Beyond Belief

Beyond Belief is the twelfth studio album of the Christian rock band, Petra. It was released on June 20, 1990.
In this album the band continues to polish the hard rock/arena rock sound the band had been working on their previous efforts before their praise album (On Fire! and This Means War!).
As of late 2011, this is the band's most successful album both critically and commercially, and it is considered by most to be the peak of their discography. The album won the band their first Grammy after five previous nominations, and was certified gold on October 3, 1995 The success of Petra Praise opened the door for even greater success than Petra had seen previously. The Christian rock scene had exploded, and the critics of the past decade had largely been silenced. The band went back to the studio to record a hard-hitting album that would be accompanied by a concept movie, in which the characters interact with the band between six music videos.
Lyrically, the album focused on the concept of faith implied by the album's title, Beyond Belief, with radio singles entitled "Creed," "Love" and "Prayer," as well as the title track and "I Am on the Rock." Musically, the band embraced a hard rock sound reminiscent of Def Leppard, as described by CCM Magazine: "Petra has certainly moved more and more toward a big, arena rock sound in the past few years (the most obvious fruit of their association with the Elefantes), and Beyond Belief is, if not completely Kansas-inspired, certainly on par with some of the best arena rock music around."
Beyond Belief was huge, the band's most successful release ever, peaking at No. 1 on the Christian charts and certified Gold by the RIAA in 1995. The radio single "Love" shot to the top of the charts and stayed there, becoming Christian radio's biggest hit of 1991.
It won the band its first Grammy, in the newly created best Rock/Contemporary Gospel Album category, as well as Dove awards for Rock Album of the Year, Rock Recorded Song of the Year for the title track and Recorded Music Packaging of the Year. More historically, the Gospel Music Association for the first time honored a rock band as Group of the Year, as Petra beat contemporary artists 4HIM, First Call, Take 6 and BeBe & CeCe Winans.
The band was at the peak of its popularity, playing to sold-out arenas of 10,000 fans on yet another nationwide tour, and in CCM Magazine's year-end Reader's Choice Awards, the band swept to first place in eight categories, second place in four more, and garnered three times as many votes for pop/rock artist of the year as second-place finisher Michael W. Smith.

Lineup

John Schlitt (Head East) - Lead Vocals
Bob Hartman (Classic Petra, II Guys From Petra) - Guitar
Ronny Cates - Bass
Louie Weaver (Randy Matthews, Fireworks, Classic Petra, CPR) - Drums
John Lawry (Forerunner, Classic Petra, CPR) - Keyboards

Guests

John Elefante (Kansas, Mastedon) - Background Vocals
Dino Elefante (Mastedon) - Background Vocals
Dave Amato (REO Speedwagon) - Background Vocals
Walt Harrah and the Los Alamitos Congregational Choir - Background Vocals
John Andrew Schreiner (Compassion All Star Band) - Additional Keyboards