The Petra Zone

I was listening to Wake Up Call and John really sings his guts out on this one. My favorite and best Petra record ever. I hope they do something like this if they record again. Still sounds fresh 22 years later.

I love this album as well.

Yes its mine also; The sonics on this album are timeless. I love the songs on Beyond Belief, JAH, & On Fire! more but the quality of sound is Petra's finest.

After years of the (arguably) over-produced Elefante sound, Wake-Up Call was a breath of fresh air. It sounds like real musicians in a real studio playing real instruments. It's just a great sounding album, up there with the best of the Johnathan David Brown albums. Producer Brown Bannister said that his goal was to make an album with 10 hit songs and not just two or three hits with a bunch of filler, and I think he absolutely nailed it. I don't think there's a single dud here.

And you're right, "the boys" sound like they're kicking on all cylinders with John S. really laying into the vocals and some great musical chops from Bob, Ronnie, John L., and Louie. This is Petra at the top of their game. It's also a great ensemble album with song writing contributions from John S., Ronnie, and John L. It's easily my favorite "Dream Team" album and one of the best albums in Petra's catalog.

In my fantasy alternate reality, Petra retired after this album and then came roaring back 10-years later with Jekyll & Hyde.

I hate the drum sounds on TMW, PP1, UP and BB. The drum sounds on BTTS and ND are acceptable. The drums sounds on PP2, GF and DT are great and natural sounding specially in the jam at the end of the Medley of PP2. I can't understand why the Elefantes could not keep it consistent and natural. If only they could re-record those drum tracks with Louie including also Beat The System, it would make all this music brand new again.

fcollazo wrote:I hate the drum sounds on TMW, PP1, UP and BB. The drum sounds on BTTS and ND are acceptable. The drums sounds on PP2, GF and DT are great and natural sounding specially in the jam at the end of the Medley of PP2. I can't understand why the Elefantes could not keep it consistent and natural. If only they could re-record those drum tracks with Louie including also Beat The System, it would make all this music brand new again.

I agree with you on everything except for the ND assessment; The drums sounded very pop like on that album except for maybe "Right Place" I've always felt that its been Petra's worst offering. The drums on Unseen Power has a metal sound to it which I like but in some cases the drums really didn't fit with some of the songs. I think PP2 is the best produced Elefante Petra album; I think they tried to catch the WUC vibe which they came close to. Top 5 production quality Petra albums are:


1. Wake Up Call
2. More Power To Ya
3. JAH
4. PP2
5. Unseen Power

How'd we go from John's vocal performance to drums & production quality? On that note, I really like what John Slick did on "Visions (Doxology)."

dihigo wrote:How'd we go from John's vocal performance to drums & production quality?

Because Wake-up Call is just an all-around great album.

Just my opinion, it's a really good album but Wake Up Call had too many male shouting/background/group voices in the songs for my taste to rank it the best of the era. It was almost like it had a male cheerleaders vibe to it in a few of the songs. I know it was very successful but I've never shook the initial read on it. I had just started college when this came out and I still remember being disappointed the first time I heard it. It grew on me some and now I like it in small doses (I can't listen to it completely, all the way through), although a couple of the songs on the album are some of my favorites of the band all time. I still think TMW, OF, BB, and UP are better from start to finish overall, just my opinion.

dihigo wrote:On that note, I really like what John Slick did on "Visions (Doxology)."

Yeah, he must have been listening to a lot of Vangelis around that time.

pmal wrote:...Wake Up Call had too many male shouting/background/group voices in the songs for my taste to rank it the best of the era. It was almost like it had a male cheerleaders vibe to it in a few of the songs.

So basically, it sounded like a typical 90's rock/metal album?

This is an odd criticism when you consider that Petra Praise: The Rock Cries Out is the only Petra album to not feature exclusively male vocals. Then there was the "God Gave Rock and Roll To You (reprise)" from Come And Join Us which kicked off with a children's chorus. But those were both one-offs and certainly not the norm.

pmal wrote:Just my opinion, it's a really good album but Wake Up Call had too many male shouting/background/group voices in the songs for my taste to rank it the best of the era. It was almost like it had a male cheerleaders vibe to it in a few of the songs. I know it was very successful but I've never shook the initial read on it. I had just started college when this came out and I still remember being disappointed the first time I heard it. It grew on me some and now I like it in small doses (I can't listen to it completely, all the way through), although a couple of the songs on the album are some of my favorites of the band all time. I still think TMW, OF, BB, and UP are better from start to finish overall, just my opinion.

I'm with you PMAL on WUC. I was disappointed when I originally heard the album, and it never grew on me. I really don't even have any favorites, and I've tried. I also prefer TMW, OF, BB and UP from this era. I guess I like the Elefante sound. Does that make me a hack? Oh well.

PiedPiper wrote:

pmal wrote:Just my opinion, it's a really good album but Wake Up Call had too many male shouting/background/group voices in the songs for my taste to rank it the best of the era. It was almost like it had a male cheerleaders vibe to it in a few of the songs. I know it was very successful but I've never shook the initial read on it. I had just started college when this came out and I still remember being disappointed the first time I heard it. It grew on me some and now I like it in small doses (I can't listen to it completely, all the way through), although a couple of the songs on the album are some of my favorites of the band all time. I still think TMW, OF, BB, and UP are better from start to finish overall, just my opinion.

I'm with you PMAL on WUC. I was disappointed when I originally heard the album, and it never grew on me. I really don't even have any favorites, and I've tried. I also prefer TMW, OF, BB and UP from this era. I guess I like the Elefante sound. Does that make me a hack? Oh well.

This is what makes Petra so great, so many different styles and sounds. We all have our favorites; no one is wrong/right just different tastes.

Mountain Man wrote:

pmal wrote:...Wake Up Call had too many male shouting/background/group voices in the songs for my taste to rank it the best of the era. It was almost like it had a male cheerleaders vibe to it in a few of the songs.

So basically, it sounded like a typical 90's rock/metal album?

This is an odd criticism when you consider that Petra Praise: The Rock Cries Out is the only Petra album to not feature exclusively male vocals. Then there was the "God Gave Rock and Roll To You (reprise)" from Come And Join Us which kicked off with a children's chorus. But those were both one-offs and certainly not the norm.

I think PP1 was a very good album for what their intent was, and I enjoyed it a lot, but that's why I left it out of my favorites as it wasn't originally even intended to be sold as a regular album.

As far as WUC, I just didn't care much for what I described. 90's rock was not my cup of tea although I don't necessarily agree that most of it was like that. I would have rather had songs with a strong male lead with backgrounds when warranted, not featured.

Production aside, when I first heard WUC I thought that Bob Hartman had finally run dry. For material he was down to writing about the parable of the ten virgins? Some of the melodies sound very forced and awkward (Believer In Deed and the verses of Marks of the Cross stand out). And I know that this one was John L/Jim, but the lyric "Prayer works when you take the time to pray" reminds me of Van Hagar's "Only time will tell if we stand the test of time".