Izdavač: Ostalo
Žanr: Hard Rok i Metal, Rok
Poreklo: Strani izvođač

Original, made in EU

Knjizica od 12 str.


Omot 5 Cd 4+

The Altar and the Door is the third studio album by American Christian rock band Casting Crowns, released on August 28, 2007 on Beach Street Records and Reunion Records. Produced by Mark A. Miller, the album was inspired by lead singer Mark Hall`s experience looking at the MySpace pages of his youth ministry students. The album`s main theme is the difference between how Christians feel in church and the compromises they make outside of it. Its musical tone, which Hall says is different and more progressive, incorporates more of a rock sound than their previous, more polished studio efforts.

The Altar and the Door received positive to mixed reviews from critics upon its release. Particular praise was given to the lyrics and the album`s overall concept, but some critics felt the album`s sound was mediocre and uninventive. The album received the award for Pop/Contemporary Album of the Year at the 39th GMA Dove Awards. It sold 129,000 copies in its first week, a record for a Christian album with no secular media support, enabling a debut at number one on the Billboard Christian Albums chart and number two on the Billboard 200 and Digital Albums charts, only blocked on the latter charts by the soundtrack for High School Musical 2. It later topped the Catalog Albums chart in 2010. The 18th best-selling Christian album of the 2000s, The Altar and the Door has sold 1.2 million copies and has been certified Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). The lead single from The Altar and the Door, `East to West`, was one of the most successful Christian singles of the 2000s, spending a total of 19 weeks atop the Billboard Christian Songs chart and peaking at twenty-five on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles chart. While not as successful as `East to West`, follow-up singles `Every Man` and `Slow Fade` were both top five hits on the Christian Songs chart.

Background and recording
The main ideas for The Altar and the Door were inspired roughly eighteen months before the album`s release. Lead vocalist Mark Hall and his co-youth pastor were encouraged by one of their students to look at MySpace. According to Hall, “It wasn’t any major surprise, but we did see a lot of kids who had two worlds going on. MySpace can be Spring Break for the brain, this place you can go and not think anyone’s ever going to find out. Kids would be listed as Christians and then show their porn star name or what kind of kisser they are. They were just presenting so many contradictions on one page. The temptation was to just get upset and think that’s terrible. But MySpace isn’t really a big problem – it’s just revealing what the problem is`.[2] He noted that this situation isn`t unique to teenagers and that while at church `we [Christians] want to serve [God]` but when `we get out there in the world ... it’s just different. We want to be accepted; we want friends. The compromises start coming in small little increments until you’re just kind of out there. Church becomes more of a guilt activator than a place to go to be with the Lord. It’s a nasty place to live, and we all live there`.[2] Hall says that `When we’re at the altar, everything’s clear, and it all makes perfect sense, and we know how to live. We know what’s right and what’s wrong. The struggle is getting this life at the altar out the door ... That’s the problem; we’re finding ourselves somewhere in the middle`.[2] Hall elaborated in a separate interview that `Somewhere between the altar and the door, it all leaks out and I`m out here wondering what to do, rationalising things instead of living the life that`s in me. So the struggle that we have as believers is trying to get those truths (that are) in our heads and highlighted in our Bibles out to our hands and feet. The songs are all the things that happen in the middle of that`. Although Hall says that he `always think[s] lyrics first`, he felt that `Once we [Casting Crowns] got into the recording I knew we were in for something different, a more progressive approach to the music. These songs sounded different in my head; they`ve been a big challenge for us as a band. And the music definitely sets the tone for the whole project`.[3]

The Altar and the Door was produced by Mark A. Miller. Most of the recording and all of the mixing for the album was done by Sam Hewitt at Zoo Studio in Franklin, Tennessee and My Refuge Studio in McDonough, Georgia; additional recording was done by Michael Hewitt and Dale Oliver at those same locations. The strings on The Altar and the Door were arranged by Bernie Herms and recorded by Bill Whittington and Steve Beers at The Sound Kitchen in Franklin, Tennessee. The album was mastered by Richard Dodd.[4]

Track listing
No. Title Writer(s) Length
1. `What This World Needs` Hector Cervantes, Mark Hall 4:41
2. `Every Man` Mark Hall, Bernie Herms, Nichole Nordeman 4:46
3. `Slow Fade` Mark Hall 4:38
4. `East to West` Mark Hall, Bernie Herms 4:26
5. `The Word is Alive` Mark Hall, Steven Curtis Chapman 5:21
6. `The Altar and the Door` Mark Hall 4:42
7. `Somewhere in the Middle` Mark Hall 5:05
8. `I Know You`re There` Jeff Chandler 3:49
9. `Prayer for a Friend` Mark Hall 2:50
10. `All Because of Jesus` Steve Fee 11:09

Personnel
Credits adapted from the album liner notes.[4]

Casting Crowns

Hector Cervantes – Electric guitar
Juan DeVevo – Acoustic guitar, electric guitar
Melodee DeVevo – Violin, background vocals
Megan Garrett – Piano, keyboard, background vocals
Mark Hall – Vocals
Chris Huffman – Bass guitar
Andy Williams – Drums
Additional musicians

Jim Gray – Conductor
Stephen Lamb – Copyist
John Catchings – Cello
Anthony Lamarchina – Cello
Carole Rabinowitz – Cello
Monica Angell – Viola
Chris Farrell – Viola
Jim Grosjean – Viola
Gary Vanosdale – Viola
David Angell – Violin
Janet Darnall – Violin
Conni Ellisor – Violin
Gary Gordetzky – Violin
Stefan Petrescu – Violin
Pam Sixfin – Violin
Alan Umstead – Violin
Cathy Umstead – Violin
Mary Kathryn Vanosdale – Violin
Karen Winkelmann – Violin