whiter Than Star Song 1979
 Why Should the Father Bother
 I'm Thankful
 Morning Star
Uh-oh. I'm always skeptical when something is touted as "new and improved", especially if I liked the original just fine. So what is this new Petra formula? If I had to sum it up in one word it would have to be "smoooooooth". This is essentially a whole new band and new sound, any similarities to the first two lps having been completely obliterated. All rough edges have been hewn away in the gloss and Greg Volz has been enlisted full- time for lead vocal duty. That's not to imply that Petra's least heavy album is bad. Although 'Morning Star' and 'Magic Words' are probably the only cuts with any real bite, memorable melodic pop rock tunes dominate the rest of the lp. This album introduced the first of several adult contemporary ballads in 'Why Should The Father Bother'. Rad rockers will probably shake their heads when confronted with such ultra-mellow string-laden tunes as 'Mary's Song' and 'Without You'. Ok, I liked the old Petra better (there, I said it) but taken by itself Washes Whiter Than can be fun and, in my opinion, it tops their 80's output. Oh yeah, the original cover has a slanted cut corner to make it look like a detergent box. Cool. KS

More Petra CDs
are available at ChristianDiscs.com.