Some bands are artistically innovative boundary breakers with an unwavering ability to cast their nets wide and attract an audience that literally spans all walks of life. Others put their focus exclusively on unabashed praise and are so anointed they can literally usher listeners into the presence of God with a single strum of a chord. And while Worth Dying For certainly fits both impressive character profiles, the California-based troupe of praise purveyors is actually something much grander in the form of an all encompassing movement spanning worship, the arts and the church as a whole.

On the musical side of the coin, Worth Dying For is currently readying the release of Live Riot, its third national long player and fitting follow-up to 2011’s Love Riot. The collection of 10 brand new songs and a few live versions of already familiar material was culled from a praise service at the Ammunition Conference, which the group hosts annually to unite worship leaders and speakers from all the world over. However, the members of this ministry team don’t just serve on stage but literally roll up their sleeves in the trenches, as evidenced in their forthcoming FEARLESS church planting efforts in Los Angeles.

“Worth Dying For is a faceless army of worshippers that’s not about certain people in a band or ministry,” explains co-founder Christy Johnson. “We really believe in investing in people and raising them up. We don’t use people to make ministry happen. We use ministry to make people happen and we love seeing when someone starts out as an intern and is later able to get up in front of people and usher thousands into the presence of God.”

Indeed, the journey of all Worth Dying For’s facets is an unconventional one, dating back to 2007’s self-released debut Ammunition and winding through 2008’s self-titled label debut on Integrity Records (which found the troupe leading worship on Creation Festival: The Tour). Come 2011, the group returned to the self-releasing route on Ammunition Records, the home of both Love Riot and Live Riot, the latter of which features original members Christy Johnson, Josh O’haire and Sean Loche, as well as new worship leaders Dalisha Turner, Deanna Joven, Nick Morris, Rochelle Leguern and Sarah Agbayani.

“What we want people to experience whenever we play or when they listen to Live Riot is not a band that wants to get up there and perform for people, but one that’s all about making His presence known,” continues Nick. “Our hunger personally is for God to resonate and I think people catch onto that. You can’t take people anywhere you haven’t been.”

Adds Sean: “Our goal is to always disappear and remove ourselves from the equation. We hear testimony after testimony about someone who wanted to end their life and get connected to God, someone who had a broken leg and was healed, or someone who had their purity restored. The last thing we want with this album is to feel like it was a concert and just a lot of fun. We want people to encounter the power of God, fall more in love with Him and change their life for the better.”

In order to help facilitate those goals, it doesn’t hurt that Worth Dying For just so happens to be a razor-sharp musical collective with some of the most intriguing sounds of any musical scene. Perhaps Christianity Today.com described it best: “Taking the adrenaline up a notch while bursting through all the worship clichés—all while remaining reverent—makes for an assertive and musically alluring album. Even with the vertical lyrics, the band would easily fit modern rock radio, switching between synth-spiked pop, power ballads and screamo.”

Although the moments of worship are deep, high-energy praise songs like “Freedom Is Rising” and “One Love” keep listeners on the edge of their seats, while modern worshippers will also be drawn in by ballads like “Risen from the Grave” and the prophetic style of “Spirit of God.” The album also includes explosive new live versions of already established fan favorites, including “Savior,” “Higher” and “Love Riot.”

"We'll go from a song that has driving guitars, loud drums, and screaming in one song to a soft, melodic, ballad in the next. You can hear our musical influences which range from As I Lay Dying, to Coldplay, to LeCrae,” continues Sean, before Christy interjects. “And sometimes there are very spontaneous moments of worship led by the Holy Spirit where a song can stretch out like nine, ten or even fifteen minutes. We’ve never captured that on a CD before until now and it’s a very powerful account of the raw passion we’re all experiencing.”

Worth Dying For also draws comparisons to other seminal modern worship collectives including Planetshakers, Jesus Culture and Hillsong United. Indeed, much of those similarities stem from their shared format of being a worship team, church community and forum planners, which is where the Ammunition Conference comes into play.

