I must admit that my own walk with Christ is never as strong as it should be, and Christian Metal such as this new release consistently remind me of God's Love
Ditto. I agree. what rowland said^
its a huge encouragement and sometimes needed correction/kick up the backside what you guys do, inspires us to be better warriors of light for sure...appreciate it. Hopefully will bea spur to encourage me to walk more closely with God read his Word more do better with the life He has given...
alright Ive gone for ...drumroll, the oscar goes to ;D
the titletrack;
1-Destined for Ascension...i think the pipe organs and backing vocals sold me in the end...
2-If I had two votes my second would go to Warriors of Light,(reminded me of stryper/early deliverance a bit, just love the guitars and the feeling of progression going somewhere ..it feels like musically you are climbing a hill,going down a very short slide/resting briefly and then repeating that climb...and I like the lyrics in this song, dont care if people think they r cheesy, they'll do for me, I like lots of cheese anyway...eat a lot of it...a very tight song with a strong consistent melodic,cool sound throughout)
and
if 3 then Road to Damascus, (love the "cut sick" attitude in parts of this song, reminds me of doing burnouts in cars or something, there is one part just before Steve rowes vocals which annoys me a bit, and musically I dont enjoy it as much as Warriors, but the lyrics are awesome, the vocals are incredible, and the catchy chorus line at the end, sticks in the mind with a great message to take with you...musically I don't think its as tight a song as warriors, it moves around more, but some of the things done in this song are arguably some of the best stuff that Grave Forsaken has pulled off in my opinion, and for a 10minute song, that means there is a stack of ear candy/treasure waiting to be discovered! Overall perhaps could have been slightly improved in places, but a truly incredible song, and hopefully we shall see another one like this on the 3rd or 4th album...
4-No Eye has seen (lyrics,vocals music all awesome, just maybe lacks that something extra)
5-Blood on the Scales (totally transported to another world. what a sound!, sticks in my head for sure...not ranked higher cos I prefer the faster songs...lyrically plenty to think about,possibly one of the deeper songs lyrically)
6 Horror and sadness (see my earlier post, like Blood on the scales, a different sound,and really takes you into a dark realm, but encourages one to resist satan even in the midst of such horror, musically it does the job perfectly and the drums at start and wail of guitars is cool, but mentally not a song I want to listen to many times cos of Phillipians 4:8, dont want to dwell on that subject too often...)
7 Eternal destiny (steve rowes vocals r cool! in both this and road to damascus, plus the riff at the end by Daniel Holmes? had me remembering back to the days of arguably the best axe in christian metal of all-time rex carroll of Whitecross)
8-punishment (what a cool sound! Elias is a legend, one of the many songs where the drummer had a tough day at the office??? or not? ie the drumming is relentless consistently hitting a demanding tough beat all the way, so well done!)
9-Perish the thought-(makes me think of bands like Living sacrifice and believer?, some Mort albums,excellent death sound, and great to see some commentary on old testament stuff...christian metal bands should do more of that,although its a difficult area to get right theologically IMO)
10-celebrity judge part 2 (much better sound on this one, I think the drumming was the difference, but not sure...imo part 1 took too long to get going even for a doomy sort of song...lyrically both part 1 and part 2 are very interesting and a very cool way of songwriting imo)...
I can see GF being supported by Tourniquet,Paramecium,Believer,Living Sacrifice,even Deliverance (maybe thats why Jimmy resurrected the band for another album, cos he heard Grave Forsaken, and decided "man I want to play a gig with those guys")
dont forget the headline gig in Finland.
All the best with juggling babies,jobs,the new lineup/s,fundraising, etc
i dont like GF I love it!!!...but no need for reggae,dreadies,and POD cover songs...keep the old school elements dont go hardcore/emo/screamo, there is enough of that out there...
Well done guys, very impressed with this album, its a winner, and I'm sure it will get a lot of listens by me and many others!
doin meter reading work yesterday, every time I came into a dodgy house where I suspected a potential surprise dog attack I had the start of "blood on the scales" going off in my head, and had road to damascus,destined for ascension and warriors of light taking turns in my "mental CD player" all day...when not playing in the car...sorry looks like I'm slightly obsessed with this album this week at least...
I like the whole presentation of the album, and I see my online name even gets a mention in the liner notes
Excellent album, be interesting to see how the votes spread...
suspect James Mosher will be a lot more critical than me, interested to see what he thinks...
alright I will try and shutup a bit now...