Reviewed by Matthew Cordle

The name SpiritN3D has its roots both in the fact that the three original members' names all began with the letter D and that the Spirit of God is revealed as the Trinity. They classify their style as "classic Christian rock" and seek to convey the message of God through faith, hope and love. Dan Leone states that this fifth CD calls the listener to surrender to God, to be obedient to his ways and then see how life starts working for you rather than against you. However, it's hard to get as far as the message as there are two things that seriously spoil this CD right from the beginning and all the way to the end; firstly the raw, natural-sounding drums of the earlier 'He's Real' album have been replaced by naff-sounding, rigid drum machine patterns that feature far too many '80s-style toms fills on almost every track. Secondly the lead guitar player, Samuel Castilla, sounds like he's having a whale of a time playing an extravaganza of lead guitar solos throughout most of the songs. Given that the guitar has been mixed really forward in the mix, the result almost sounds like a lead guitar album with textural vocal accompaniment! Adding to this the intermittent timing problems (eg, the intro to "Release Me", which just sounds sloppy) and the fact that almost every song sounds the same, it's hard to find much with which to recommend the CD.

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.

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