The Petra Zone

What do you guys think about Audio Adrenaline's music these days?

Even though theyre getting older, I'm sure their personalities are as "cool" and youthful as 10 years ago. But their music of this decade is not quite as "cool" as their stuff from the 90's (excluding 1992).

Of their releases my most favorites are Don't Censor Me, Bloom, and Some Kind of Zombie. Since then, their rock style has gradually declined to my opinion. Underdog and those two songs "Will Not Fade" and "One Like You" are okay but not great. Several songs from Lift are okay, others I dislike.

However, on their latest release, Worldwide, I never met a song I liked. At all.

And it disappointed me.

Looking on their website, I see on their board of fan e-mails that people are crazy about this crud album! Teens seem to absolutely love it! Often times the word "rocked" followed by a line of exclamation points appear in their messages. Christian music reviewers have given it high ratings, saying it rocks hard from start to end and is similar to Bloom. And if that's not enough, Worldwide is high on the CCM charts! - and probably on the list for Grammy awards.

I just don't understand. Certainly I'm being over-judgemental, but I can't help but feel this way. I have not listened to Worldwide in a long time but I remember very clearly how much I hated it. It lacks the "adrenaline" force they have been known for.

Maybe they'll do a "Jekyll and Hyde" type of thing by suddenly releasing a high-quality hard-rocker. God willing. I know teens still love hard rock these days. We tend to think that hard rock died out after the 80's but it didn't. Listen to POD, Pillar, 3 Doors Down, Nickelback. Hard rock is still on the loose - just in a different style than about 15 years ago.

And Petra was aware of that. I don't see why Audio A would not be. They've done hard rock before - even their heaviest album, Some Kind of Zombie, was done by almost the same band lineup as today. So it's not like Burkum or Cissell don't know how to rock. And besides, Herdman is still helping the band creatively, so he hasn't left the scenes. God sure still plans to inspire them and direct their future.

I actually like WorldWide better than a LOT of their old stuff. You can tell that Audio A has really evolved in their sound and song-writing abilities. I agree with the younger generation - WorldWide rocks!! They even have some guitar solos in there.

Do they sound different than they did in the early 90s? Well, I hope so! Music has changed since then and so has Audio A. I think it's more of an issue of whether you like the new rock sound that's out today. If you don't, that's okay. It's all a matter of taste.

And - LIFT that came out last year was another great CD. Lot's of good ones on that one.

I wasn't referring to the early 90's. The only album Audio A made in the earlyl 90's was their first, and I didn't like it. Good thing they changed since then.

I mainly referring to Audio A from the mid and late 90's (1993 to 1999) - the time that they sounded the best to my opinion.

Lift is not bad. I like the majority of the songs on Lift especially "You Still Amaze Me" "Speak to Me" "This Is Everything" and "Lonely Man." The only song on Lift I really dislike is "Beautiful."

* * * BTW, Lift was released in 2001.* * *

Some songs on World wide do really rock, like "Start a Fire" and "Church Punks", but despite the fact those songs rock hard I don't entirely like the songwriting.

On Worldwide, there are too many ballads in a row - like tracks 5 thru 9, I can't remember for sure. And the song "Dirty" seems as a failed attempt to measure up to "Big House."

About the "younger generation" thing you mentioned, yes Worldwide is hot topic with today's youth, but believe me, I am convinced that mid-90's Audio Adrenaline has never yet become outdated. Even as far back as Bloom, what they did is hardly "old school" compared to now. Maybe Don't Censor Me is just slightly outdated style-wise, but just slightly. Today's Christian teens are still very attracted to Audio A from the mid-90's. I know friends from my hometown youth group who are.

Of course, I have not listened to World Schmide for a year because I sold it, but if I was ever able to listen to it again, my opinion might change just a shmidge.


But if they pull off a "Jeckly and Hide" thing next time that would be sweet! I can hardly wait to find out the title of Audio A's upcoming album, let alone hear it! I really have my hopes up for it rocking so I hope I' won'd tbe disappointed!

Seems to me, you might like Audio A more then Petra?

What made you think that?

ha ha ha, of course not

I'm wondering about Newsboys' next release Devotion. Their 2003 album Adoration was unsatisfactory, so I hope they, as well as Audio-Something-or-other, also get out of the rut of sounding low qual. Although the name "Devotion" is not like the creative album titles they've come up with before, that doesn't mean the music has to be lame, necessarily.

Of course I'm not a rock band songwriter, but I do know kind of what it's like to lose your sense of creativity after long periods of use. My philosophy, though, if I were one, is to allow your creative mind to rest until you feel like writing again and you know for sure that God is inspiring you with more awesome ideas. From forcing yourself to write songs when your creativity is strained comes bad results. I know well from personal experience that I can do certain things very well when I am in the mood, but I do those same things very poorly when I don't feel like doing them. An example: chatting with friends when you are not in the mood to socialize.

Audioa website says they're gonna release a new album this summer - Until My Heart Caves In. I'm excited about it, yet wary at the same time - I'm so unsure if it's gonna sound a lot better than Worldwide or not. It's a cool title, but I know plenty of crappy albums with cool titles so the title means jack squat about the sound of the album. Worldwide had too many ballads, and I'm hoping this one's gonna have more hard rockers.

I've never been able to get into AA. Their albums seem very weak on the rock side. I always go and listen to the demos, but have never really cared for them, also I saw them in concert in the mid 90's and they were not good at all. They were off all night long; That might be another reason I really don't care much for them.

seichu kaisho wrote:But their music of this decade is not quite as "cool" as their stuff from the 90's (excluding 1992).

LexingtonPethead wrote:Do they sound different than they did in the early 90s? Well, I hope so! Music has changed since then and so has Audio A. I think it's more of an issue of whether you like the new rock sound that's out today. If you don't, that's okay. It's all a matter of taste.

I guess I was a little confusing - maybe the word "excluding" was misread as "including"

But who cares, this is a dead topic. . . . only here for curious readers to enjoy. . . . though it would be better for me to pray for Christian bands than to bash their music

I just can't get into they're music. I think they are weak on the writting side and a bit too popish music wise for me.

But hey it may reach to someone who likes they're type of music...