Guess Who's Turning 40?!

Normally, my first reaction to a Petra compilation would be, “Do we really need another compilation!?” After all, these guys have got to be in the running for most compilations/greatest hits packages for any band ever. I’ll make a notable exception here as this double disc is in celebration of the band’s 40^th anniversary!

First and foremost, this disc is split very well. Petra is easily boxed into “eras” and they do it perfectly here. Disc one collects the early years as well as the years with Greg X. Volz fronted the group. All the big hits like “God Gave Rock and Roll To You,” “Judas Kiss,” “Road To Zion,” and the controversial “Killing My Old Man,” are here in full force. Personally, I would have liked to have heard a couple deeper cuts but these are certainly the songs  that all of us early birds associate with the seventies and early eighties Petra. For those that have never heard the band, they ebbed and flowed through this era starting out sounding like a poppier Eagles and ended it sounding like the cutting edge bands of the time. Bands like Foreigner, Styx, and Kansas. The band incorporated synths and progressive structures (as evidenced by “Judas Kiss” and “Beat the System”) into their music long before it was popular to do so.

Disc two features the most successful years of the band’s career. By the mid-eighties and into the early nineties the band were playing to massive crowds everywhere they went and their albums sold well even by mainstream standards. Although they were plagued by lineup changes towards the end of this discs material, the big hits are surprisingly consistent in retrospect. The songs here feature the band’s third and final singer, former Head East singer John Schlitt.

The songs collected here are mostly the band’s stadium charged anthems that were featured in front of sold out festival crowds during the golden years of CCM music. “This Means War!,” “All Fired Up,” “Beyond Belief,” “Sight Unseen,” “ Creed,” and “He Came, He Saw, He Conquered,” all represent this era well. I’m quite surprised to see the ballad “Get On Your Knees and Fight Like a Man” omitted though as it was a huge hit and spawned a ton of t-shirt sales (had one myself back in the day!). 

The band’s last years (disbanding in 2006 officially) were tremendously unkind to them but the album does include the title track from their last major album Jekyll & Hyde that will remind you that the band still had some steam left, even amongst the massive shift in music in the early new millennium.

As a treat for the fans, the band (consisting of only founder Bob Hartman and frontman John Schlitt) have recorded a new tune as well entitled “Holy Is Your Name.” It’s a soft-spoken, ballad that fits well into the current worship market and for the band’s diehard fans, it could have easily been a cut on Revival. I enjoy the song but mostly it just reminds me that none of us are kids anymore.

If you are unfamiliar with Petra than this is a wonderful place to start. If you are a diehard fan, the new song is worth picking up this release but, aside from that, you likely have all these songs already. That all said, I’m just happy to have a new Petra release on my desk. Sometimes as you grow up you forget how connected you felt to certain things at different points in your life. I have a story that accompanies everyone of these songs and, to this day, feel that they are as much mine as they are Petra’s.