“All Over Me” by The Benjamin Gate, Sunday, November 19, 2023

In 2001, South African Christian Rock band The Benjamin Gate arrived in The United States and signed with ForeFront Records after sending a demo to Nashville to be  mastered. David Bach at ForeFront heard the demo, and the band and their manager and co-songwriter Marc Theodosiou headed to America. At the end of the ‘90s, ForeFront Records was one of the top Christian Rock labels. The label had released the album that had defined ‘90s Christian Rock, dc talk’s Jesus Freak in 1995. Closing out the decade, the label released Audio Adrenaline’s Underdog, Rebecca St. James’ Pray, and Raze’s Power. DC Talk had released their final studio album, Supernatural,  in 1998. In the new millennium, ForeFront Records was looking for the new sound in Christian Rock. 

JESUS’ LOVE IS. ForeFront opened the millennium by releasing a greatest hits record from dc talk. The next year, the label released solo records from each member of the trio. Michael Tait formed the band Tait with Pete Stewart, guitarist and former lead singer of ‘80s and early ‘90s “Heaven’s Metal” band Grammatrain. Tait released Empty.   Kevin Max released Stereotype Be, the least successful of the solo records. The runaway success of DC Talk’s disbanding was TobyMac’s career, which kicked off with the Nu-metal, rap-rock energy-packed Momentum. There was a decided shift away from the Modern Rock sound in the early ‘00s as far as ForeFront Records was concerned. In 2000, the label released the debut record from Stacie Orrico, Genuine. Orrico landed a tour with Destiny’s Child and by 2003 had two hits on Top 40 radio. Also in 2000, Rebecca St. James released Transform, a shift toward the electronic pop sounds on the radio. But the label didn’t completely succumb to pop music. 

ALL COME, ALL FALL, ALL WALK WITH HEARTS SO TORN. Christian Hit Radio (CHR) is a genre of music that never really took off. In the early ‘00s, it was rock that wasn’t too heavy and CCM that wasn’t too sleepy. I talked about the sub-genre when I talked about Air1 earlier this year, and I certainly would love to dig into that genre and maybe resurrect Katy Hudson’s self-titled album, the Christian album Katy Perry made before becoming the massive pop star she became in the late ‘00s. Adult Contemporary—safe for the whole family—radio stations preferred lighter CCM. But on Saturday Night, those stations would play Christian Rock, Pop, and sometimes Hip-Hop. And some rock radio stations would also play Christian Rock or “Positive” Rock on Sunday mornings. In the early ‘00s, ForeFront Records had a few bands to offer the rock market. The biggest seller was TobyMac’s Momentum, but the label also had success with Pax217’s two records. But The Benjamin Gate was perhaps the best example of a band that the label could market both to the hard rock and CHR formats. The band’s first single, “All Over Me” was both alternative, sounding modern enough to play both on pop and rock radio. The band also had harder songs like “Scream” and “Lay It Down.” The band had calmer electronic songs like “Nightglow.” The band was part of a burgeoning new alternative rock sound sweeping through Christian Rock along with Earthsuit, Pillar, and Phil Joel—bands that wound up on a three-year annual traveling rock show called Festival Con Dios. ForeFront Records faded into obscurity. There was the 2007 release of their Anberlin/Fall Out Boy-copycat band This Beautiful Republic and their 2008 follow-up. But Flicker Records, Tooth & Nail, and Gotee’s Mono vs Stereo quickly became the dominant sound in Christian Rock.

Read the lyrics on Genius.