CCM Roundup – House of Heroes “The End Is Not the End” – Modern rock, Queen, and all sorts of other music

By Collin Obremski

Artist:  House of Heroes
Album: The End is Not the End

About:

Didn’t they release this like back in November?  Well whatever, looks like its getting released again for all to enjoy!  House of Heroes has been around a while as a “mainstream” Christian band, whatever the hale I mean by that.  This is their third release and reflects growing maturity as a group.  As their self righteous bio states about the album: “This Columbus unit converted to a four-piece unit after years as a three piece for this new chapter as a band. As musicians, this was a calculated decision that has proven to be a masterful one… Deeply spiritual, at times apocalyptic, and at all moments passionately universal, House of Heroes touches on the deepest recesses of every human’s soul on these tracks with these calculated words. In an era where profound words are beyond scarce, here again the band has proven they are not like the others.”

DANG, Hottiez!

One thing they make a point of in their bio is that they created the album “without pitch-tuning or digital manipulation; Each song on the album is heard exactly as it was performed without the aid of any sort inhuman machine.”  That makes me happy… Very happy!  It’s absolutely refreshing to listen to a highly highly produced album (as I’ll mention later) and know that there’s no trickery in the creation of that sound.  They could be lying, of course, but I’ll just take their word on this one.

The exact opposite of this douchebag

Review:

Lyrically the album deals with a myriad of topics including: war, love, “deep spirituality”, etc.  There’s definitely no fear of dealing with spiritual topics on this album.  Heck, the single of the album, “In the Valley of the Dying Son,” is loosely based on the story of Jacob in Genesis of the OT.  Obviously these guys aren’t afraid of their faith, but aren’t completely over -the-top with it either.  They’re still parading through the world of CCM, so they obviously haven’t sold out like other bands that have been around as long as them.

Musically, this album clocks in at almost 60 minutes, so you’re definitely getting your money’s worth in content.  House of Heroes has always been a Christian modern rock band, and this album still continues with their modern rock roots.  However, it’s incredibly diverse.  For those looking for a cohesive album, you won’t really be happy with this one.  The largest influences seem to be a mix of the progressive sounds of the 70’s and 80’s, pop bands of the 60’s, and some major Queenage.  However, you’ll experience some shuffle, folk, pop/punk, gang vocals, and modern rock ballad as well.  So yeah, you get all sorts of schweet stuff here.  It’s really interesting, especially for a modern rock album.  There are some seriously EPIC progressive moments on the album as well.  The previously mentioned “In the Valley of the Dying Son” and the final track, “Field of Daggers,” are sure to please the genre-combining and linear-less-ness of progsters all around.

More like these guys!

This album is extremely well produced.  The vocals and instrumentation are extremely solid and well done, the drums are rhythmically perfect, and the Queen-like harmonies are arousing.  They really did a great job with this one… I’m impressed!

Final Rating: LEGEPIC/10 for a musically diverse, lyrically solid, and all around legitimate and epic release.

CCM Roundup – February 24, 2009 – The day that “euro-dance” and modern rock/emo had a child

By Collin Obremski

Artist: And Then There Were None
Album Title: Who Speaks for Planet Earth?
Stated Genre: Alternative
Release Date: February 24, 2009

About the band:

Whatever happened to bands having short memorable names and non-sentence album titles?  Well, I’m sure that still exists somewhere, but not for the band “And Then There Were None” (lulz).  Anyways, these guys seem to have a pretty interesting story.  According to their MySpace bio, these guys were an Indie metal band since 2003, getting signed to Tooth & Nail a year or so ago.  “This past year was a busy one for ATTWN. After signing to Tooth & Nail, a line up change, the addition of new members, and a new sound, And Then There Were None is back and better than ever. Once known for boasting metal riffs and killer breakdowns, the band has been reinvented, mixing euro-dance beats with a punk-rock backbone.”  So talk about a re-invention!  It was probably one of those “We’ll sign you kid… If you drop your band and completely change your style to what we want!”  Nah just playin… It seems to be a “legit” transformation.

I wonder why these dude are so skinny?

These guys are also hard core about their message. “What separates ATTWN from it’s peers is the passion and moral behind the music. Unafraid to bring ethics and a message back onto the scene, And Then There Were None has made it a mission to be heard.”  And what is their message you ask?  “Not only is every member a vegetarian, but ATTWN has partnered up with Peta2 to educate and enlighten fans.” Oh my… They don’t eat meat.  I don’t know what to say… Well at least they’re not vegans.

Oh… Riiight!

