Any Petra fans?

scottmitchell74 wrote:

I forget how good these guys were until I play them, then think "man, these guys could rock!"

I ripped their entire discography to mp3 and have been spending time with Never Say Die and Washes whiter than. They do certainly rock.

Even that debut holds up pretty well today, even if it is somewhat uneven.

All the Volz albums are really fun listens, and kinda weird with how JDB mixed them--very dry, canned guitars, flat drums, little to no reverb. In a way that's part of the charm, I think.

Not of This World has always mystified me; it's a real enigmatic collection of instantly memorable songs, and those bookend instrumentals are hypnotic.

Petra rocks!

Zombie thread! Back from the dead! Urrrrrgh... braiiiiins....

Anyway, just bumping this one up cuz I picked up my first-ever Petra CD at Goodwill on my way home tonite - Wake Up Call, from 1993. I haven't given it a full spin yet but the first couple of tracks seem like pretty decent melodic cheez rock.

So did I do good? How does Wake Up Call hold up for the Petra fans around here?

The heavier songs are great, but this one goes soft a little too much for me. When it rocks, it rocks, but I like others more.

You know, I get on Christian Metal kicks from time to time and I always mean to look into (and listen to) some Petra and I just never seem to. I don't know why?

Well, I listened to "Wake Up Call" in its entirety this AM aaaaand... yeah, not really impressed. The first three or four songs were OK in that cheesy, pop/arena rock Def Leppardy/Journey-ish sorta way (the opening song "Midnight Oil" is quite good in fact), but around the halfway point it started getting bogged down in way too many sickeningly sweet & syrupy slow songs and ballads, one after another. By the last track I was dozing off.

Don't get me wrong, I wasn't expecting this album to be shredding, screaming metal or anything, but obviously I underestimated the amount of schmaltz big time. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Oh well, I tried (shrugs)...

Fat Freddy wrote:

Well, I listened to "Wake Up Call" in its entirety this AM aaaaand... yeah, not really impressed. The first three or four songs were OK in that cheesy, pop/arena rock Def Leppardy/Journey-ish sorta way (the opening song "Midnight Oil" is quite good in fact), but around the halfway point it started getting bogged down in way too many sickeningly sweet & syrupy slow songs and ballads, one after another. By the last track I was dozing off.

Don't get me wrong, I wasn't expecting this album to be shredding, screaming metal or anything, but obviously I underestimated the amount of schmaltz big time. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Oh well, I tried (shrugs)...

Trust me, that's a weak album, and their schmaltziest. On Fire was their best and heaviest, and Beyond Belief was a bit more tame but still very metallic and full of earworms. You'd probably be happy with either of those. I wouldn't give up yet.

Quote :

On Fire was their best and heaviest, and Beyond Belief was a bit more tame but still very metallic and full of earworms. You'd probably be happy with either of those. I wouldn't give up yet.

I'll take your word for it if I ever come across either of those CDs at Goodwill...oherwise, I don't think I'll be going outta my way to pick up any more Petra stuff for the time being.

Fat Freddy wrote:

Quote :

On Fire was their best and heaviest, and Beyond Belief was a bit more tame but still very metallic and full of earworms. You'd probably be happy with either of those. I wouldn't give up yet.

I'll take your word for it if I ever come across either of those CDs at Goodwill...oherwise, I don't think I'll be going outta my way to pick up any more Petra stuff for the time being.

Yeah, I kind of can't blame you with a stinker like Wake Up Call being your intro. Would've left a bad taste in my mouth too.

I also just remembered that Wake Up Call was also the first album not to be produced by the Elefante Bros. In fact, the producer was Amy Grant's regular. So that says quite a bit. I think at that time they were somewhat soaked in the commercial CCM/Dove Awards bukkake of the time. I remember how let down a lot of us metal fans were when it came out.

Anyway, here's the Petra I know and love:

"Dove Awards bukkake" =

I'm a die hard. I have every studio album they ever put out, along with the Back to the Rock rerecordings.

Fat Freddy wrote:

Quote :

On Fire was their best and heaviest, and Beyond Belief was a bit more tame but still very metallic and full of earworms. You'd probably be happy with either of those. I wouldn't give up yet.

I'll take your word for it if I ever come across either of those CDs at Goodwill...oherwise, I don't think I'll be going outta my way to pick up any more Petra stuff for the time being.

Agree with this - On Fire is a much better place... they lost me after Beyond Belief. Their best run was Back To The Street, This Means Wars, On Fire, Beyond Belief. The latter has the distinction of ripping off the chord progression of both heaven's on fire for one song and pour some sugar on me on another.

Bumpity bump!

So I'm giving Petra another shot today... I came across their Jekyll & Hyde CD at Goodwill so I figured "what the heck."

I was unimpressed with the Wake Up Call disc that I posted about last time I was in this thread, and got rid of that quite a while ago. Back when I first picked it up and was complaining about its schmaltziness, someone suggested I try out Jekyll & Hyde and even sent me a couple of YouTube clips that sounded surprisingly cool. I thought it was someone at this forum but it must have been at one of the others I frequent, cuz I don't see any mentions of Jekyll & Hyde here.

I'll report back once it's had a few spins. If this one doesn't grab me I think I give up on this band.

Ummm not so sure an older band with a large back catalog can really be judged by newer releases?
Reminds of when I first heard Metallica and Def Leppard - my first exposures to these bands were songs from St. Anger and Songs from the Sparkful Lounge, respectively, so after hearing them, I just thought "These bands suck! Why does anyone even listen to this, much less praise them as some of the best bands ever!?", and wouldn't listen to them for years after that.

Hadn't listened to them until now. I'm really liking the first couple albums, anyway.

I think my favorite by them is J&H. A good album. I am not a huge fan but have always liked them but was into other bands at the time.

Yep, I'm liking Jekyll & Hyde a lot. Surprisingly crunchy compared to the other Petra I've heard. Dunno if I'll bother hunting down anymore of their stuff, but J & H is a keeper.