“Long story short, my husband and I started a camp to coincide with Spirit West Coast Festival six or seven years ago under a tent with music and speakers,” recalls Christy of the venture she spearheaded with her husband/pastor Jeremy Johnson. “It grew to the point where we were attracting speakers from all over the nation so we thought ‘why not have a conference in our home church in February in addition to the camp in the summer?’ Ammunition Conference started two years ago and last year it doubled in size to about 3,000 people. We wound up stopping the camp aspect to put all our efforts into Ammunition and we’re currently in the process of branching out to various locations across the nation.”

Opportunities for Worth Dying For’s unique ministry umbrella are sure to grow all the more as 2012 finds the church plant FEARLESS getting off the ground with a mission that’s just as bold as the group’s soul stirring musical expressions. "We were traveling to an event with our team to lead worship and Jeremy heard God speak to Him,” unveils Christy. “For him, although the team was loud and having fun, the sound drowned out to dead silence in his mind. At that moment, he heard God speak, 'In 5 years, you will plant a church with this worship team.' It happened that my dad is the pastor at Calvary Temple where we were serving and 5 years later, he released us and the team to go into L.A."

For the first year, the group will build a ministry team throughout L.A., then love on the city in general with the goal of salvation, in turn, creating the need for a physical church and subsequent service. From there, FEARLESS will be officially up and running with Worth Dying For leading worship alongside a full-fledged multi-media team for maximum ministry impact.......

Website | Lyrics


Audio ::
[FILE FACTORY]

Video ::
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Wilson was raised in the Chicago, Illinois area. Since his childhood, Wilson began singing with the adult male chorus at the Rock of Ages Baptist Church.

After growing up, Wilson enrolled at the University of Illinois, where he also sang in the black chorus. He eventually graduated with a degree in Liberal Arts and Sciences, with an emphasis on economics. Wilson took a job as a pharmaceutical salesman, while he continued to sing on his free time.

After seven years, Wilson moved to Houston, Texas, to work for Johnson & Johnson. He started visiting Windsor Village United Methodist Church with a friend and became a born-again Christian. After some time, Wilson was invited to write music for their services, with some of his songs receiving airplay in local radio stations.

At some point, Wilson met Pastor Rudy Rasmus, who was looking for songs to pitch to friend and music entrepreneur Mathew Knowles. After listening to Wilson's song "Already Here", Knowles signed Wilson to his record label Spirit Rising/Music World.

In 2009, Wilson released his debut album titled Just Love. The album was produced by Stan Jones and features contributions by Tommy Simms. In 2010, the title song was nominated for a Dove Award for Urban Recorded Song of the Year, while Wilson himself was nominated for New Artist of the Year at the 41st GMA Dove Awards. Wilson re-released a deluxe edition of his album on October 5, accompanied by a nationwide tour through 25 cities in the United States.

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Owl City is an American electronic/synthpop musical project by singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Adam Young, formed in 2007 in Owatonna, Minnesota. Young created the project while experimenting with music in his parents' basement. Like many musicians that achieved success in the era between 2005 and 2009, Owl City developed a following on the music and social networking site Myspace in the late 2000s before signing with Universal Republic in 2008.

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Velasquez has sold almost five million albums around the world, recorded three Platinum and three Gold albums, and recorded 16 singles that hit No. 1 plus six more that hit the top-10. She has received seven Dove Awards including Best New Artist and Female Vocalist of the Year. Velasquez has co-hosted a morning radio show since late 2010.

Velasquez released her national debut album Heavenly Place in 1996 and five of the songs on that CD became No. 1 hits (she had two previous independent records). The album was later certified Platinum. Velasquez has been distinguished as the fastest selling solo debut recording artist in her genre and the first solo artist in Christian music history to reach gold status with a debut album, prior to release of sophomore project. She has since released six English-language albums, two of which were certified Gold. She has produced sixteen No. 1 Christian radio hits and six other top-10 singles, and has won seven Dove awards, including New Artist of the Year and two Female Vocalist of the Year wins. Jaci has covered over 50 magazines as well as been a spokes-model for Pepsi, Target, Doritos, John Freida's Frizz-Ease hair products and Helzberg Diamonds.

