Reviewed by Les M Wilkes

This is Halo's second album, their first one creating quite an impact Stateside. Their style is solid, no-nonsense AOR with quite a strong Petra-influence. Still looking for a truly distinctive style, I feel in time they will no doubt identify and develop their strengths, amongst which for me, incidentally, were Scott Springer's powerful vocals and Barry Graul's superb guitar, and so establish themselves as one of the leading rock bands of the Christian counter- culture. Their method of taking verses of Scripture on which to build the lyrics of the songs generally works well and is often inspiring. Particularly worthy of note in this respect is the opener, "Jacob's Dream", based on Genesis 28:10-22, guaranteed to draw you up by the bootlaces if you find yourself on a spiritual low, as is "Climb The Mountain", in which Mr Graul lets rip with a short but spiritually stimulating guitar solo. Other tracks of special interest include "Thy Will Be Done", based on the Lord's prayer. The content is handled sensitively and is put X6 a melody which is simple but effective, giving it a PGF rating (personal goosepimple factor) of 7/10. Lastly, I have to mention the final cut "My Buddy". Being a father of three, I was reduced to floods of tears by the profound truth expressed in the words to this song which deal with our responsibility as parents to 'demonstrate' to our children what Jesus is like. Amongst the credits on the inlay card I found the following... " (We)... pray that many lives will be touched as a result of His (God's) work through us." Here's one person for whom that certainly came true.

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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