Reviewed by Mike Rimmer

To modern ears, it's probably hard to comprehend the earthquake that was caused by the release of this album. The Chicago band born out of a radical Christian community financed 'Awaiting Your Reply' themselves and recorded it in two weeks of sessions in their home. In a Christian music scene which was still unbelievably square, this was manna to the hungry rock loving youth group kids who had been forced to survive the middle of the road generally peddled at the time. This was ROCK!!! It was LOUD!!! The opener "Waves" immediately nailed the band's colours to the mast with a Zeppelinesque riff and singers Glenn and Wendy Kaiser trading vocal licks like their lives depended on it! And the album just got better. In later years we would become well aware of Glenn Kaiser's love of blues but it came out fully formed on this album on the epic "Broken Promises". Glenn's gritty vocals were an authentic and captivating howl in the wilderness. The modern rock of "Lightshine" and "Death Of The Dying" watered the thirsty soul of this young rock fan who loved Zep and Purple. There really wasn't anything else like 'Awaiting Your Reply' in Christian music. "The Return" which closed the album demonstrated that rock passion didn't always need to hit you with a musical sledgehammer to hit home. Signed by the then small independent label Star Song, its release helped establish the label as a significant player and proved to be a launch pad for a series of blistering hard rock albums for Rez in the coming years.

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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