Radiant consists of Levi Smith (vocals, guitar, and piano), Jon Shoemaker (bass and keys), Daniel Hopkins (drums), all from Texas, and Dragan Jakoljevic (lead guitar and background vocals), who hails from Bosnia Herzegovina.
The group scores major points for the creative title for their newest EP, The Sound of Splitting Atoms. Of course, this brings up two interesting questions. If an atom splits in a forest and no one is around does it make a sound? Of course, the other related question is, do splitting atoms make a sound at all?
Just as the group creatively named their EP, musically they are also very creative and unique. They have a not overly aggressive rock sound that they have made all their own. One would assume that part of this is due to the musical influences that band member Jakoljevic brings in from his region of the world. This unique sound is one of the project's strengths. Another of its strengths is its length. One wouldn't usually consider the length of an EP to be its strength, but it is in this case since each track averages almost 5 minutes long. This 7 song EP is as long as some of the full length LPs that have been released in CCM this year.
The first song, "World," is a catchy song that starts with an intriguing and enjoyable instrumental portion. From there the group slows it down with a ballad, "If I Had Known." The third track, "Way You Make Me Feel," picks things back up in traditional Radiant style, not too fast, not too hard, not too aggressive. The rest of the CD offers a few more slow songs and some more rock songs, all of which are quite intriguing.
This is a group that CCM fans need to sit up and notice. With this release Radiant shows they are good enough to make some serious noise on the independent scene.
3.5 tocks
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