The Petra Zone

My first favorites tend to be my current favorites. I was turned onto Christian music in 1991 and I instantly loved Petra. I was fortunate to see them in Concert as well....Around '92/'93....The Newsboys opened. Excellent stuff.

So, for me...It was Petra, Newsboys, Phil Keaggy, Al Denson, Rich Mullins, Steven Curtis Chapman,Michael English and Michael W. Smith. I also liked PFR, Bride, Tamplin, Mark Farner, Mylon and Keith Green.

I still tend to like all of these artists....My top 3 are Petra, Phil Keaggy and Keith Green. Incredible talent...Just breathtaking.

I like some of the newer talent.....but, I'm old school like an old fool.

Mark

Petra was the first. I remember my brother coming home from College with he Beyond Belief cassette- it was perfect for the time and sounded as current as the stuff I really liked. From there it was The Newsboys (the early stuff that they won't even sing anymore) Jacob's Trouble, and Tourniquet. Eventually D&K, Ransom and Whitecross. Ransom came and went pretty fast, I sure did wear out that tape! Funny thing about WC is I really did not like the way Scott Wenzel sounded at first. I hates it so much that I couldn't even hear how amazing Rex Carrols licks were. Eventually I got used to Scott and my two favs were Petra and WC. NB are still around and I will see them live, but musically they are like listening to nursery rhymes compared to Tourniquet! If the new Classic Petra album is released then I will be happy to listen to four band that still release new music.

I was 10 and the first christian music I got into was This Means War. It was BA. I didn't collect a lot of music in the early 90s but I did get into dc Talk, Plankeye, Whitecross, White Heart, Harvest (thanks mom n' dad), Audio A, Delirious...

Good times.

When I first got into rock music, my mom tried to direct it toward Christian music by giving me a tape of Don't Wait for the Movie and a CD of Freedom, both by Whiteheart. So they were first. Petra followed soon after, then dc Talk. At some point, the Resurrection Band/REZ Band/REZ entered the picture, followed in no particular order by Bride, Whitecross, Guardian, Tourniquet.

My tastes in secular music were always heavier than my tastes in Christian music, partly because there was very little good truly heavy Christian music. Tourniquet was the only band I could really stand. Some Deliverance, too. Then P.O.D. and Project 86 came on the scene, followed by Demon Hunter. DH and P86 are my two favorite Christian bands that still release albums, and their presence -- and the influence of my wife -- allowed me to give up secular music (Metallica, Godsmack, Disturbed, Megadeth, Avenged Sevenfold, Iced Earth), which had affected my thoughts and actions far more than I was willing to admit.

It was about 1988 or '89 when I first heard of Christian music.....Amy Grant, Twila Paris, Michael W. Smith, Steven Curtis Chapman. I didn't like it at first, because I had grown up on 70's secular rock, but felt like I "should" listen to it because it was Christian music. It was kind of like taking bad-tasting medicine, but I made myself listen to a little at a time - at least the lyrics were good. The first artists I liked were Wayne Watson and Michael English - still not good music but they had great voices. Then about 1990 the radio station finally got around to playing Petra, but only the mellow ones like Coloring Song and Why Should TFB, which I thought were "cute." Then one day they played First Love......WHOA!!! A rock singer doing Christian music?!! I had never heard of such a thing. I didn't know who the dude was, but you could tell by his voice that he was a rock singer and man, could he sing!! I went on to find out that Petra had all this Christian rock music that wasn't played on the radio....wow, what a gold mine!

I think I've told this story before, but bear with me repeating it.

Back in 1990 (or 1991...my memory is a little fuzzy), someone gave me a Christian rock compliation tape. Most of the bands on it flat out sucked, except for two...Petra and Rez.

The Petra song was "Mine Field" from ON FIRE!. When the intro started and I heard those drums and John's scream, I was like, "Whoa! Now this is what I'm talkin' about!". The Rez song was "Love Comes Down" from BETWEEN HEAVEN AND HELL.

Both those songs convinced me that not all Christian rock was watered down, limp-wristed pablum. Besides those two, I also got into DeGarmo & Key and Whiteheart. I'm a sucker for clean guitars and harmonies, and Petra, D&K, and Whiteheart had them in spades.

Man do I feel old, everyone talking about getting into Petra with Beyond Belief. I got into Petra when I first heard More Power To Ya. A friend of mine let me listen to Stand Up and from then on it was Petra for me.