Honestly, if you ever go to a Christian music festival like Cornerstone, you find out that there’s this large vegetarian/vegan movement associated with the Christian Metal/Hardcore scene.   So these types of charades don’t surprise me.  Nevertheless, these guys are being sold on the Christian market by a pseudo-Christian label, yet the band “sets up a table of Peta pamphlets and booklets [at shows], as well as stickers and promotional materials to inform fans. The band believes education is the first step to change, and is doing all they can to make a difference.”  So take that, leftist media bastards who think that there aren’t any Christian leftists!”

The music:

The first track, “Insozz” definitely sets the stage for this “euro-dance” kind of thing.  There’s all sorts of arpeggios, lot’s of quarter note love on the kick, etc.  However, the singing style is more that of the whiney emo/modern rock/pop punk voice.  Interesting!  These guys definitely sound like a Tooth & Nail band, with obvious influences from other Tooth & Nail bands like Anberlin, the now defunct Further Seems Forever, and Joy Electric.

Track 3, “John the Arsonist”, effectively continues this interesting mix of modern rock and dance-pop.  I don’t really know what they’re singing about, but I don’t really care at this moment in time.  There’s tons of synth production in here, which sounds really cool.  However, like most of these modern rock/emo bands, there’s just no meat to the melody.  Like I’ll never go around singing the melody of this song to myself, but that’s ok.  All I can make out of the vocals is “I don’t think you’d understand!”  So true man… So true.

Track 4, “The Hospital,” starts out with some “Dashboard-esque” vocal stylings, then shortly followed by the same euro-pop/modern rock formula the other songs have.  It’s got a sweet synth bridge that I would definitely rave to (if I raved).  Honestly, most of the other songs on the album sound the same.  This group has found an interesting formula and they stick to it throughout the album.  Here and there they throw in sweet synth moves and cool production.  Honestly, I’d have a very hard time distinguishing most of these songs apart.  “Cloak and Dagger” has a really sweet hook for a chorus, definitely the sweetest hook on the album.  Be sure to check that one out.

As far as production values goes, they seem to be using some of those “vintage wannabe” plugins on their DAW (digital audio workstation).  These guys are going for that mix between an analogue sound and a crisp finely-produced digital sound.  Honestly, I’m a big fan of getting the fattest, clearest sound possible in a production, but dance/techno groups tend to go for that low-fi goodness a little too often.  To me, if you have the proper technology to create a beautifully clear and intense track, then use it to your advantage.  Well thankfully these guys use a healthy dose of it, and don’t let it define who they are entirely.

Are these guys worth checking out?  I’m not sure.  Depends on how much you’re into this style they seem to be pioneering.  I’ll probably be adding this to my portable media device’s playlist for the gym, because I can definitely see myself sweatin’ the pounds off to this band.  You can only rock out to Coldplay whilst on the elliptical so much, you know?   But then again, I can see myself getting annoyed very quickly… But that’s probably not entirely because of these guys, I just don’t listen to dance music on a regular basis.  I’d suggest listening to their tracks on their MySpace.  If you really enjoy those, you can buy their album that has a lot more of the same thing!

Rating:  meatless/10 for ingenuity in what seems to be a mix-up between “euro-dance” and modern rock.

CCM Roundup – January 20, 2008 – Jon Foreman not selling out and a healthy serving of ChristCore

Welcome to the SECOND CCM (Contemporary Christian Music) roundup!  There are two albums being released in Christiandom this week and I was able to “acquire” the full releases this week, which excites me greatly.  With the introduction of actually listening to a whole album to give a more proper review, I will now introduce a RATING SYSTEM.  Boohyah, that’s right, you heard me right.  I will now be giving the albums I review a rating.  Now there is much debate for a correct rating system in this world, but I’m going to just use the classic scale of 1-10.  It seems easier that way, you know?  Sometimes, I won’t be able to listen to a whole album or I’ll hate the music so much that I won’t listen to the whole album.  In those cases I’ll give the bands/albums a different, more not-fair review to be determined at the time of writing.  Without further adieu, here are the reviews!

Fiction Family – Fiction Family

Looks like Jon Foreman of Switchfoot is at it again.  Does this guy ever sleep?  Between Switchfoot, his four solo EP’s last year, and being a sellout, where does he have time for another project?  Well, he apparently does, thus we have Fiction Family.  The “band” is actually collaboration Jon Foreman of Switchfoot and Sean Watkins of Nickel Creek .

This photo just looks awkward.

