Thomas Brozik, who utilizes the moniker Dahtra, is a Marine Corps vet who has channeled the hardships of life and mental health struggles into his music, crafting guitar-driven and biblically-inspired compositions that are lyrically meaty and honest. His debut album, Unapologetic, contains 14 tracks, each of which was inspired by a notable figure from Scripture, such as Paul on "Blinded" and Samuel's mother Hannah on "Let Me." When you find the album on streaming services, though, you'll see that each song title includes the notation: "AI Arrangement." This is because Brozik demoed all 14 songs (with vocals, guitar, bass, drums, etc.) and fed those demos into a generative A.I. service (presumably Suno), which took his demos and turned them into the types of giant, polished productions that generative A.I. has become known for. Anyone who's listened to the JFH Podcast episode about A.I. music knows that I am generally opposed to A.I. being used in music, but at the same time, I do my best to give people the benefit of the doubt and to look for the ethical uses of A.I. To Brozik's credit, he's gone "above board" to a greater extent than I've seen from most other A.I.-based artists, and I also think that what he's done here (writing and demoing the songs in full before letting A.I. touch them) is one of the most ethical use cases for Suno, Udio, and other such services. Additionally, not only has he openly disclosed his use of A.I. on streaming services and in his artist bios, but he's given JFH the honor of hearing the original demo for the album's opening track, "I Am The Rock."

"I Am the Rock" is an anthemic pop-rock scorcher about the life of Peter, featuring in-depth and poetic lyrics which tell the story of Peter -- walking on the water, denying Christ, and then being redeemed into a fruitful ministry. This track shows that Brozik is gifted with the pen, opting for lengthy meters and tight rhyme schemes that delve into the nitty gritty details of the biblical narratives. He also has a solid ear for melody; the opening line of the chorus ("I am the rock / He is the mason") has consistently been getting stuck in my head over the past few weeks, ever since hearing it for the first time. As a side note: This song leans very heavily into the interpretation of Matthew 16:18 that Peter is, himself, literally and specifically the foundation upon which Christ would build His church. This interpretation is utilized by the Roman Catholic church as its sole biblical foundation for the papacy. Here, while the song assuredly exalts Christ above all else, this interpretation leads to lyrics that heap uncomfortable amounts of praise upon Peter, such as, "I'm the foundation / Of everything that's built in His name." That one theological dispute aside, however, I still think that his lyric writing is top notch, and he also has a knack for writing fun guitar riffs, carrying flavors of punk, alternative, and blues.

Regarding the sound and production, the results of this song's "AI Arrangement" (along with the rest of the album) are frankly quite impressive. And that's somewhat to be expected; with these A.I. generation services, greater amounts of human input create greater quality of A.I. output. When you ask the bots to write your song for you, you get nonsensical, cliché-ridden lyrics atop perfectly bland instrumentation. When you do all the work that Brozik has -- to fully write and arrange the song beforehand -- the results are (generally speaking) the best of what these A.I. services have to offer, highlighting your composition while elevating your demo to a professional-sounding level. I was able to spend ample time listening to the original version of "I Am the Rock," and to a significant degree, most of the original composition is intact. The A.I. service made a handful of changes, but most of these are negligible or hardly noticeable (such as removing or changing a drum fill, beefing up the guitar layers, etc). On the other hand, Brozik (who openly states, "The core songwriting and performances originate from my original work") has allowed the A.I. service to make a few significant changes to the songs. The bridge vocals have been changed from a rap into a sung vocal; some guitar parts have been changed, creating space and dynamic that didn't originally exist; and while it's hard to always tell, it seems to me like a few of the chord progressions might've been altered. Most significant, however, is the removal of Brozik's own voice. The sound of Dahtra is an entirely invented one, with songs sung by an A.I. persona that only vaguely resembles Brozik's real life singing voice.

For all the music lovers out there who would be quick to throw away all A.I. music, I want to suggest that A.I. use within music exists on a scale from most ethical to least ethical; and even though my preference would be none at all, Brozik's work here lies pretty close to the "most ethical" end of the spectrum. And his hard work has paid off, resulting in a strong set of songs that could readily entertain listeners who aren't turned off by the over-processed, digital-artifact-y sound of A.I.-produced works. (For the record, my personal favorite is "Judgement is Coming" off the full album.)

In the end, if the world has already received the "AI Arrangement" version of Unapologetic, then I think Brozik owes it to himself to someday also release the "Demo" version of the album. The songwriting would be just as good, but only on the demos could he honestly call his music "raw" and "unfiltered," as his artist bio would suggest.

- Review date: 5/6/26, written by Chase Tremaine of Jesusfreakhideout.com

 

 Record Label: None
 Album length: 1 track: 3 minutes, 41 seconds
 Street Date: March 25, 2026
 Buy It: Amazon Music (MP3)

1. I Am The Rock (3:41)

 

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