Gideon's Army
Grace
Reviewed by Doug Van Pelt
This hard rock band from the Pacific Northwest returns with a good compact disc release on Pan-Trax Records (the same label for Ruscha and Lex Rex) that's head and shoulders over their last release--"Warriors Of Love." Darin Warren's guitar playing is impressive, ranging from blazing hammer-ons to clean, soaring screams. Most of the tunes here fit somewhere between Petra and Whiteheart. The songs are good, but lack the commercial simplicity and bit hooks of a Jefferson Starship or the two fore-mentioned bands. While the band does what they do well, and I'm sure they do a great job ministering in prisons, I don't think they'll win a big audience of rockers with this mixture of pop and rock.