Reviewed by Ewan Jones

Andreas Karstad works with Youth With A Mission Norway, having previously played guitar for Supermarket Hero, a hard music band formed out of YWAM Australia. This, his first live worship album, is a stylistically gentler affair and is made up of both originals and covers. It also features a mix of Norwegian and English lyrics over its 12 tracks. Musically it's an inoffensive collection of mid-tempo pop worship songs - acoustic guitars, electric leads and so on. Karstad can come up with a memorable melody but there is nothing here that is highly original. Of the five songs in English (including a cover of Delirious?' "Obsession") none strike me as groundbreaking or indeed that helpful. Perhaps it's a translation issue but they are full of mixed metaphors and confused theological statements: "I know that you surround us/With your cloud in the day/And at night your flame burns strong" ("Thank You"). There's mention of us "laying down our lives" but nothing about Jesus doing so first, except a veiled reference - "You carry the scars that were meant to be mine" - but this is addressed to the Father, not the Son. The Norwegian language tracks may fare slightly better in that regard and it's a novelty (but not that helpful) to hear Karstad's Norwegian translation of 'All To Jesus I Surrender'. Somehow I don't think the bi-lingual element will help 'Ingenting Kan Male Seg' fly off the shelves any time soon.

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.

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