JesusfreakHideout.com: Top 15 One-Album Wonders

As music fans, we hear a lot of new music all the time from promising new artists. Some national debut albums really leave a mark on us, getting us pumped for the artist's career ahead. Sadly, some of these artists never even make it to album number two before they stop making music, break up, or just disappear.

This list is a countdown of our top 15 "One-Album Wonders" -- bands that released just one album before disappearing from the map for one reason or another -- leaving us to wonder what could have been with album number 2.

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#12. Zilch
Platinum

Release Year: 1997

Zilch probably has more notoriety for everything else they've done more than their one single album, Platinum. The band began as dcTalk's touring band and later formed into the modern worship pioneers SONICFLOOd. Founder, guitarist, and singer Mark Lee Townsend is also quite well known in Christian music circles as both a musician and producer. Zilch became a band while touring with dcTalk in 1997 and came up with their name (and album title) as a joke about themselves and their status. Toby was gracious enough to release the album on his, then, rather new Gotee Records.

Zilch brought a sound much different than they played while with dcTalk and fit more in line with the alternative scene that was still rather large in the late 90's. Platinum offered up some songs with a modern rock edge, others with a pop/rock feel, and others even had a definite 60's vibe. Songs ranged from the seriousness of "In the Sky," "Good," and "What I Got" to the silliness of a Schoolhouse Rock! cover in "Hero Zero," "Christiana," which pokes fun at those willing to settle for "mediocrity" as Christians, or the extremely fun closer "Surfer Psalm." Zilch brought something a bit unique, but I don't really know how much people realized it or appreciated it at the time. I loved the album as a 14-year-old kid, but never knew then just how disappointed I would be that a second record would never see the light of day.

Townsend left the band in 1998 and was replaced by the then completely unknown Jeff Deyo. Deyo and the band intended to continue writing rock songs, but crowd reactions from worship songs played to close out shows, along with label pressure, pushed Zilch into a different direction. Zilch planned to do one "Zilch worship album" and then go back to making their music, but instead changed their name to SONICFLOOd during the recording process and never looked back. From there, the story gets even sadder, and a bit twisted, but we won't go into that since this about Zilch. While the sound of Platinum is a bit dated by today's standards, it remains an extremely fun and enjoyable listen. The only thing you can do now is sit back and wonder what might have been. What if Mark Townsend never left? What if the Jeff Deyo-fronted Zilch refused to do a worship album? Obviously things happened as God saw fit, but Zilch's Platinum is definitely deserving of this list.
- Michael Weaver

Visit our Zilch page for more information about them...

Top 15 One-Album Wonders

Intro | 15 | 14 | 13 | 12 | 11 | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1