Reviewed by Andy Barnes

This is a tough album to keep a perspective about whilst trying to review. Basically, it's a compilation of the praise and worship songs which appeared regularly on Petra's early albums and still feature heavily in their live set. As the individual tracks themselves go, they're good enough. My reservations about this album revolve around the question of why it has been released. There have already been a number of Petra compilations issued and this strikes me of being simply a money making exercise, aimed at the Petra fan who will buy anything with their name on it. It seems to me the label see Petra as a kind of "Cash Cow" and are milking them for all they are worth. Do the band themselves have any control over releases like this? I don't know, but the 'bonus track' on this album is a 'montage' of the choruses from each of the songs which have been 'daisy-chained' together by producer Brian Tankersley, with a fresh guitar track driving it along. What makes me question whether the band themselves are involved with this album is the fact that the guitar track was laid down by Dale Oliver, who wasn't in Petra the last time I checked!!

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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