Freak: Noun. A strange, abnormal or unusual person or thing. An ardent enthusiast. “So call me an ardent enthusiast of Jesus,” DC Talk leader Toby McKeehan said in a recent press release.

Jesus Freak: DC Talk’s latest tour supporting its recent release, aptly titled Jesus Freak. Released in early December, the album premiered at No. 16 on Billboard’s Top 200 albums chart.

DC Talk brings its “Jesus Freak” tour to Hilton Coliseum on May 20th, for a 7:30 p.m. performance. Coming from a platinum album that spawned a Grammy award and a gold video, the Washington, D.C. trio is shocking fans with its new sound of distorted guitars and raw vocals.

“I think that the three years since the release of Free At Last have been a time of definition and maturity for us,” vocalist Kevin Smith said. “When we came back together to do DC Talk, it was a fresh perspective and a fresh energy.”

The band formed in 1989 when McKeehan joined forces with fellow student Michael Tait. Michigan native Kevin Smith soon joined the duo to complete the line-up.

“Toby, Kevin and I met and became friends in college, before we ever started pursuing music together,” Tait said in a press release. “We’re up there [on stage] as band members and best friends. We call it ‘living integration.'”

DC Talk released its self-titled debut in 1989 and Nu Thang in 1990. The band established itself as front-runners on the Christian music scene with its 1992 release of Free At Last. The band has since moved away from the label, with help from the “Jesus Freak” video. The clip was directed by Simon Maxwell, who worked with Nine Inch Nails on their “Hurt” video.

“Sometimes, being labeled a Christian band, we consider that a negative, not shrugging the name of Christ but because people tend to shut their ears to it,” McKeehan said.

“Just because Michael Stipe speaks out about environmental things, we don’t call [R.E.M.] an environmental band.”

The “Jesus Freak” video, a No. 7 pick for Billboard’s Best Videos of 1995, collides white doves and Christian imagery with footage of burning books and crosses, hate crimes and World War II propaganda films. Mix these ideas with some of the root-based sounds of slide guitar and harmonica on the album, and the trio’s rap-ridden sound of earlier records is nearly forgotten.

“You can’t stay in the same place indefinitely,” Tait said. “You’ve got to keep stretching, keep exploring, keep creating. We’ve experimented with elements that span the full range of the musical spectrum.”

“When you have three different individuals, and you have three different styles merged, you can walk a fine line between creating something that’s distinct but cohesive and something that just sort of falls apart and rattles around,” he added.

DC Talk’s latest release has been compared to albums by Nirvana and P.M. Dawn. Jesus Freak was given a B-plus ranking by Entertainment Weekly, and is sneaking into modern radio around the country.

“While we have definitely grown and changed as artists,” McKeehan said, “our reason for existence remains the same: to be musical missionaries.”

DC Talk will bring its rock missionary to Ames for a May 20th performance with Audio Adrenaline. Tickets are still available for the show through Ticketmaster or the Iowa State Center Box Office.