Disco de Pillar: “Worship Extreme”

I've only heard this album once since I just borrowed it from somebody, but I know immediately that this is an album that I want to get! This is the album I had expected when I bought "X-Treme:Blue - Worship On The Edge" but got ripped off. I reviewed that album here at Amazon, complaining that the record company had engaged in misguided marketing (I used a stronger adjective but Amazon deleted it) to call an album of worship with so conservative, so middle-of-the-road mushy-sounding songs "extreme." But THIS album is TRULY worthy of its title, "Worship Extreme." The styles of music are hard-edged alternative, rapcore, hardcore metal, and rap. There are 13 tracks, 13 different artists; some are widely familiar artists such as Pillar, Justifide, Fold Zandura, and East West; others are artists I've never heard of and in fact some are artists whose songs are not on any other album. So at times the album sounds a tad bit on the amateur side, but it's a very minor drawback for an album that really goes all out for bringing new life to worship music.

There are some familiar songs on here-"Open The Eyes Of My Heart," "Everyday" (this song was also done by Sonicflood), and "God Of Wonders," but most are originals. For these three popular songs, they are definitely the most on-the-edge versions I have heard...very nice!

Some lyrical themes of the original songs...

"The Moment" by Forthright:

I know You're here, You're always here

You said that You'd be faithful

You forever remain truthful

"Why" by Justifide:

You are the one and only God

We lift our voices in praise to Your name

You stand high above anything we could imagine

The punk song "Eucalyptus" by Hemmingway speaks with anticipation of the day "when I see You face to face." The final song on the album, by Deva, is a re-working lyrically and musically of the traditional hymn "Amazing Grace," done with acoustic guitar dominating.

For me, worship songs are songs that speak directly to God ("You") rather than speak about God ("Him"), although there are plenty of Psalms that mix up "You" and "Him" in the same Psalm, so I can't say indirect words are not worship; it's just not my taste. For that reason, I don't find the punk song "Just To Say" by Headstrong or the rap song "Thankful For The Mic Chord" by Cal Logic to be easy to worship with, since they are indirect lyrically, speaking about God. Pillar's rapcore song "Open Your Eyes" is even harder for me to associate with worship because the focus of the song is to someone else, urging them to open their eyes regarding God's glory. That's more like evangelism to me than worship.

Overall, though, I love this album! It's the kind of thing I've been desperately searching for in worship albums--something powerful, as God is powerful, something lively and truly "on the edge" musically, but consisting of words sung directly to God in worship. This album achieves that overall. I'm surprised it's not more well-known. It deserves to be!