With the lyrical influences of Derek Webb and Andrew Peterson fused with the musical influences of Caedmon's Call, Wilco, and Steven Delopoulos (Burlap to Cashmere), Singer/Songwriter/Producer Wen Reagan provides a provocative inspection of kingdom building in his new concept album, Empires. Empires questions the disparity between the consumption-driven, prosperity-based empire building of American Christianity and the humiliating, self-sacrificing kingdom building of Jesus' biblical witness. Songs such as "The Christian Nation" and "The Empire Politik" question the myth of American national righteousness and the marriage between Christianity and American politics, while "The Empire of the Ministry Industry" and "The Kingdom Come" consider the state of the American church in regards to the consumption-driven market economy that surrounds and permeates it. Other songs, such as "The Kingdom of Broken Hearts & Kings" and "The Empire of the Heart" provide a more introspective look into the individual empires we all build on a daily basis; Empires that, in the end, will all turn to dust. At the heart of the album are the songs "Babylon" and "The Rising and Falling", two pieces that both proclaim the transience of the empires of the world while also proclaiming the eternity of the Kingdom of God. Throughout Empires, Wen weaves passionate story-telling and honest conviction with a rich diversity of sonic flair to both encourage and challenge the church to reconsider its history and place in the world as the body of Christ.

"The writing of Empires was a three year journey that began with a research project on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and culminated with the completion of my first year of seminary. As I was studying the ebb and flow of American Christianity, reading up on the empires of the Ancient Near East, and watching the daily updates on the war in Iraq, I slowly began to put down on paper what would become the lyrics for the Empires album. Whether it was the fall of the neo-Babylonians, the devolution of the Roman Empire, or the unraveling of the Soviet forces at the hands of nomadic Afghans, I was constantly reminded of the ephemeral nature of empires and their machinations throughout history.