Apr
4

It Is Finished

In the past, I’ve shared several of my favorite Christmas songs, so today I thought I’d share a few of my favorite songs for the Easter season. I chose four songs representing very different eras and styles/genres, so hopefully there is something here you like.

First is a classic hymn, “Crown Him with Many Crowns” (1851), though certainly not the only one I like that speaks of the Passion Week narrative and/or the Gospel message in general. The tune is that of ‘Diademata’ by Sir George Job Elvey, but the lyrics were written by Matthew Bridges (the initial six stanzas) and Godfrey Thring (the latter six stanzas).

Second is “Easter Song”, a modern classic from the Jesus Movement beginnings of Contemporary Christian Music (CCM). I also like the cover of it that Keith Green recorded, but this is the original by the group 2nd Chapter of Acts (who wrote it) from their debut album, With Footnotes (1974). Not only was the song a monster hit in Christian circles, it has had moderate crossover success on mainstream radio stations.

Speaking of CCM, the first Christian rock band I got into and one of my favorites to this day is Petra. During their early heyday in the mid-’80s, they released the Beat the System (1985) album — still rockin’ but with a bit more electronic sound added in. Off that awesome album comes the following hit, “It Is Finished”….

Moving forward several more years and into my current playlist, we have “Absolution Day” from Theocracy’s Mirror of Souls (2008) album. (Alternately, I could have picked the nearly 10-minutes long “Easter” from Ghost Ship (2016)). This popular band is in the Christian prog/power metal genre(s), so it is definitely the heaviest of all these selections. But, don’t think that the lyrics are any less powerful….