''This Means War!'' is the ninth studio album of the

Christian rock Christian rock is a form of rock music that features lyrics focusing on matters of Christian faith, often with an emphasis on Jesus, typically performed by self-proclaimed Christian individuals. The extent to which their lyrics are explicitly Ch ...

band,

Petra Petra ( ar, ٱلْبَتْرَاء, Al-Batrāʾ; grc, Πέτρα, "Rock", Nabataean Aramaic, Nabataean: ), originally known to its inhabitants as Raqmu or Raqēmō, is an historic and archaeological city in southern Jordan. It is adjacent to t ...

. It was released in 1987. In this album, the band started to refine their movement into a more

hard rock Hard rock or heavy rock is a loosely defined subgenre of rock music typified by aggressive vocals and distorted electric guitars. Hard rock began in the mid-1960s with the garage, psychedelic and blues rock movements. Some of the earliest hard ...

arena rock Arena rock (also known as AOR, melodic rock, stadium rock, anthem rock, pomp rock, corporate rock and dad rock; ; ) is a style of rock music that originated in the mid-1970s. As hard rock bands and those playing a softer yet strident kind of po ...

sound, still retaining keyboard synthesizers to back the driving guitar work. This album also signaled the beginning of a military motif present in the song lyrics that the band would carry through several of their following albums.

Track listing

Awards

* Nominated for

Grammy Award for Best Gospel Performance The Grammy Award for Best Gospel/Contemporary Christian Music Performance is an award presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards. According to the 54th Grammy Awards descr ...

in 1987. * Won the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

's Contemporary Christian album of the year in 1988.

Personnel

Petra *

Bob Hartman Robert "Bob" Hartman (born December 26, 1949) is a Christian artist, guitarist, writer and songwriter. He is the founder of Christian rock band Petra. Hartman was involved with the band from its foundation in 1972 to its end in 2005. He took ...

– lead guitars, additional programming, arrangements *

John Schlitt John William Schlitt (born February 3, 1950) is an American singer, who was the lead singer of Christian rock band Petra from 1986 until the band's retirement in early 2006. Prior to joining Petra in 1986, Schlitt was the lead vocalist for Head ...

– lead vocals, background vocals *

John Lawry John Lawry (born June 15, 1950) is a Christian rock musician, composer, producer, and songwriter. He was the keyboardist of Petra from 1984 to 1994. After his departure, Lawry dedicated himself to producing and record engineering. From 2010 to 201 ...

– keyboards, computer programming, background vocals *

Mark Kelly Mark Edward Kelly (born February 21, 1964) is an American politician, former astronaut, and United States Navy captain who has served as the junior United States senator from Arizona since 2020. A member of the Democratic Party, he was electe ...

– bass guitar, background vocals *

Louie Weaver Louie Adrian Weaver III (born July 13, 1951) is a drummer most famous for being the long-time drummer of Christian rock band Petra. Weaver was dismissed from the band in 2003. He is currently working on several projects. In 2010, Weaver reunited ...

– drums, additional programming Additional musicians *

John Elefante John Elefante (born March 18, 1958) is an American singer-songwriter, instrumentalist, and record producer. From 1981-1984, he was lead vocalist of the rock group Kansas and is currently touring with several groups that have featured members fro ...

– additional programming, background vocals, arrangements * Tim Heintz – additional programming * Dino Elefante – arrangements * Tom Hrbacek and Los Alamitos High School Marching Drummers – percussion on "This Means War" Production * John Elefante – producer,

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the l ...

, mixing at Pakaderm Studio,

Los Alamitos, California Los Alamitos () is a city in Orange County, California. The city was incorporated in March 1960. The population was 11,780 at the 2020 census, up from 11,449 at the 2010 census. The adjacent unincorporated community of Rossmoor uses the same 90 ...

* Dino Elefante – producer, engineer, mixing * Mike Mireau – engineer * Steve Hall – mastering at Future Disc, Los Angeles * Dave Rogers – art direction, design * Chris Hopkins – illustration

References

{{Authority control 1987 albums Petra (band) albums