Petra finally releases their 19th album after 6 months on the waiting list. Over those 6 months, clips of the songs have been on the Internet for all fans to see and they were tantalizing them until Double Take finally came out at the end of February.

This album features remakes of ten of the most popular classics Petra has written and played all through their first 28 years. This album also features a style never played by the veteran rock group Petra: Upbeat/Unplugged-acoustic rock. There is very little electric guitar on this album. But the mixture of fast acoustic "stuff for you" and John Schlitt's awesome voice in songs like "Praying man" and "Judas' Kiss", these songs are very fun to listen to. This album always has an orchestra playing in the background. I think the orchestra sounds the best in "Judas' Kiss" and "Beyond Belief". This album also has some Slower acoustic songs like "Creed" and "The Coloring Song".

That is the positive side. Unfortunately, this album was not perfect, unlike the rest of Petra's albums! The reason why is because some songs just don't "do" it and some songs just didn't produce the sound Petra probably meant. Songs like "He Came, He Saw" and "Beat The System" are ok, but they just don't remake to well. Some songs only sound good in their original style. Also, "This Means War!" (in my opinion) was not what I would pick to remake. According my friend Bill Sheehey (an assistant to this site in the past), "This Means War!" goes from a screaming "SATAN, THIS MEANS WAR!" to a "Let's have a friendly little quarrel." I totally agree.

This album features two new songs, "The Longing" and "Breathe in". Both these songs are excellent, and I think "Breathe in" could be a hit! You must check these out!

For this album, they again have to change personnel. Kevin Brandow leaves and Trent Thomason replaces him. But, Due to harsh financial problems with Petra, he cannot tour with them; he has to move back to Australia to live with his family because they cannot afford to move to the United States.

Well, my final thought on this album is:

PROS: Not bad at all considering it was Petra who made it. The up beat songs really worked well.

CONS: The album could have been better, maybe some other choices for remakes and a little more electric guitar....but of course that would defeat the purpose. :) Some songs just can't ever be remade because we all know "original is always better".

The main reason for making this album the style that is it was to reach out to a new generation of people, but use the same quality lyrics from the "oldies". well, finally Petra is considering to make a "rocker" next. Well, Jack, its about time, don't ya think?

- Jay Cavallaro

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Updated in 2010 with current brain capacity of the English language to articulate with proper grammar.