Hillsong London Hail to the King CD cover art.
|
|
|
|
Hillsong London Hail to the King CD cover art.
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
Hillsong London, is a sister church of Australia's largest evangelical congregation Hillsong Church. Hillsong London has grown from having only 100 attendees to now averaging over 6,000 people for their weekly services held at Central London's Dominion Theatre.
When any musical project has the 'Hillsong' name attached to it you are pretty much assured that your going to be hearing some very well done modern worship music and Hail To The King doesn't disappoint.
Unlike previous live style releases, Hail To The King is a studio recording. That has helped to open up new doors for the group to try a few new things to help create a slightly different, more big rock edged style of music, then heard on previous projects.
Hail To The King features a collection of thirteen new songs led by Hillsong London church worship pastor Peter Wilson, along with his worship team consisting of Jay Cook, Dave George, Michelle Grigg and Dakri Brown (New Breed).
Hillsong London has done a really nice job of creating an ebb and flow with the tempo of the songs found on this release.
The first several songs, "Now"(Israel Houghton and Peter Wilson), "Hail To The King" (Jay Cook and Gio Galanti), "I'm Not Ashamed" (Paul Andrew and Dylan Thomas), and "Rise" (Jay Cook) are modern worship songs set against a British influenced pop/rock guitar driven sound.
My favorite pick out of the group is, "I'm Not Ashamed." The songs driving rock beats act as a nice backdrop for the lyrics that talk about not being ashamed of the Gospel, and the fact that once Jesus comes into your life it opens up a whole new world for you to experience.
The second grouping of songs tracks 5-11, "You Brought Me Home" (Christian Fontana and Gio Galanti), "You Are Here" (Dave George and Dave Pankratz), "At Your Feet" (Dave George and Dave Kennedy), "I Receive" (Israel Houghton and Peter Wilson), "He Is Greater" (Jay Cook and David Kennedy), "Selah", and "Look To The Cross" (Dave George), shows Hillsong London's more traditional worship side. The songs are piano led and melodic in tempo.
This later grouping of songs, with their powerful and reverent lyrics, will probably be the ones that will make their way into a lot of church services in the near future.
Hail To The King wraps up the way it got started with two more up-tempo rocking songs, "All To Show" (Dave George), and "The Call" (Jay Cook).
With this latest release Hillsong London firmly cements their place on the modern worship stage.
One closing note: additional materials related to this release will be available in the near future, including a companion DVD. The DVD was recorded live before an audience of 6,000 people and has a planned release date of early 2009.
|