According to the duo’s bio, “The album was recorded and written in parts over the span of three years with no real deadlines.”    Watkins explains the process of the recording in a post on the duo’s myspace pretty well:

Most of the time while making this record, we were thinking that we’d probably end up just giving it away online and perhaps play a few shows. Just that sounded fun and fulfilling enough for the work we were putting into it. We recorded it all at our homes in north county San Diego. The basic tracking was done as he and i playing in front of a few mics at his or my house on the very rare days that we were both off the road over the last couple years. When one of us had time off and the other was touring, whoever was home would chip away at the songs alone and send emails with overdub/harmony/etc ideas. With a just few exceptions we played all of the instruments on it. Not on purpose, but more because it was just easy and the songs ended coming to life at random times and sporadicly. It was a very relaxed and home oriented project.

Well it’s obvious the album has turned into more than just a free giveaway because they’ve got national distro, press, and are accompanying the release with a 15 city tour.

I was able to get my hands on the album and listen to it in its fullest today.   I would definitely put the album in the folk category, but thank Jesus none of that twangy country-style folk crap.  This is straight up modern folk music.  One thing I really appreciate about this album is the ground rules that were set by its creators.  According to Watkins in an interview, “We came up with a few cowboy rules for the project: No double tracking. No pussyfooting. No tuning of vocals.”  Hear that?  No PUSSYfooting!  But really, in a world of music that is full of melodyned and autotuned vocals, it’s a breath of fresh air to hear two seasoned musicians making good music without the aid of those tools.

Yeah, that’s right, I called this good music.  I really enjoy this album.  You can tell that its creators really enjoyed making this project, and that they did this as an expression of music rather than for corporate record hacks.  It’s excellently recorded and produced and according to another interview of Watkins, “nobody touched it [the album] but us.”  This again attests that this is truly a home grown project, that not only sounds great, but showcases the songwriting talent, musical ability, and production abilities of these two.  I gotta give these two some major props for this release.  Just so I don’t sound like a fanboy, you can definitely tell that this album was a bunch of different material pieced together from two different songwriters.  It doesn’t flow like some albums do; there are many different turns throughout the whole thing.  However, in my humble Godly opinion, it actually makes the album better.  It doesn’t get boring and every song sounds different.   Go buy it now.

Oh yeah, I guess I should discuss if this is a “Christian” album lyrically.  No, not really.  The songs talk about life and love and the typical Foreman (he was the principle lyricist for the album) hints of spirituality.  I was quite surprised with Foreman’s  EP that were filled with songs of worship and songs about God, but this doesn’t have the same forwardness with his faith.  However, you bet your ace this will be distributed among Christian circles.

This album will be uploaded to my digital music player by the end of the day, there’s no doubt about that.

Final Rating:  8/10 for well crafted songwriting and production showcasing two musicians in their artistic prime.

Underneath the Gun – Forfeit Misfortunes

According to their bio, UTG “delivers intense death metal influenced hardcore. While their speedy and dexterous instrument gymnastics ignite firestorms in the mosh pit, the message behind the fury is one of love, hope and compassion.”  These guys are definitely unashamedly Christian in that the guitarist is quoted in their bio as stating “Underneath the Gun, while it sounds harsh, is about our time on this earth and how we should use that time to get right with the Lord.”  It’s pretty cool to see another core band unashamed of their beliefs, which seems to be a pretty common practice in the Christian hard core scene (obviously common since there IS such a thing as a Christian hard core scene).

Holy freaking no way.  Available at THE Hot Topic!

Now what about the music?  Well since I don’t listen to this kind of stuff, how could I possibly give a good opinion of it?  I will tell you this, the album is very well recorded and produced, and VERY tight.  By tight, I mean they follow the metronome extremely well, which is important for metal… right?  The guys voice annoys the hell out of me, but again, that’s usual for me with this stuff.  It sounds like every other ChristCore [sic] band out there.  They do the same breakdowns, chugs, etc… Again though, the production and timing is really good.  So for all I know, this could be the next greatest thing since Underoath.  So I’m asking all you HxC, straightedge, two-stepper, reverse mullet, girl pant and “chucks” wearing people’s out there who like this style to tell me your opinion on it!

Underneath the Gun’s fanbase?

Final Rating:  Straightedge/10 for sounding like all other hardcore bands.

CCM Roundup – January 13 – Celebration of the Wannabes

By Collin Obremski

Well, as excited as I am for the FIRST CCM Roundup, I hate to say that the offerings in the Christian music industry are pretty slim pickins this week. Nevertheless, there appear to be some modest offerings from some no name groups, and thus, I’ve got some stuff to look at.  Without further adieu, let’s get started:

1.       “Now and Forever” by the Mark White Band.