Keith Green would have been my first favorite. Petra followed soon after - even when I was 6-7 years old, I heard a lot of GVX era Petra and I recognized songs like 'Chameleon' and 'Angel of Light' as having a type of poignant message that you don't usually hear in Christian music. It wasn't till '05 or so that I was turned on to the Schlitt Petra - the first songs I really got into were 'Armed and Dangerous' and 'I Am on The Rock'. After that, I literally loaded every Petra song I could find (about 200 at the time) onto my mp3 player and listened to them over and over again; I still have the lyrics to every one of those songs memorized. Once I started learning guitar, I really got into the music of Petra - I never realized the musical wizardry of Bob and John Lawry, etc, before (having been musically illiterate up till then). Bob's music really inspired my to stretch my musical muscles, and while I'm no where near where I'd want to be (certainly I'm not match for Bob), I do credit Petra's music for my rather fast learning curve as far as musical theory and technique goes.

Other artists (non-rock) I like a lot are Don Fransisco, 2nd Chapter of Acts, Rich Mullins, Micahel Card, Twila Paris & Kelly Willard. I really appreciate Twila Paris and Kelly Willard's lyrical perception, as well as the fact that they don't sound like seductresses when they sing. I also like Randy Stonehill, Steven Curtis Chapman, Stryper, Whitecross, Disciple (what little I heard), and some Bloodgood.

Jan wrote:It was about 1988 or '89 when I first heard of Christian music.....Amy Grant, Twila Paris, Michael W. Smith, Steven Curtis Chapman. I didn't like it at first, because I had grown up on 70's secular rock, but felt like I "should" listen to it because it was Christian music. It was kind of like taking bad-tasting medicine, but I made myself listen to a little at a time - at least the lyrics were good. The first artists I liked were Wayne Watson and Michael English - still not good music but they had great voices. Then about 1990 the radio station finally got around to playing Petra, but only the mellow ones like Coloring Song and Why Should TFB, which I thought were "cute." Then one day they played First Love......WHOA!!! A rock singer doing Christian music?!! I had never heard of such a thing. I didn't know who the dude was, but you could tell by his voice that he was a rock singer and man, could he sing!! I went on to find out that Petra had all this Christian rock music that wasn't played on the radio....wow, what a gold mine!

What you said about whoa!! A rock singer doing Christian Music; Thats how I feel. John is just in a different league rock wise than Greg. Greg's voice is suited for the adult rock that Petra played in the early 80's. John can sing that style and does it very well, but his voice is more hard rock style and even has some metal in it. I think John's voice brought Christian rock to a different level in the secular world.

Petra, REZ, Daniel Band, DeGarmo & Key, Mylon & Broken Heart, Allies, David & The Giants, Stryper, Bloodgood and Altar Boys.

My favorites: Petra, Degarmo & Key, Whiteheart, Kerry Livgren(AD)

Bands that have been around for a while are as follows: Petra, Rez, Bloodgood, D&K, Whiteheart, and White Cross


Current bands are as follows: Day Of Fire, Fireflight, Jonah33, Skillet, Decemberadio.

Petra was definitely my first love, artist-wise, back in the MPTY/NOTW era and since then. Other bands/singers that I liked a lot from roughly the same time frame - Daniel Band, D&K, Rez, Mylon & Broken Heart, Steve Camp, Rick Cua, Stryper (for a little while, at least), Jars of Clay (all but their latest album), Whiteheart, Whitecross, Newsboys.

Current favorite modern Christian bands that still release records: Audiovision, Harmony, Theocracy, Rob Rock, Impelitterri (when the aforementioned Rob fronts his band), War of Ages, Demon Hunter, Becoming the Archetype, Iona, Day of Fire, Red, Pillar, Kutless, Third Day. But of all these, Theocracy is my current fave...they come close to dethroning Petra IMHO with awesome vocals, a good mix of guitars and keys, and no-compromise lyrics...close, but not quite.

And no, I am not associated with any of the aforementioned bands...just a silly old software engineer who likes to rock out.

---Prem

I first remember hearing Stryper's To Hell with the Devil, Whitecross's Hammer and Nail, and Petra's BTTS. I think that Shakin' the House was the song that really hooked me on Petra. My first cassette tape that I bought was MWS The Project, followed by This Means War!
Maybe this was a Maine show, but I remember a Christian radio show called "Bringin' the Message" that was on weekly on Sunday nights in the mid-late 80's. I remember hearing a number of the bands other people have mentioned above. It introduced me to many Christian banks. At that time in our area, the only Christian music on the radio was Sandy Patty, which was not going to cut it.