all songs written by Bob Hartman unless otherwise indicated |
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cover art:
Dispensing with the flying guitars for a while, this is possibly the most enigmatic of all Petra album covers. At the bottom of the screen we see (from above) a male in a dark windbreaker and jeans with his hands in front of him as if to ward off the bright light coming from in front of him (the top of the picture). The light is coming from one cell of a bank of what looks like TV monitors which all (except for the one with the light coming from it) are a picture of five unidentifiable people walking across a desert-like scene which is predominantly red-tinted. There are even hints of clouds between the person and the monitors. The concept for this cover apparently comes from the chorus of the title song: "You can be more than a conqueror/you will never face defeat/you can dare to win by losing all/you can face the heat, dare to beat the system." The rear cover is another view of the monitors with no hole in them (the bright light is absent). To find this album, look for something purple.
Michael's review:
This is the last Petra studio album Greg X. Volz was a part of, and in my opinion some of their finest work. Where other Petra albums have strong songs and weak songs, this album is uniformly excellent all the way through. The sound is a bit different than anything before or since; it has a synthesized techno-rock sound. The band did this on purpose because of some of the subject matter: the title track uses phrases such as "on the assembly line" and "caught in the undertow" to describe the predicament of mankind, and then goes on to say that "You can be more than a conqueror, you will never face defeat, you can dare to win by losing all, you can face the heat; dare to beat the system." "Computer Brains" says that our minds have the same "garbage in, garbage out" problems as computers, but we can "break out" of our "programming" through Christ. "Hollow Eyes" is a haunting song about feeding the hungry: "Do you dare to gaze into their hollow eyes? Are they staring holes in you with their hollow eyes?" "It Is Finished" is one of the best songs I've ever heard about the crucifixion; you've heard songs before by the same name, but this one will knock your socks off. "Speak To The Sky" encourages us to bring our problems to God: "In a corner with no windows, no apparent way to go; no escape hatch, must be some catch, must be something you don't know... when you speak to the sky wait for the answer; someone will be there to take your call. Though you may be at the brink of disaster, speak to the sky and you never will fall, no!"
Also thanx to Damyon for discovering the short "backward-masked" section in "Witch Hunt". So there will be no panic at this news, the part in question is after the second verse, and the "hidden messages" are also elsewhere in the song played forwards. There are no Satanic messages in the song. At any rate, here's what I could make out:
I'll find her today
And your little dog, too!
Everywhere until we find that ol' witch
How about a little fire, scarecrow?
Everybody we're gonna have a, a witch hunt
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April 29th, 2012 in Bartlesville, OK September 7th, 2007 in Thunder Bay, Ontario August 17th, 1995 in Wichita, Kansas November 29th, 2005 in Tønsberg RSS—more feeds |  |
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