Review Summary: Great new album from Disciple goes in new direction. Might be a disapionment to the old fans.
I would like to tell you a story. This is the story of a boy in the 7nth grade who had just had his birthday. His parents, being the kind loving souls that they were, bought the boy a gift card to the Family Christian Stores, thinking the boy wouldn’t find anything harmful there. The boy wanted to at first to get Switchfoots new CD, entitled Nothing Is Sound. His parents for some odd reason restricted him from it. So the boy went to the in store cd player scan thingy and scanned some WOW cds to see which one he liked best. Somehow by mistake the boy scanned the self titled Disciple CD. When the opening screams of The Wait Is Over tore through him, the boy realized he was in love. The album introduced him to Metal and Disciple alike. Since then the boy branched out to other Christian metal bands, by the monikers of Underoath, Demon Hunter, and Dizmas. Yes you guessed it, that boy was me. I fell in love with Metal on that cold day in November and I’m damn proud of it.
Disciple has been around for a while, as I soon discovered. Debuting in the early 90’s with My Daddy Can Whip Your Daddy, they sot of helped pioneer the craze of Nu Metal and Rapcore. Sort of meaning that they weren’t good at Rapcore and that they were virtually unknown until their third album Back Again came out. With that they established a secure footing in the Christian music market. After charting a couple of hits and playing Cornerstone, they faded back into obscurity. 2005 saw the release of their new self titled, and also debuted their new, more secure sound. It seems that the guys in Disciple finally found their comfort zone. By adding a bassist into the mix and killing the rapcore, the Disciple guys found themselves playing a sort of matalized progressive style. They liked it so they made this great album.
And my have they progressed (ignore the pun). Their new sound is beautifully showcased on songs like the opener The Wait Is Over, and the hit single ( a first for Disciple) Into Black. The guitars definitely improved and adding a bass into the mix completely rounds the sound off. The best track on the album, (and my personal favorite) Be The Quiet, even features a guitar solo, also a first. Most old school Disciple fans will be shocked to hear all the Christian message all but stripped of the music. The band has definitely improved their writing, so all massages are conveyed through metaphor. But when reading closely into the lyrics, you can use the bible verses that accompany the songs to decipher the meanings.
This is the first Disciple album I’ve heard that has next to no filler tracks. All but Stripped Away and All We Have Is Now leave a lot to be desired. My personal favorites include The Wait Is Over, Into Black, Falling Over, Beautiful, and the best song from the album, Be The Quiet. While glancing to the track list at the right you’ll notice the last song, Tribute. The song is really a hidden track and remarkably good, with one of the most crunching riffs from the album. The lyrics are very much Pro-Bush though, which was kind of a disappointment after such a great album. All in all, I also think that they should have left out All We Have Is Now and Tribute, as Backstabber would have been a perfect way to end the album. Backstabber is a great song, and having it followed by All We Have Is Now and Tribute. Otherwise, great album, I recommend it to anyone who is a fan of metal and Disciple.
Pros-
Great New Direction
Good Instrumentation
Solos
Cons
Filler Tracks
Could Be a disappointment to many old school Disciple Fans
Pro Bush stuff
Individual Track Ratings
The Wait Is Over 4.5/5
Stripped Away 1/5
Into Black 5/5
Only You 2/5
Rise Up 3.5/5
Worth It All 4/5
Shine Down 3/5
Falling Over 5/5
Go Ahead 3/5
Beautiful 5/5
Be The Quiet 5/5
Backstabber 5/5
All We Have Is Now 1/5
Tribute 3/5
Recommended Tracks
The Wait Is Over
Into Black
Falling Over
Be The Quiet
Backstabber
