The Petra Zone

What would you all recommend as my first CD/Album from Rez Band? I can remember a friend of mine trying to turn me on to them in the 80's when I just wanted to listen to KISS, Sabbath and Zep.....Is REZ a good band? Solid Christians?? What do you all suggest?

I think Jonathan likes them. You might email him in case he doesn't see your post.

Thanks! I'll find him!


Mark

I'm a huge Rez fan. Their 70's stuff is actually really good, and unlike Petra has a high quality production. I also like is the late 80's stuff like Silence Screams, Civil Rites, and Innocent Blood.
Too be honest with you you can't go wrong with any of their stuff.
BTW they released a 4-disc set that is still available on their web site; 3-disc CD and than one DVD of some concert footage and a few concept videos. I would highly recommend that to get you started. Let me know what you find out.

Thanks Jan, but I'm actually not the biggest Rez fan. I do have two albums that don't often see the light, Ampendectomy and Mommy Don't Love Daddy Anymore. Sounds like exe has it covered. I do like the song "Shadows."

The only CD I had of theirs was Silence Screams and it was good (from what I remember).

Thank you all! I'll go to their website and check out the 3 cd/1 dvd set!

Rez is awesome. I have most of their songs on my Zune and I rock out to them quite often. 'Shadows' is their best song ever. I will concur with others that the 20 Years CD set is the way to go...a good sampling of just about all their better tunes updated to the early 90s (some of their oldest stuff, while hard rocking for the time, was mixed a bit weakly without the guitars as front-and-center as they should be).

---Prem

I always felt like their early stuff was high quality produced. Get the new 4-disc set they have out and you will hear it for yourself.

You could rank their albums in any number of ways. Like Petra, they their career is pretty easily broken up into distinct stylistic eras:

1. Classic hard rock Zepplinesque sound: Awaiting Your Reply and Rainbow's End from the mid-late 1970s.
2. Unique bluesy, almost grungy in ways, hard rock sound: Colours, Mommy Don't Love Daddy Anymore and DMZ from the early 1980s.
3. New Wave-influenced hard rock: Hostage!, Live Bootleg and Between Heaven and Hell from the mid 1980s.
4. Hard rock/metal with blues influences: Silence Screams, Innocent Blood, Civil Rites, XX, Reach of Love from the late 1980s-early 1990s
5. More straight-up rock with increasing blues and acoustic elements: Lament and Ampendectomy from the mid 1990s.

I'm a fan of the heavy stuff, so I'd recommend Innocent Blood, Civil Rites and Silence Screams in that order, but anything they put out is awesome, and everything from 1981 (Colours) through 1993 (Reach of Love) is easily the peak of their career.

Lyrically, I'm not sure any Christian band has come close to tackling the political and social topics REZ did, everything from poverty to the threat of nuclear war to the plight of Vietnam veterans to apartheid. On the one hand, some of the lyrics date the songs pretty significantly. On the other hand, it's a tribute to how connected they were with the real world through their JPUSA ministry.

Thank you for your insight CatNamedManny!

Very helpful!