ALBUM REVIEW - "RISE UP" BY THE DANIEL BAND

 "Rise Up" is the fourth of Daniel Band's five studio albums. As you'd expect if you listened to their other projects, there is a lot of good hard rock songs with straight forward Christian lyrics.

Any song that calls us back to our relationship with Christ - our Bethel - gets my approval, and that's how this album starts. It works its way through several good songs before getting to the equally powerful "Right Heart." Normally, I'd identify all the good songs, but they're all good songs.

One note if you're looking at the Spotify list instead of having the product in front of you: you'll see "Rise Up" listed as both the second and fourth songs on the project. Nope, they goofed - the fourth song is actually "Paradise."

This version of the product has a bonus track - "That's Alright," originally written and recorded by Darrell Mansfield. The Daniel Band has a few minor tweaks to the song instrumentally, and includes the third verse which deals with evolution: Darrell performs that verse live wearing a monkey mask, but it's not on the original recording.

As you'd expect, I highly recommend this project.

ALBUM REVIEW - "RUN FROM THE DARKNESS" BY THE DANIEL BAND

 

A friend of mine, Concert Fotos photographer Chad Fenner, told me this was his third favorite album. Ever.

As a fan of the Daniel Band, and hearing some of the songs in isolation, I wasn't surprised. But a couple of weeks ago, I finally listened to the complete project, and concur that this is a great album.

I can talk about all the great songs on this project. It's easier to say they all fit that category. One song, however, stands out, which is the title track. That song has joined "He's The Creator" (from On Rock), "Spiritual Game" (also On Rock), and "Here I Am" (from Straight Ahead) as my favorite Daniel Band songs.

In other words, I really enjoyed it.

One other note - the final two tracks on this version were originally on other projects. "My Children" was the finale on the fourth album, "Rise Up," while "In The Sky" was originally on  their dubut project, "On Rock." Listening to the latter on Spotify, it gives the time as being 6 minutes, about twice as long as the "On Rock" version, but on Spotify, the extra time is silent.