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Scars & Stories was recorded beginning in March 2011, and concluded in July 2011. Unlike their debut album How to Save a Life and their self-titled second album, which were both produced by Aaron Johnson and Mike Flynn, their third album was produced by Brendan O'Brien. During a performance at the Hard Rock cafe in Boston, Massachusetts, Isaac Slade stated that the album Scars & Stories was named after a B-side that did not make it onto the third record. He went on to explain that each of the band members have been through a lot of hardships, but collectively they were able to pull through.

"We've been through a lot of stuff personally, and as band we're still together, and I think we like the idea of scars you know, because they're healed you know. They are not like wounds necessarily, but they're still kind of a road map of where you been, and sometimes kinda point to where you want to go."

The album artwork was revealed on November 16, 2011; following the video premiere of the first single, Heartbeat.

The album was made available to pre-order on October 18, 2011 on the band's website. On December 20, 2011 the deluxe edition of the album became available for pre-order on iTunes, featuring 5 bonus tracks; all covers. In addition, the band made the single "The Fighter" available for download.

Writing and Recording ::
During an interview with Vevo the band revealed that they used part of the album's budget to travel and see the world before writing and recording songs for Scars and Stories. The band wrote over 70 songs, and narrowed it down to what they hoped were the [best 12 songs], most of which were heavily influenced by their travels abroad. For instance, the first single "Heartbeat" was inspired by a trip to Rwanda. Slade talked about his encounter with an expatriate women who was talking about the genocides in Rwanda. In the midst of their conversation she held his hand, and he could feel a pulse, but was unable to tell if it was his pulse or her's.

Also the song the sixth track titled "1961", personifies the Berlin Wall, as two brothers that are at odds with each other:

"We wrote that song about The Berlin Wall and the division it represented in regards to one unified city becoming two cities still under the covering of a country. They're both German, but in a sense, they were as far from each other as they could possibly be. I think that's how our relationships can be sometimes. Not to sound cliché, but we all as people build these walls that don't really come down until someone comes into our lives, tears them down, and says, "Enough!""

In addition the eight track on the album titled "Munich" follows the same mode of inspiration, as it is inspired by a particle collider in Switzerland. During an interview Slade mentions that "...they're looking for the God Particle, basically, the particle that holds it all together. That song is really just about the mystery of why we're all here and what's holding it all together, you know?"

Joe King explained "You pull from different locations and places. There’s the cultures and the different people you meet living life...You have to live life, you have to have experiences in order to be able to write stories.” Such stories served as the inspiration for the tenth track titled "48 To Go". During an interview with Jim Shearer on VH1's Big Morning Buzz Live Slade revealed that inspiration for this song came from a road trip he and his wife, Anna took (while they were just dating) from Denver, Colorado to Los Angeles. During the road trip they stopped multiple times to "make-out"; as a result they became lost and ended up 600 miles off course; as Isaac Slade put it "...[we were] two states in and forty-eight states to go".

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Parachute Band is a worship band from Auckland, New Zealand, formed out of the New Zealand-based Christian organisation Parachute Music The band makes pop/rock music and is currently in its second generation, with the current line-up regularly topping the mainstream MySpace NZ Music Charts for acts on a Major Label, and it also won the coveted People's Choice Award at the 2008 New Zealand Music Awards.

The first Parachute Band line-up was formed in 1995 to lead worship at Parachute Festival, and has since grown into a full-time endeavour. Parachute Band records New Zealand-written contemporary worship music, and performs it both in New Zealand and worldwide.

The original line-up, led by Wayne Huirua, Libby Huirua and Chris de Jong, released seven studio albums, toured extensively in the U.S., won numerous New Zealand Music Awards for Best Gospel/Christian Album, won the Gospel Music Association's International Achievement award (in the U.S.) and paved the way for what the band is today.

