Testimony
He's Alive
Reviewed by Doug Van Pelt
Here's another, more professional offering from Florida's Testimony. This full-length project (13 songs!) has a much better production than their previous material, which featured three songs that are included here: "I Hear His Voice"; "You Are Lord"; and "In The Twinkling Of An Eye". He's Alive starts off the tape with a hard rock/metal feel, before "Second Chance" kicks in with the synthesizers, producing an interesting blend of synth pop and heavy rock. Sounds kind of like a combo of Crumbacher and Barnabas...stuff that could be real successful playing for youth groups.
"In The Twinkling Of An Eye" is a cool song with a real emotional, pulsating guitar/keys intro and gentle vocals. The theme, as you may have guessed, is about being "caught up in the air" at the last trumpet sound (the rapture).
Another highlight is "Valley Of Death", a fusion of Ecclesiastes and Psalm 23. Some power chords crunch and sustain a bit here. This song and "Gethsemane" are hot and probably hotter in concert.
The rest of the tape lacks some punch and has the song-crafting that would have blended well with Christian rock's early material on the MRC label, but not in today's competitive hard rock/metal genre.