STYLE: Hard Music RATING OUR PRODUCT CODE: 14207-10707 LABEL: Tooth & Nail TND77424 FORMAT: CD Album ITEMS: 1 RELEASE DATE: 2005-10-01 RRP: £12.99
Reviewed by Mark Sherwood
Okay. I came to this album with some reservations, my previous experience of this Orange County four-piece band was the Spy Hunter video. I thought Spy Hunter was unnecessarily violent. It is symptomatic I feel of Christian rock at the moment - too many bands are trying to attract a secular audience by watering down lyrics and videos that leave you scratching your head thinking what was that all about? It's hard to divorce their past from this album however I will try. I will say that they write at times excellent lyrics (check out "Sincerely Ichabod") which has the line "We once drew some lines in black/And right now it's about time we took them back/So bored of losing ground to the heresy in our hearts" - is this a separation to some of the past controversy - they leave us guessing. Perhaps if they want to leave it behind then so should we and take this album on its own merits. Then there are other lyrics which are completely obscure ("Necktie Remedy"/"Cavity King") or maybe I'm missing something. The music is hard but the more you listen the more you realise the subtleties of their music. P 86 fans will probably have already picked this album up and if you are new to them then this is probably a good place to start. I personally want to reserve judgement and see what happens especially a new video from this album.
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Posted by Greg Sammons in Stoke on Trent, UK @ 15:45 on Apr 7 2006
Am I missing something here, what is the fixation on music
videos? I'd hate to think I was stopping a band's artistic
freedom!
Also, a lot of hard music bands connected to the Christian
scene (although it applies to all genres really) will not
have really obvious lyrics and that is their choice. Many
bands will have very positive and worthwhile lyrics without
being blatantly obvious about their faith (until you check
their 'thankyous' on the sleevenotes that is).
I'm sure I'm slightly overeacting but I still felt the point
needed to be made.
Greg
Am I missing something here, what is the fixation on music videos? I'd hate to think I was stopping a band's artistic freedom!
Also, a lot of hard music bands connected to the Christian scene (although it applies to all genres really) will not have really obvious lyrics and that is their choice. Many bands will have very positive and worthwhile lyrics without being blatantly obvious about their faith (until you check their 'thankyous' on the sleevenotes that is).
I'm sure I'm slightly overeacting but I still felt the point needed to be made.
Greg