This 12-song compilation CD has a cool picture of an angel statue and simply states that it's "A Christian Metal Compilation." This is no hype. It's the truth. Here's 12 indie bands that fly high the metal banner. Some of the standout bands here are Oil, the gothic musings of Midnight Orchestra, the rich crunch of Faithbomb (you can tell who's got some cool gear), and the slow and steady riffage of Sculpture, to name a few.
Sculpture plays a pretty tight thrash/speed with soloing and good growl vocals. Oil pulls off a power metal hybrid that shows lots of tight instrumentation. The vocals would make Bruce Dickinson proud. Ultimatum's guitarist, Steve Trujillo, is all over the song, "Never," along with the tight double bass drumming of Sean Griego. Udo Dierkschneider fans will like Scott Waters' vocals here. Tyrant lays down a solid and fast rhythm that powers along with some decent biker rock style shouted vocals. Solace brings "She Kissed Jesus" to the table, with a power metal attack not unlike Dio, Maiden or Helloween. The melodic vocals are really nice, making this and Midnight Orchestra's "Cain" my favorite songs on the album. 3rd Day Rising builds some cool tension with its creeping rhythms in "House of Cards." "Healing To My Soul" by Sons of Thunder has a great worship idea, but the vocals don't deliver the passion (IMHO = "in my humble opinion"). I'd say this song (plus tunes by Modus Operandi and Lost Angel) sounds more like a demo of a good idea. I'm reminded of most of the bands on 1989's Underground Metal album. The BGV's just don't do it for me. Devout, who wins the award for "finding a way to use an inverted cross in your logo" award, creates some cool atmosphere similar to some black metal, although this isn't black metal.
I still love metal. My standards are a lot higher now, it seems. I think it's just because there's not as many good bands as there once were. There's definitely a few gems out there (look at Extol, for example), but the underground crop still has its fair share of bands with weak vocalists or out-of-sync rhythm sections. There's a few bands on this disc that I don't think I would enjoy very much, even if it were 1989. Overall, though, there's some decent metal to digest here. Fans of ska and emo -- Avoid this album! Metalheads (you know who you are), you'd do alright to pick this up.
Other coverage for this album
Art for the Ears 2000Reviewed by Marco PovervestHere's another sampler that's worth checking out for all metal fans worldwide. Opposed to the Extreme Metal Sampler, this CD has more variety as it has commercial metal tunes as well as extreme metal. My Dutch friends of Sculpture are here too and they have the honor to open this disc with Spiritual Matrix. It's good death metal. The second band is Oil with the same track as on Extreme ..., When…Dead Zine 2000Reviewed by D_ListerHere is an excellent product. A full attempt to encompass nothing but Christian metal on a CD. There's no straying into metalcore or anything like that here. This is pure Christian METAL, brought to you by Dwell Records. The track listing is as follows: Sculpture - Spiritual Matrix Oil - When No One Cares Ultimatum - Never Tyrant - No Where To Run Solace - She Kissed Jesus Midnight Orchestra -…