In 2006 the original members retired from the band and a complete generational changeover took place. This was marked by a moving ceremony at Parachute Festival 07.

The second generation Parachute Band (formerly known as Victor Rose) has released three studio albums; Roadmaps and Revelations (September 2007), Technicolor (September 2008) and Love Without Measure (February 2011). The band has toured extensively in USA, Canada, Asia, South Africa, UK, Europe, New Zealand and Australia. Highlight performances have been: Mainstage slots at Creation Festival east to 65,000 people, Mainstage at Kingdom Bound Festival in NY to 50,000 people and also being the house band for the annual Parachute Festival to 25,000 people.

This new face of Parachute Band carries a passion to influence their generation through worship music that is relevant. Five young musicians in their 20s have been passed the mantle and an exciting synergy has quickly formed to create a new guitar-driven sound.

Winners of the 2008 VNZMA Peoples Choice Awards, the band's sophomore release Technicolor was a finalist for 2009's Best Gospel/Christian Album.

Parachute Bands latest album Love Without Measure has already been in the Top Ten of many charts since its release at the Parachute Festival in February 2011. Love Without Measure shot to No. 3 in the New Zealand iTunes on its first week of release, debuted a No. 2 on the official RIANZ chart and No. 1 on the IMNZ charts.

Love Without Measure was also the first recording that the band has self-produced, and drummer/producer Sam de Jong says, “The process for this album has been one non-stop learning curve. I feel like we’ve pulled together something that reflects where we’re at.

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Christian hip hop is making a difference for African students in the Congo this winter. Premier music web site Rapzilla.com in conjunction with Syntax Distribution releases the compilation album King Kulture on January 31st. Proceeds from the album benefit Ecole de la Borne, a school in the Congo started by Christian missionaries.

The idea came about when Rapzilla founder Philip Rood and his team were looking for ways to expand the web site’s charitable reach. “We wanted to give proceeds from a project to some kind of charity in Africa,” Rood says. “It hit me that my grandparents are missionaries in the Congo. We can do something with them.”

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Andrew Greer is an accomplished singer/songwriter and respected music journalist. While his critically-acclaimed 2009 debut, Open Book, chronicled a soul-searching season that ultimately led to the rekindling of his faith, Andrew’s musical journey now makes an important stop—a step back to his roots. Angel Band is a collection of treasured hymns, the beloved songs that first arti...culated, and still remain, his story.

“I can’t recall many of the sermons my pastor preached, or the lessons my Sunday School teachers taught, but I do remember hymns,” Greer says of his inspiration for the project. “In fact, if it hadn’t been for the impact of those indelible tunes, I may have never fallen in love with music, or been introduced to God.”

Bringing together some of the top names in bluegrass, Gospel and Christian music, highlights include the title track and “Softly and Tenderly,” featuring renowned bluegrass singer/songwriter Sonya Isaacs; “Jesus Paid It All” and Greer’s original “I’ve Been Searching,” with Gospel music icons The McCrary Sisters; “The Lord’s Prayer” with Ron Block (Alison Krauss & Union Station); “Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus,” a duet with Dove Award-winning singer/songwriter Cindy Morgan; and “I Am Thine O Lord/Near The Cross,” with Dove Award-winning singer/songwriter Ginny Owens, among other selections. Other guest artists include Julie Lee, Sandra McCracken, Marc Scibilia and Andrew's mother, Jane Greer.

[COMING SOON]

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Change can be a great thing, but it doesn’t always happen overnight. For some bands, the process can take the better part of a decade, between locking in the right lineup, finding the ideal sound and forging a unified creative vision. After eight years as a band, heavy metal trailblazers Blessed By A Broken Heart are finally there, and are embracing the changes as yet another chapter in their alre...ady distinguished career. And the best is yet to come.

