Jerusalem
10 Years After
Reviewed by Doug Van Pelt
Here's a "greatest hits" package from Swedish veterans, Jerusalem. At least two songs were picked from each of their albums: Volume One; Volume Two; Warrior; Can't Stop Us Now; In His Majesty's Service; Dancing on the Head of the Serpent; (Notice how the album titles keep getting longer? Maybe they should've called this one "A brief look at the last ten years of a Christian band called Jerusalem.") and even three cuts from lead singer Ulf Christiansson's solo album, In My Dreams. The highlight of this package for me will be having "The Wind Is Blowing" on cd. I can't understand, though, why "Sodom" was not chosen for this album. It is undoubtedly a classic song. Anyone who's heard it would probably agree. It's probably their best song ever! Also left off Warrior were "Man of This World" and "Ashes in Our Hands". Instead of putting the live version of "Time" in this collection, the rare studio version from the now out-of-print Front Row various artist album could've been here, making this a real collector's item. We are treated to some vintage photographs, though, which are amusing. "Covered by Blood", which is on the Swedish version of the Dancing... cd, is featured here. Jerusalem's first two albums (which were originally sung in Swedish and then translated to English) and Ulf's solo album leave a little to be desired in the song composition, performance, and production departments - one exception being "Like a Thief in the Night" from In My Dreams. Warrior, in my opinion, was the turning point for Jerusalem, and was probably the best Christian hard rock album at the time. The year was 1982, and no Christian artist had really put out an album with a consistent hard rock/metal sound. The only thing close at the time were Rez's first three albums. Jerusalem opened for Rez at this time also (Okay, enough history lessons...) creating the first real metal bill in Christian music. Jerusalem had more of a bluesy sound at the time, kind of like Thin Lizzy and early Whitesnake. All that to say this: If you've never heard any of Jerusalem's early material, check this out. Try to get ahold of Warrior if at all possible through underground mail-order buying and trading.