Petra: Farewell (Album Review)

Yesterday I came home to my pre-ordered copy of the final Petra CD, Farewell. Although I was thrilled to see it there, my feelings were mixed. It is the last album in Petra's 33-year ministry. I've been into Petra since I was about 13. I remember going to the local Christian bookstore and seeing this album cover of a big airplane hanger. The album was Beyond Belief. I got it home and I was hooked! To me, that is Petra...

I saw them perform later that year in Charlotte, NC with my church youth group on the Unseen Power tour (I believe). I also later saw them in Columbia, SC on the Wake Up Call tour as well as the No Doubt tour at Carowinds in Fort Mill, SC. They put on an awesome show.

The Good
Back to the Farewell cd, it was recorded live in Nashville in front of a small crowd of friends and family. There are 14 tracks on the disc. Two of them are medlies - a Rock Medly and an Acoustic Medly. The Acoustic Medly reunites the band with Greg X. Volz, their former lead singer. He also performs Grave Robber (very well, I might add). The rest of the vocals are performed by John Schlitt. Also back with the band is John Lawry on a few of the songs and his Jesus Loves You keyboard solo (remember that from the Captured In Time and Space live album?). Of course, we have Bob Hartman on guitars. He played the songs with ease! It was a really heavy album too - most of the songs are their heavier works. The Acoustic Medly is excellent also. I could probably go on with the good things for a while, but trust me, if you're a Petra fan you will love it!

The Bad
OK, I have to hit on a couple of things here. The biggest let-down was that Louie Weaver was not playing drums on this album. I'm not sure what happened between him and the band, but I wish they could have patched things up for this album. One of the other oddities was that the intro to Creed was played on the guitar. This song is known for starting with the keyboard! The other letdown, from a guitarist's perspective, was that the guitar solo wasn't "stellar". It was good, but it just wasn't the all-out, wailing, last hurrah I was expecting to hear from Bob Hartman!

Now, go grab a copy and listen to it for yourself!!

Now Playing: "Beyond Belief" by Petra