After spending the last three years writing their third full-length release, Blessed are ready to get loud and make some noise, featuring new members, a retooled aesthetic and a sharply honed focus on monster hooks, sure to have fans everywhere banging their heads and hoisting lighters and phones high up into the air. One thing is clear: Blessed have come to bring the rock.

“We've been writing this record for the last three years, kind of like a Def Leppard thing. You can't rush greatness,” says drummer Slater. “We've grown—We're still a fun, carefree band with songs about partying and having a good time and everything rock 'n' roll's all about—but we've got some songs that are more serious, and a little more personal. We've all grown as musicians, too; it's more technical and a lot more melodic, yet still heavy.”

Blessed By A Broken Heart began in 2003 in Montreal, Canada after being founded by bassist Tyler Hoare, and the band issued its first recording—All Is Fair In Love And War—just a year later, in 2004. Early tours included a notable run with punk-core sensations A Day To Remember, who were on the road for the first time. Blessed continued to evolve over the years, with guitarist Shred Sean joining the ranks in 2005 and vocalist Tony Gambino signing on in 2007, leading to the band’s 2008 release, Pedal To The Metal, on Century Media Records. In those five years since their inception Blessed toured incessantly, including playing jam-packed houses in the U.S., U.K., Japan mainland Europe and Australia, performing alongside bands such as Judas Priest, Bring Me The Horizon, Steel Panther, Megadeth and Maylene And The Sons Of Disaster. In 2009 Blessed parted ways with Century Media Records, paving the way for their current collaboration with Tooth & Nail Records.

Over the course of the last eight years, Blessed has experienced a near constant evolution, including various lineup changes, and a stylistic progression away from pure metalcore in favor of more traditional metal and hard rock. One listen to the new album and it’s apparent that Blessed are no longer the same band that recorded All Is Fair, and if you ask the members, that’s their saving grace. Staying ahead of the curve and distancing themselves from the pack is the key to longevity, and the reason the new album will resonate with even the most veteran headbangers.

“We've definitely matured as a band. We really wrote this album collectively, and it just naturally had this progression of where we all wanted to go,” says vocalist Tony Gambino. “It naturally went in this direction. I think all of us are over the hardcore/metalcore stuff; we were one of the first bands that were successful doing that back in 2003. Now, there are millions of bands trying to be like that, and we want nothing to do with it. We're not in this to follow the trends—we're in it to do what we love.”

And indeed, this latest record is not your typical modern metal album, by any stretch. Between its anthemic choruses, rich keyboards and scorching guitar licks, the album evokes the feel of a classic ’80s metal album a la Mötley Crüe and Guns N’ Roses, yet moves beyond sheer nostalgia into true creative territory. Blessed are quick to point out that the genre is something the band eats, sleeps and breathes, and this time around they’re playing for keeps, channeling their passion into a serious, yet still fun, compendium of songs that keep the hair metal torch burning, sans irony, here in 2011.

“The whole band is still obsessed with the ’80s, and that's bled into our lifestyles. It's not just when we're on tour: We all kind of dress ’80s; we still have mullets. It's become part of our lives,” says Gambino. “On the last album, we used more of the cheesy side of the ’80s, and this album we used a little more of the mature side. It's a little less fluff, a lot less cheese, a little more serious. We’ve kind of gone a little more classic metal and heavy rock ‘n’ roll. It's real organic how it all came together.”

Another stylistic departure was made with the band’s choice of producer. Instead of tapping the usual suspects for a metal record, Blessed opted to work with pop-punk/rock veteran James Paul Wisner (Dashboard Confessional, New Found Glory, Paramore) at his South Florida HQ. It proved to be a sound move, between Wisner’s skills at enhancing Blessed’s melodic leanings and his abilities as an engineer, which resulted in what’s arguably the band’s best sounding recording to date.

