"Hammer and Nail" is an appropriate title for this sizzling hot album. Anyone who appreciated the Whitecross debut album last year will love this one. The production is huge and Rex Carroll's guitar licks are more intense and energetic than ever. Bands like Whitecross are helping the fledgling Christian heavy metal movement come of age. Fans of this genre have been demanding this kind of music for a long time, snatching up every new metal release and often settling for mediocre performances just because it was Christian. Whitecross wages war against mediocrity with their superb songwriting, brilliant performances and state-of-the-art production. Rex Carroll and company have high standards of quality and it shows. "Livin' on the Edge" starts the album off rockin', showing Carroll's roots in the blues. It fits right in with the current trend of resurrecting the Led-Zeppelin sound with crunchy guitars. The title-track is a neo-classical guitar solo coupled with a subtle keyboard backdrop. Sounds nice. It goes right into "Take It to the Limit", a hard driving rocker with Whitecross at full tilt. It's got it all: loud, shaking drums; a tight bass line; fast and difficult guitar leads filling every available nook and cranny; and vocals that soar with clarity and precision. Wenzel surpasses his secular counterpart (Ratt's Stephen Pearcy) in this song, showing a maturity and seasoning since last year's debut album. "Take It to the Limit", along with "Clock Strikes", resort to a clever trick. The music will suddenly change tempo as the bass and snare drums start pounding with a giant thud, while the guitar and vocals pause - a spot which is often used to get the audience clapping along in concert - before a slow, plodding chorus or verse is sung and a subdued guitar lead is blended in. It's a commercial formula that works. The only flaw with Whitecross using it so often is that listeners may be all too familiar with this. "Walk with Me" a gentle ballad with a forgiving message, is the only song here that doesn't scream for your attention. Wenzel's voice sounds as though a chorus box multiplied his vocals tenfold. The message is as beautiful as last year's "You're Mine", but the sound just doesn't live up to the Whitecross standard. "Because of Jesus" is another blues-oriented rocker with a clear and bold message that roars with an all-out guitar assault. Carroll pulls off licks that should make Eddie Van Halen want to take lessons from him. His technique is good, especially his hammer-ons, but he also adds some emotion with each sustaining note. "Clock Strikes" features a symphony of clock sounds midway through the song. The chorus is a sing-along chant of "When the clock strikes/ Your time's run out on you...when the clock strikes/ The Lord's gonna give to each man his due." "Resist Him" encourages us to resist the devil by getting close to God. "Livin' in a Lost World" slows down a little bit at the beginning, where Wenzel spotlights the melodic side of his voice. "Top of the World" is a good anthem, which starts off with an explosive guitar riff and strides along while Wenzel dances on top of the world with his "tailor-made-for-metal" vocals. It sounds like he really had fun singing it. "Since I've found Your love/ I'm on top of the world." Once you hear this album, you'll be up there too...playing air guitar, of course.