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JFH Music Review


Seventh Day Slumber, The Anthem Of Angels
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Seventh Day Slumber
The Anthem Of Angels



Artist Info: Discography
Album length: 11 tracks: 43 minutes, 23 seconds
Street Date: November 15, 2011


Seventh Day Slumber is firmly at the midpoint of their career as a band, and unfortunately, their seventh album The Anthem Of Angels finds them stagnating creatively. Lead singer Joseph Rojas and company have an obvious passion for sharing Christ with their young audience, but as is the case with too many evangelistically oriented bands these days, Seventh Day Slumber has a tendency to talk down to their audience with clunky lyrics and rehashed "grunge-lite" guitar figures.

Take for example this opening lyric from the song "Back Where I Began:" "Where do I go from here, it feels like I'm falling apart, God I know you're real, sometimes I just feel so all alone, I fake a smile, but I just want to cry." This sentiment is real, and experienced by everyone at some point in their lives, but this lyrical treatment reads a bit like a Junior High diary entry; sincere yes, but slightly juvenile. Song titles like "One Mistake," "Addicted To My Pain" and "Wasted Life" could be a few more diary entries in that same journal.

There are a few nice moments on the album, like the first single "Love Came Down." While still a bit too linear in its lyrics and musical arrangement, the song scores points for its anthemic nature and Rojas' soulful delivery. The band also does well with "How He Loves," a well executed cover of John Mark McMillan's new worship standard. It's ironic, though, that the cover of McMillan's poetic take on the love of God, with lyrics like "He is jealous for me, loves like a hurricane, I am a tree, bending beneath the weight of his wind and mercy" makes the blocky nature of the rest of the album's tracks more obvious by comparison.

To be fair, Seventh Day Slumber is not the first band to struggle with the seeming conundrum of trying to balance ministry with artistry. But they need not fear trying to mix it up creatively. After all, the Bible is a wildly creative book, expressing the love of God for His creation with creative devices like metaphor, story telling, humor, parables and poetry.

Seventh Day Slumber has a well-deserved reputation for passionate ministry, but careful attention to their sound and taking chances lyrically would not be a subtraction from their calling to hurting youth. Instead, it would most likely broaden their audience and opportunities to impact the masses for Jesus.

- PReview date: 10/31/11, Review date: 11/11/11, written by Tincan Caldwell of Jesusfreakhideout.com



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JFH Staff's Second Opinion



2007 marked the last "regular" album for Christian rockers Seventh Day Slumber. As a big fan of Picking Up the Pieces and Once Upon a Shattered Life, I was hoping for a return to those albums musically; even something along the lines of Finally Awake would have been good. This is not the case. Seventh Day Slumber's newest release, The Anthem of Angels, picks up right where Take Everything left off. The album starts with promise, but it's quickly evident that the band is going for another softer worship album. There is no return to their former selves with this release and it honestly feels like a step backwards from Take Everything. As a whole, the record feels forced. While Take Everything had some decent selling points, it is a struggle to make it through their newest effort in one sitting. Other than a couple of rockin' tunes like "Wasted Life" and "Addicted to My Pain," which are somewhat reminiscent of the old days, and a decent worship song in "Knows My Name" or "How He Loves," the album falls flat. Fans of Take Everything, or of rock and alternative worship music in general, will find some enjoyment, but there isn't much more here. A look at recent Seventh Day Slumber, Kutless, and Jeremy Camp releases lead one to think that BEC, and not the artists themselves, may be the determining factor in the flood of worship albums coming from the label's artists... - Review date: 11/4/11, written by Michael Weaver of Jesusfreakhideout.com

 

. Record Label: BEC Recordings
. Album length: 11 tracks: 43 minutes, 23 seconds
. Street Date: November 15, 2011
. Buy It: Amazon Music (MP3)
. Buy It: Amazon.com

  1. Wasted Life (4:00)
  2. Love Came Down (4:27)
  3. One Mistake (3:53)
  4. Addicted to My Pain (3:26)
  5. Never Too Far Gone (2:49)
  6. Pieces (4:13)
  7. Crash (3:47)
  8. Back Where I Began (4:33)
  9. Knows My Name (4:31)
  10. My Life (3:42)
  11. How He Loves (4:02)

 

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