Review Summary: Some of the puzzle pieces here are intact, but some just stand out for their jagged edges and unseemly curves.
After the painfully average release
Anthem of the Angels, SDS turned to another boring rock/worship project in the vein of labelmates Kutless. 2014 brought back the band’s first original material since AOTA but honestly, there wasn’t much promise here. SDS slumped pretty hard with that album and crashed pretty hard after two strong rock releases (excluding the worship project). They just seemed doomed to be another Kutless (admittedly a more interesting Kutless though). Then came
We Are The Broken, a record that the band proclaimed was a return to the days of
Once Upon A Shattered Life and
Finally Awake.
Joseph Rojas still sounds virtually the same as he always has: gritty at moments, smooth at others. I wouldn’t say he has the most original or groundbreaking voice of the genre, but it works for the album, is always very passionate, and is never annoying. Jeremy Holderfield still mans the axe, and his approach this time around is decidedly more riff-centered than before. There’s not quite as much of the clean picking or chords, instead you have shimmering octaves, single note riffs, palm-muting, power chords, and the occasional single note lead. Similar to Joseph, this approach isn’t groundbreaking, but it works for the album and is ultimately just as interesting as the work on FA. Drums and bass again don’t do much, though they never really have for SDS so this shouldn’t come as too much of a shock.
“Goodbye” and “All She Wants” open the album on classic SDS territory: heavy-but-not-too-heavy rockers complete with dualistic vocal performance, hopeful lyrics, dirty guitar riffs (admittedly improved this time around), and standard drums and bass. If you enjoyed the band’s first or second release (or modern rock in general) these tracks are right up your early. “We Are The Broken” finds the band breaking relatively new ground by trying their hand at an anthemic rock anthem similar to “Collide” by Skillet, “Who We Are” by RED, or “My Hell” from Disciple. The track had me excited, humming the lyrics and pumping my fist to the chorus, though my one complaint would be that the bridge riff sounds almost identical to that in Thousand Foot Krutch’s “E For Extinction”. Still, so far this is much stronger than both worship albums and AOTA. Both “Nothing To Lose” and “In Too Deep” are darker rockers than the earlier tracks and most notably showcase the improved guitar-work and more subtle lyric construction. These tracks especially sound like they could’ve come from Finally Awake (especially the guitarwork on the latter song) and are ultimately passable and enjoyable. “In Too Deep” also features the only notable drum performance on the record.
For all of this, there’s still problems here. First of all, nine songs for a full-length LP? Seriously? Not to mention the fact that the band had three years to craft this album. Furthermore, after track five, the album just hits a wall, left to a boring ballad, two copycat filler tracks of earlier songs on the record, and a weak cover of pop hit “Skyscraper” that makes absolutely no sense for this band to be doing. Leading to another gripe I have: you have already chosen to put only nine songs on a full album. Make them all original. And if you insist on doing a cover, make it interesting. Especially when the first five songs are a perfect length for an EP and are very strong on their own. Just release that, don’t bother to release an album that doesn’t even hit the double digits, isn’t wholly original, and can grow very boring. Lyrically, I do applaud the darker approach in songs like “We Are The Broken” and “In Too Deep”, but the direct name-drop of Jesus in “All She Wants” feels a little out of place. It’s ok to write about your faith, don’t misunderstand, but I know that I would prefer a little subtlety and ambiguity myself.
With this release, we are ultimately left with a slightly improved OUASL but not quite FA. Still, if you were waiting for Seventh Day Slumber to jump back into predominantly rock music, the standouts are worth your time and money.
Preferred Rating: 3.3
