Reviewed by Steven Bridge

I was praying over doing this review when I felt God nudge me to look at the meaning of this group's name: Building 429. No biography I read gave any clue. Is it code for a Bible verse I wondered? So I looked up all the 429's in the New Testament and they had no bearing until I came to Ephesians 4:29, "Do not let any unwholesome words come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for BUILDING others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen." Whether this is the real reason for their name or prophetic, the verse does sum up for me the heart of this band to be for the Church with a ministry focus to shine a light on the life of faith and the person of Jesus Christ their inspiration and sustainer. As any follower of US CCM will tell you, Building 429 are a rock trio from North Carolina who formed in 2000, play around 200 gigs a year and have three successful albums behind them. This is their fourth set with a new label and offers 10 tracks oozing cement-like chords and hooky melodic rock crafted to build up the Church. One standout track is "Always", a soul-stirring and faith-rising ballad which attempts to help the listener to address some of those unanswerable "Why?" questions that Christians face when tragedy strikes. Another cut that is worth highlighting is the catchy "End Of Me", which deals with those moments in life when we come to full stop or pause when we realise we have come to the end of ourselves. All the album tracks piece together to make a most effective album.

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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