Unfailing Love by Trent

Reviewed by Tony Cummings

Something amazing is happening in Britain's Vineyard stream of churches. As evidenced by the outstanding Burn Band album earlier this year, local church-based teams of worship musicians have emerged to bring to the whole Church songs and musical performances of the highest standards. Although the last two decades have seen an explosion of local churches producing their own worship CDs, usually independently, the majority of these are either cheaply made live recordings, collections of covers of the current crop of popular choruses or, worst of all, "original" songs that SOUND like the rejects from the Redman, Hillsong or Delirious? waste paper baskets. But like the Burn Band, this fine group from Trent Vineyard in Nottingham are demonstrating that local churches can indeed develop worship teams who play with the tightness and invention of the best hard-gigging bands and write songs that don't merely ape the latest Hughes or Tomlin compositions. The composer of all the songs on this set is the church's main worship leader Nigel Briggs and they truly achieve the stated aim of capturing "profound biblical truth with contemporary language." So here you have lucid songs contemplating the truth of Micah 6 ("Walk Humbly"), the wind up of the world (Someday") and the light of hope that can illuminate the darkest street ("God Is With Us"). The production, from ICC's Trevor Michael, is crisp and inventive, be it the ferocious guitar riffs on "The Only One" or the catchy BVs at the close of "Unfailing Love" while Nigel's voice is warmly expressive. Beautifully packaged as an enhanced CD including a video, chords and photos, this is another milestone release from Vineyard UK