Mr. White doesn’t appear to be on a major Christian label, but the indie “Seven Faith” label (whoever the heck they are).  Nevertheless, his label debut debuted today to no accolades or even distribution.  I can’t find his album on Amazon, CDBaby, or even the Itunes link posted on his MySpace.  Looks like “Seven Faith” isn’t exactly doing their job as a label to get this guys music out there.  But hey, I’m sure they convinced him they would!  Thankfully, I was able to snag the four songs off his MySpace that appear to be from this album.

Talk about beefcakes!

According to the band bio, The Mark White Band seems to be another Passion inspired worship leader/band whose sole purpose is to “be vessels to influence their generation for His glory. Their songs are designed to be relevant and Biblical expressions of worship…  Their songs are already being sung in a number of churches and are gaining momentum in this generation. Their hope is to see these songs used worldwide for the glory of God.”  It’s obvious these guys want to make worship music that gets sung everywhere, most likely inspired by the artists of Passion (i.e. Louie Giglio’s Worship Empire).  The songs aren’t terrible.  But they’re also not exactly inspiring.  During the first 30 seconds of listening to them, I could immediately tell they are MAJORLY influenced by Chris Tomlin.  Seeing that Chris is their #2 top friend on MySpace pretty much confirms this hunch.

For an indie release, the album is very well mixed and has good quality production.  I was actually quite surprised on that front!   But beyond that, it sounds like everything else that seems to be coming out in the Praise and Worship front.  These are second generation worship leaders who grew up on Chris Tomlin, David Crowder, Delirious, etc., and they’ve created a product that doesn’t stray too far from the likes of Tomlin’s 2002 release “Not to Us“.

2.        “Everybody’s Talkin” by ABOFA.

According to their bio: “Take five slightly overweight, over 40, over zealous, seasoned musicians, combine with unique music and lyrics based on life stories, resulting in a musical experience that is
‘A Breath of Fresh Air’.”  Well… This should be interesting…

Living up to the description!

Here’s another indie band, however compared to Mark White’s well polished effort, these guys are abysmal.  It’s your typical combination of middle aged dudes who are trying to live some kind of dream beyond their dead end jobs AND spread the Gospel of Christ at the same time!  There are thousands of bands like this around who release albums every year.  Here’s just another healthy serving of pure crap.  I really don’t know what to say.  This is terrible.  The lead singer sounds like a washed up hair metal band lead singer and their “classic rock” sound is typical of a bar’s house band.  The lyrics are PURE Gospel tract material, which is fine with me, but there really is no depth whatsoever.

Again, I’ve heard manya bands like this, including one I played in when I was 14 called “Forever Young” (I’ll save that one for another blog).  Hey, at least they’re expressing themselves musically and touring around sharing the gospel to people who value message over music quality everywhere.  As their bio states, “A Breath of Fresh Air has ministered and entertained coffee house to stadium, church worship service to NASCAR – sowing the seed of salvation to audiences young and old.”

3.       “Dear Children” by Yours For Mine.

Well finally someone who’s on what appears to be a legitimate label. They’ve got a good looking MySpace, their label’s site is touting the new release, and you can actually buy their album online.  SWEET!  They describe themselves as “a progressive indie-rock quintet from Harrisonburg, VA. For almost four years we’ve been producers of music that’s been titled by some as “intelligent” or “spastic” or “moody” and mostly “ridiculous” – we just love music. We are lovers of Jesus, and we don’t think we’re better than anybody because of it.”  So again, another group that isn’t afraid to talk about their beliefs in Jesus, which is cool.

Lookin LEGIT to me

Now what about their music?  Well when they call themselves “progressive indie-rock”, they mean whiney/emo/modern rock.  It sounds like a combination of like 5 random Tooth & Nail bands.  The interesting part about them is that they’ve got a little influence from the now defunct genre of music known as ska thrown in there.  There’s also some lame screamo thrown in as well.

So hey, if you’re into this kind of thing, then more power to yah.  I’m not at all.  It all sounds like the same whiney mess to me.

Well that’s it for this week.  Check back next week for more EXCITING CCM!

Is All Christian Music Pure Crap?

By Collin Obremski

It seems like most people abhor Christian music. It’s seen as a contrived, lame knockoff of “secular” music. For every mainstream secular success there always seems to be a Christian “alternative” that the Christian labels market and hope to make a quick buck on. Christian radio and book stores are full of them. However, every once in a great while, there comes a Christian band or solo artist that is actually fresh and full of new ideas.

Holy crap, look at those worshipful guns!

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