Reviewed by Trevor Kirk

When I looked at the cover of this CD from Oak Tree Anglican Fellowship in West London, one of the Holy Trinity Brompton family of churches, and saw the words "passionate and powerful worship", I had to admit a certain dread of what I thought I might hear when I played the thing. I've been reviewing for Cross Rhythms off and on for 12 years, and been music maestro at UCB for six years, and in that time I've heard an awful lot of music, and a lot of awful music. Much of the awful music tends towards hyperbole when it comes to sleevenotes, but the good news is that this does exactly what it says on the tin, this is passionate and powerful. The main credit for this goes to Tony Willis; he wrote 11 of the 12 tracks, co-produced, co-mixed and co-engineered the project, did vocals, guitars, keyboards and programming, and the CD sleeve artwork. Backing Tony is his co-worker Rhydian Hapgood, who also chips in with some guitars and keyboards and the rest of the group lends solid support. Occasionally everyone gets carried away and things get a tad messy, with screaming rock guitars dominating, but whilst none of this is likely to surface on a overhead projector or power point presentation near you, it's a worthy example of how far grassroots worship recordings are progressing.

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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