Reviewed by Adrian Cherrill

With more and more churches now hearteningly composing their own material for corporate worship than ever before, there is always a danger that an album of such songs is only going to appeal to those in that church. So often they are written for where that particular church is at the time. Wider appeal generally comes with a wider audience from whom to gather the songs, hence the broader appeal of Vineyard and Soul Survivor for example. Fortunately 'Out Of The Ashes' does manage to cross that boundary, but only just. Taking a similar approach to recording as Vineyard's 'Holy' or 'Hungry' (ie, live, but arranged, rather than spontaneous), Sam McVey and the band deliver a solid, heartfelt, set of worship songs with plenty of passion and awe as well as fun and enjoyment, and the musicianship is excellent too. Opener "Delight", "My Rock" with it's excellent mid-song build-up, and the title track "Out Of The Ashes" stand out as the best songs but in fact the main let down is that the whole set is just a bit too similar all the way through. There are some pace changes and one or two variations in the rhythm ("Glorify" being the best with it's Hammond organ-driven riff) but the Coldplay/mid tempo rock influence, whilst not bad, is just a bit too evident to take this album up a level.

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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