This Means War!

This Means War! is the ninth studio album of the Christian rock band, Petra. It was released in 1987.
Finishing their Back to the Street tour in December 1986, Petra entered the studio the next month to begin writing and recording the band's follow-up. In the three weeks between, Hartman wrote seven songs... the foundation of what would become This Means War!, an album that musically saw the band continue to transition away from the keyboard-influenced, highly polished rock sound it had perfected earlier in the decade and toward an arena-rock sound heavy on guitars and emphasizing Schlitt's soaring vocals.
Lyrically, This Means War! took the implicit spiritual warfare theme that had been present in Petra's albums and tours since Never Say Die and emphasized it further. Although the album ended for good the band's longstanding tradition of featuring electric guitars as warcraft, its picture of a warrior on his knees complemented songs with titles such as "Get on Your Knees and Fight Like a Man," "All the King's Horses" and the title track, a rousing rocker backed by a marching drumbeat that addressed Satan as the preordained loser of the war he had declared against Christ and his followers. The message seemed in part a response to the attacks lobbed against the band by preachers and televangelists, especially Jimmy Swaggart, who denounced rock music in general, and Petra in particular, as tools of the devil. It wasn't the first time Petra musically had addressed its Christian critics, doing so most explicitly in "Witch Hunt" on Beat the System, but the attacks clearly affected the band. "Not only does it deny the kids the opportunity and encouragement to go to the concert, but it hurts terribly our ministry," Hartman told CCM. "We experience a lot more skepticism. He says that there's all this decadence in Christian music, and that we're all in it for the money."
The result was "the most conceptual album Petra's ever done" and another hit. Within five weeks of its release, the album hit No. 1 on CCM Magazine's sales chart, where it joined the title track and "Don't Let Your Heart Be Hardened" at the top of their respective charts. This Mean War's initial sales drew comparisons to Amy Grant's Age to Age as consumers snapped it off the shelves (though it ultimately fell short of that album's lofty marks). It also garnered the band its fourth consecutive Grammy nomination.

Lineup

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

Guests

Tom Hrbacek - Drums
John Elefante (Kansas, Mastedon) - Backing Vocals