Reviewed by Rebecca Mason

The great rock guitar start to this album certainly surprised me as it was not the usual Matt Redman-esque church worship band sound I was expecting! The lead singer Tim Barton has a perfect voice for rock. NlighteN are a five-piece band from the West Midlands who began life when asked to lead worship for children's church! The Coldplay influence is obvious, however, the songwriting is impressive and for an independent release the sound is amazing. You can tell they work hard at this. Imagine what they can do when they get signed! It is about time we had some more decent British rock to challenge the welter of releases by US rock bands we're seeing at the moment. It is great to see a band writing material of such a high standard and not just doing covers of worship songs. All the songs are very catchy and I will be playing this on my car stereo! "In This Place" is a hauntingly melodic worship song whilst "Here It Is" has a catchy rock chorus. All the lyrics point to Jesus and speak of the realities of life, such as the first track "Struggle". "I Can Live" is a bit slow and dreary and the final untitled track is a random piece of music with no words. All in all though these guys have a big future ahead of them and I am looking forward to hearing more from them as they continue to grow as a band.

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.

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