When We Were Kings

When We Were Kings was released on 13 September 2024 through Frontiers Music Srl. Beyond the four players the credits carry Paul McNamara on organ, keys and Moog, with additional backing vocals from Charles Foley and Keith Pittman. It entered Billboard's Top Christian Albums chart dated 28 September 2024 at No. 2 — the band's thirteenth top ten on that chart — on 6,000 equivalent album units in its first week, 5,000 of them pure sales. Its two predecessors on the same chart were The Final Battle, which peaked at No. 3 in November 2022, and Even the Devil Believes, which took them to No. 1 in September 2020. Michael Sweet had a partial thyroidectomy in December 2023, months before tracking his vocals, and said in March 2024 that he had been a little nervous about his voice. He has also explained two of the songs: "Grateful" was written as an answer to fans asking for something like "Calling on You," a straight-ahead pop-rock melody and groove, while "Betrayed By Love" is a deliberate outlier — dark in both music and words, about being betrayed by someone you love, where a ballad might have been expected.