Local Christian Rock Group Releases First CD
Piercing the Darkness
Oskaloosa, Iowa – Music is a an important part of many people’s lives, as well as their faith in God, but one local group has found a way to mix the two together.
Piercing the Darkness finds itself nearing its’ nearing fifth year of existence, after their desire to play music that glorified God brought them together.
The band’s original goal was to “play out in public once or twice a month and just have fun with it and show people that Christian music can be fun, energetic, and rockin’, along with being full of praise and worship,” said Steve Shettler, the groups lead vocalist.
The group now plays 40 to 50 times a year.
When I asked Shettler what types of music the group plays, he explained that they play mostly their own original Christian Rock songs, “but we also throw in some popular Christian praise and worship songs that we rock up a little bit. It really depends on when/where we’re playing. If we’re playing for a youth group, we’ll totally rock out. If we’re leading praise and worship at a Sunday morning service, we’re still probably going to be more rockin’ than your average Sunday morning service, but we’re totally focused on praising and worshiping God.”
“Over the years we’ve played about every type of event you can think of. From Sunday morning services, to youth groups, to Relay For Life’s, to county fairs, to the Iowa State Fair, to some of the Christian music festivals in Iowa like Spirit Midwest and Bash On the Farm, to opening up for and playing at events with national touring acts like Seventh Day Slumber and Disciple,” Shettler said is some of the places you will find the band.
Why do you play what you do, I asked Shettler. “Our name says it all, we are piercing the darkness. This world is a dark place. Lots of gloom and doom. Our goal is to bring some light into the darkness, to be mirrors that reflect God’s glory, and to show the love of Jesus. Being in this band, God has opened up doors for us to play in places where the church can’t get to. I like to point to Isaiah 9:2 says, ‘The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned.'”
Members of the band include; Lead Vocalist Steve Shettler from Sigourney, Iowa, along with Lead Guitarist Christ Weinreich of Oskaloosa. Rhythm Guitarist Ken Finch and his wife Tammy Finch, who plays the bass guitar, are from New Sharon. Also from New Sharon is Curt Roozenboom, who plays the drums.
“Chris and I [Shettler] are the two originals of the band. Ken and Tammy joined about 6 months into it. And, Curt’s been playing with us for nearly 4 years,” Shettler said of the bands current lineup.
The group recorded their first CD over the summer, “More Than Human,” and they just got the disks in a few days ago. You can grab your copy at The Eagle’s Nest Christian Bookstore in Oskaloosa and also at The Design House Plus in Sigourney. Their CD’s are also available at their live concerts or by order and download at http://piercingthedarknessrocks.bandcamp.com
If you want to know more about the group or book the group, you can get more information from their site at www.piercingthedarknessrocks.com, or by sending an email to steveshettler@hotmail.com. You can also find them on any of the social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, MySpace or Youtube.
