When modern worship giants such as Delirious, Matt Redman, Darrell Evans, and Hillsongs took the Christian music industry by storm ten years ago with music that was both worshipful and musically relevant, the industry took notice. Since then, almost every top ten CCM artist has either contributed to or released a worship project, or has one in the works. Christian record labels continue to churn out new worship artists and new compilations. The genre has become over saturated with sound-a-likes and look-a-likes, and innovative, original worship music has been hard to find.

That being said, David Crowder Band's latest release A Collision is one of the most innovative and experimental worship projects in recent years. With a whopping 21 tracks broken down into four parts, A Collision is very much a collision of styles and genres of music. Songs like "Hope Rising (Or Be Lifted)" go from old gospel to an almost grungy rock and then to square dance country, while "Do Not Move" fuses techno and rock together. Sometimes it works, and well, sometimes it doesn't.

The problem with experimentation is that it doesn't always achieve the desired result. While A Collision is fresh and original, it is also scattered all over the musical spectrum. Although this approach is artsy and innovative, it can also be distracting when a song goes from rock to hillbilly. But for the most part, the experimentation pays off, and in an over-saturated genre of musical clones, any musical experimentation is welcome, and greatly appreciated.

A Collision offers its fair share of standard worship songs as well. "Here Is Our King" and "Wholly Yours" are some of the more easily accessible worship songs on the album. Part of the beauty of this release is David Crowder Band's ability to seamlessly blend in more traditional modern worship songs with newer techniques, creating a solid yet original worship album from start to finish. Thank you David Crowder Band, thank you.

- Review date: 9/25/05, written by David Taylor