I'd like to give this CD 4.5/5, but it's closer to 5 than 4. My only complaint is "Smiling Down," because it's frankly dwarfed by every other song on this CD. While I do not share the religious beliefs of this group, I don't find the lyrics offensive. Every song except "Smiling Down" is interesting and rocks hard - "For the Love of the Game" is a powerful opener; "Turn it Up" is basically a party song paying tribute to other Christian rock acts; "Reckless Youth" is dedicated to one of their friends who died and has a great guitar solo; "State of Emergency" easily has the CD's best guitar melody straight from the beginning; "The Runaway" has a very powerful chorus; "Throwdown" is probably the heaviest and also has a great chorus; "Get Back" has the best singing; "I Fade Away" has a female singer complimenting Rob's voice; and "Forever Starts Now" is inspirational, essentially telling the listener to stop wasting his/her life waiting for something to happen. This is a killer hard rock album that should be appealing even to listeners who don't normally listen to Christian rock.