“We scoped out a lot of producers, but because this record was a lot more commercial-savvy, we wanted to go with someone who wasn't just some metal guy,” says Slater. “We wanted to go with someone who had a touch with good songwriting, good substance to songs, and someone who has a good background working with people who have written really catchy songs. More than just producing, he brought his engineering skills, too, and he can get a really good, clean sound. I think that was the best thing he brought to the table: being able to take our style and make it sound sonically in the right place.”

Beyond just the authenticity of its tone, Blessed’s latest effort tracks pulse with a prevalent heartbeat that stems from the songs being a true labor of love; writing them was very much a hands-on process that the band spearheaded through their own initiative. Over the last few years, Blessed have been writing literally everywhere, using Slater’s mobile recording rig, known as “The Cave,” to document the sessions. Besides the obvious productivity advantage of such a setup, the fact that FEEL THE POWER was written in a variety of locations adds to the album’s diversity, taking on different tones and feels based on the environment where inspiration first struck.

“Wherever I'm at we'll set up this little recording rig and write, and over the last three years, we've been in so many different places. It's kind of funny, because songs were written in different parts of the world, and those songs all have different vibes,” explains Slater. “The Seattle songs are darker, thanks to all the rain. [laughs] The New York ones are the hardest rocking. The Florida ones are all about partying on the beach.”

On the new album Blessed have also continued their topical discussions of faith and spirituality, combined with the reality of everyday life and touring, but have taken a personal, inordinately subtle approach to such themes, which is a rarity these days, when in contrast so many bands are aggressively spreading the word. “We just wrote what we were feeling at the time. We're not one of those bands to try to shove our views down people's throats,” explains Slater. “We just want to sing about what's on our mind, whether it's love or a relationship with a girl, or our faith, or partying all night on the beach. We do it all. We're not some church kids who are trying to pose to be a heavy rock band.”

So after three long years that saw significant lineup changes, vast musical growth and countless road miles, Blessed are finally armed with a bold new record, and are ready to bring their unique brand of metal to the masses; the only question is whether the world is ready. Rocking ultra-hard amid a scene that’s become reliant on copycats, clichés and trends, the Blessed are taking the genre back to its roots, and doing everything in their power to destroy stereo speakers across the globe.

“The whole vibe of this record is to forget all the bull crap; no matter what the song's about, simply FEEL THE POWER,” says Gambino. “There's so much watered down music in the scene, and we're kind of just trying to bring back the real roots of rock ‘n’ roll. At the end of the day, we're trying to rock as hard as possible.....

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Kari Jobe grew up knowing God was drawing her toward worship. “I remember hearing a worship song that applied perfectly to a family that I knew, and I knew that I wanted to write songs like that, for people who are hurting, songs that people make their own prayer to the Lord when they can’t find words of their own.”

A featured worship leader on Gateway Worship projects, Living for You and Wake Up ...the World, Kari released her self-titled debut album through Gateway Create Publishing and Integrity Music on February 10, 2009. Produced by Ed Cash, the album contains a collection of worship pop/folk songs written by Kari Jobe as well as co-writes with worship leaders/songwriters Chris Tomlin, Paul Baloche, Mia Fieldes, Ed Cash and Klaus Kuehn.

The album, Kari Jobe, features new versions of “Revelation Song,” “No Sweeter Name” and “My Beloved,” in addition to new songs of worship taken from Kari’s life and journals. She explains one of her favorites, the deeply personal “You Are for Me,” saying, “This song is gut-wrenching for me. There are times you are so broken that all you can do is sing over yourself with words like, ‘God is for me.’ But I believe it is one song that people can use to remember that God is for us, so who can be against us.” Songs of intimate musings are balanced by songs of joy and praise. The buoyant “Everyone Needs a Little” emanates with expressions of love, joy and hope, while “I’m Singing” conveys a simple happiness of heart in vocal praise to God.

“This album is about hope and life; it’s about lifting the broken off the floor and singing love over them,” says Kari. “The songs create intimate moments and outward shouting, and it’s my hope that these songs find the broken and lift them to a place of praise to God for what He’s done.”....

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