****** - Verified Buyer
4.5
If you are a classic rock junkie like me--always on the lookout for new music with that throwback sound--look no further than this Classic Petra CD, Back to the Rock. When I first began my pursuit of Christian music as a 20 year-old in the late 1980’s, a lot of what I sampled was pretty disappointing. Understandably, there just wasn’t much in the genre able to stand up to the legendary bands I grew up on such as The Beatles, Led Zeppelin and The Who or 1980s giants like Rush, Styx and Van Halen.Enter my future wife, who had been following Christian music her whole life. She had older brothers who were listening to everything available on the market. She introduced me to Petra in 1989, and now nearly 30 years later, there hasn’t been another Christian rock band that has risen to their iconic stature. From their beginning in the early 1970s, Petra set the standard and paved the way for all of Christian rock.I have not been aware of any new material from Petra for at least 10 years, and I stumbled on this classic set by accident--I am really glad I did. With Petra, the Greg X Volz era stands the test of time better than the newer material with John Schlitt on vocals. The albums from the Volz era have that classic feel that never sound dated.These new recordings, with all the original members of Petra, are amazing sonically, and I like them all better than the originals--no kidding! The new tracks have more depth, richness of tone and detail than the original tracks. My ear can pick-out and focus on each instrument more easily. I was simply stunned at Greg’s vocal ability after all these years. In a lot of ways, I like his voice better now, because he doesn’t sing as consistently in the highest octave any more. Incidentally, I understand that he is (or was) able to sing in 4 different octaves and was recruited, but declined, to join REO Speedwagon back in the day. The sound leveling of the mix and overall production of the CD is stellar.For what it’s worth, the band produced a live DVD (sorry, no Blu-Ray) of these songs. The audio and video quality, camera work and production is excellent. One of the band members, John Lawry, runs his own production studio. There is also a 2nd excellent band documentary DVD included in the package. I recently purchased the DVD (which came personally autographed) on Greg’s website for less than $20. I feel like I’m undergoing a Petra revival here recently! Go for it and check out this “new” material.
