Louder Than The Music

The new studio album from Irish worship band Rend Collective, 'The Art of Celebration', has had a hugely successful first week, achieving high chart positions across the world.

The album entered the UK's Official Album Chart at Number 28 yesterday, 23rd March 2014, having reached Number 20 in the mid-week chart - warranting a mention by music industry news giants, NME. Unsurprisingly it sits at Number 1 in the UK's Official Christian & Gospel Albums Chart, presented in partnership with Compassion.

Last week the album also soared in the iTunes overall albums chart, reaching as high as Number 9 in the UK and Number 2 in the US, even hitting Number 1 in the worldwide iTunes chart. Tweeting their surprise, the band wrote "Woke up to this... #TheArtOfCelebration is #1 on Worldwide iTunes Chart! GULP!! THANK YOU! #ForHisGloryForHisFame".

Rend Collective's fellow Christian artists also took to Twitter last week to praise the album. Kari Jobe wrote, "So exciting! @rendcollective's new cd is here! You'll love it. I am loving touring with them & hearing some of these songs!". Hillsong United's Joel Houston ‏added, "stoked for my Irish brothers @rendcollective !! Well done lads!!", while British worship leader Matt Redman ‏said, "True to it's title, one of the most joyful albums I've ever heard."

In an interview with Louder Than The Music, Rend Collective said, "We had a kind of theological breakthrough as a band this year that sparked the concept behind the whole record: seriousness isn’t a spiritual gift... but joy is! The album centres around the theme of choosing joy and celebration in all seasons and we tried to make it sound like that, to sound like fun."