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The Prayer Chain's performance at Cornerstone Festival 2003 was its first after six years of retirement. The show was enough to remind old fans that The Prayer Chain was one of the best bands to ever grace Christian alternative music. For those who hadn't heard The Prayer Chain back in its heyday, it was a chance to latch onto a band that was truly a groundbreaker in its time.

Here Comes the Rust brings together the band's most-loved songs from three full-length albums, an EP, a demo, and a collective. The songs are arranged in order, moving from one album to the next.

The first four songs are found on both the Neverland Sessions demo and the Whirlpool EP. "Shine" and "Some Love" both come off as over-the-top attempts at doing cool rock music to please the early '90s teens and find themselves as the weak points on the album. However, "I Believe" and particularly "Whirlpool" tap into an honesty that makes the songs appealing even with their old sound.

With Shawl, the band took a dramatic leap forward. The Indian chant and building beat on the song "Crawl" acknowledges this very straight-forwardly, pronouncing "Shine is dead." The songs "Like I Was" and "Never Enough" are both strong tracks, with the latter featuring a soaring guitar solo that gives Andy Prickett a chance to show his chops. The highlight of this era, however, has to be "Fifty Eight," as Tim Taber belts out the words, "Take my fist and hold it in your hands / Take my rage and bury my pain." A live version of "Dig Dug" wraps up the selections from Shawl.

The album Mercury is considered by most to be the peak of the band's work. The title cut and "Waterdogs" are both strong selections. The nine-minute-long "Sky High" may be the best track included from Mercury, though "Grylliade" is also a very strong track. Unfortunately, the song "Bendy Line" isn't included here, though it may be one of the best songs The Prayer Chain ever released.

Antarctica brought together six unreleased songs from the days of Mercury with eight live versions of songs from Shawl and Mercury. Here, "Chalk" and "Friend or Foe" represent Antarctica and are some of the catchiest songs that the band ever released.

The Here Comes the Rust album concludes with two tracks from So Close Yet So Far, which was itself a best-of/b-sides album. The songs "Lose Yourself" and "The Other Side of Heaven" end the album on a slower note, giving the music ample opportunity to sink in.

Apparently, Here Comes the Rust is only available for purchase directly from the band, meaning the web page is the only place the CD can be found now that the band's three summer dates have been played. This is definitely an album worth purchasing for the comprehensive glimpse it provides of a very solid band doing something special in their short career.
 

Trae Cadenhead 8/14/2003

The Prayer Chain was one of the pioneer groups of Christian rock. In the days before Tooth and Nail and punk rock, the band played an original form of grunge straight out of Southern California.

The Prayer Chain's greatest hits CD Here Comes The Rust is an independently released disc featuring seventeen songs from The Whirlpool EP, Shawl, Mercury, Antarctica, and the rare So Close Yet So Far.

With most greatest hits albums, there will always be a debate as to what should be included and what should be excluded. Here Comes The Rust should have included "Follow Me," "Pure," "Bendy Line," and "Loverboy." The project could have done without "Shine," "Some Love," "Like I Was," "Never Enough," "Mercury," and "Waterdogs." The two rare tracks, "Lose Yourself" and "The Other Side Of Heaven," are a disappointment and could also have been omitted.

For the most part the album does its job of giving a solid overview of The Prayer Chain. The only new songs are the two rare tracks and the live version of "Dig Dug," which nicely captures the concert feel of the song. Still, it would have been nice to hear something from The Neverland Sessions or some new songs from The Prayer Chain.

Matt Modrich 8/25/2003

The Prayer Chain is one of the best-known acts to come out of Christian Rock's "Third Wave." The melding of Eric Campuzano's accomplished bass work, Wayne Everett's complex precision thrashing on drums, Andrew Prickett's swirling guitar and Tim Tabor's urgent angst-filled vocals created a memorable driving, atmospheric sound that is still influencing bands seven years after the Prayer Chain's last full-length studio album. The band's triumphant return to this year's Cornerstone Festival provided an appropriate time to release the band's new retrospective disk, Here Comes the Rust.

The album's seventeen tracks chronicle six projects, all in order of release date. For fans of the Prayer Chain, there isn't likely to be much new material here, save the final two cuts from a rare limited-run disc released after the band's split, and a live version of a song originally featured on Shawl. However, Here Comes the Rust is a nice collection spanning the highlights of the band's career, and fans are likely to be appreciative to have a concisely packaged chronology such as this. For newcomers, this is a good place to start. With several cuts from six discs appearing on this record, the Prayer Chain's sound throughout a period of seven years or so is well represented.

It would be nice if the band had found some unreleased tracks or had gone into the studio to put together a few new cuts, but otherwise, Here Comes the Rust is a fun trip down memory lane.

Dave Kerschbaum 9/25/2003

This retrospective (the second, after 1998’s So Close Yet So Far) captures the highlights of the Prayer Chain’s output during the first half of the last decade. "Shine" is probably its best-known moment, although to these ears, comparisons with Big Rock-era Simple Minds cannot be avoided. However, upon closer inspection, songs like "I Believe," "Whirlpool," and "Crawl" reveal a closer affinity with contemporaries like The House of Love and The Chameleons. Fans of the Tooth & Nail emo bands will find much to savor here. 

Kevin Mathews 10/6/2003