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 – 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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