Let's start with one of my favorite albums: "Chosen" by the Violet Burning. (I know the album has been out since May, but due to the long summer, the greatness of this album and the fact that I doubt many of you have ever heard of it, I feel a need to thrust it into normal Asbury conversation).
"Chosen" is a tape of passion. It's personal, yet distant and filled with feeling. The music is definitely an "industrial" or "alternative" sound that incorporates several styles with one overall tone. The leader of this crew is Michael J. Pritzl. He is a poet, and the album is his poem.
"Chosen" is creative and artistic, perhaps one of the most creative pieces of "artwork" released under a Christian label.
The first song on the tape, "There is Nowhere Else", is a soft and beautiful cry to Jesus explaining, "There is nowhere else I'd rather stay than in your arms...". With this opening song, it starts the album off on a romantically creative tenor and the music, vocals and truth behind the lyrics carries the rest of the album like a lofty cloud pleasing to all senses.
"The Last Ones" is a powerful song with vigorous vocals, but underneath the cries of Pritzl there is a somewhat mystical guitar that sings its own song. If you concentrate on the guitar, it seemingly drifts behind in a painfully passionate path of its own.
The last song I would like to mention is "The Killing". "The Killing" is one of the most powerful songs I have heard in a long time. It sends conviction tearing down my spine. Every time I listen to it with serious intentions I can't help but fall deeper in love with Jesus. It's a chilling song and the lyrics pierce with emotion. At the opening of the song you hear a hammer driving a stake. The first words come out almost in a cry, "Can you feel the pain He feels? As the nails go through His hands? Driving them in deeper, Bloody red hands...". You can almost see the tears on his face as Pritzl sings, and the force and ecstasy behind this song is more eternal than we will ever realize.
In an interview with Voices of Liberty (vol I, issue 1), Pritzl states, "...we want to minister to the unbelievers as well, even as Jesus teaches us to do as He did when He hung out with the tax collectors, the sinners, and the lepers. That's what God put on their hearts, not to force them into the Kingdom and not to pressure them, but just to love them because God loves them...". They have a serious vision and consider themselves a ministry band.
The album is incredible and I am so unworthy to try and explain its beauty. The music is top quality and the message is great. You definitely need "Chosen".
Other coverage for this album
Heaven's Metal #25Reviewed by Doug Van PeltWhen I started to "grow up" in college, I began to appreciate different styles of music other than metal. Today, there's a number of "alternative" groups that I really, really enjoy. Add The Violet Burning to that list. Here's some fresh music from The Vineyard church's new label - New Breed. This is killer stuff with an esoteric blend of pop, dance, psychedelic, funk, straight-ahead, and…Similar sounding releases
199277sThe Seventy Sevens
1992CharizmaHeaven Can't Wait
1993Kenny MarksAbsolutely Positively
1994Broken SilenceShout It Out Loud
1994White HeartNothing but the Best - Rock Classics
1989MastedonIt's A Jungle Out There
