Review Summary: The coma.
After a decent first outing and an improved second, Seventh Day Slumber were absolutely set. They had proved they could at least stick with the second-tier Christian rockers like Disciple and Decyfer Down and
Finally Awake is a stronger album than those of Skillet or Pillar. Not to mention the fact that this band wasn’t truly three albums in yet: no fan could’ve gotten that tired of SDS because they hadn’t fully established a core sound yet. I’m not one to typically blame the record label for the quality of a band’s album, because oftentimes if you read interviews and examine signs in albums past it’s fairly obvious the band themselves wanted to take things in a different direction. RED was accused of “selling out” for the poppier, simpler and ultimately more melodic Release The Panic, but there are plenty of interviews well before that album came out where the band stated that they wanted to go in a different direction (not to mention that that record really isn’t bad but I digress). But here, I assign blame to BEC. RED was three albums and multiple tours into their career before releasing RTP. SDS was just starting to get recognized and there was no reason for them to jump on the worship bandwagon. But, to the fault of BEC Recordings (who also pulled the exact same trick on Kutless), they did, resulting in the forgettable rock/worship
Take Everything. 2011 brought the first album with original material since 2007 and things looked pretty dim. Was this a reawakening for the group?
Joseph still sounds fine, though I much preferred the rougher edge and occasional scream he would use on
Finally Awake. Holderfield plays some decent guitar riffs here and there, but this is such a step down from FA that it hurts. Literally, this is stuff you’d expect to hear from a Sunday worship service, not a rock band. Drums and bass don’t do much and mainly just fade contentedly into the backdrop.
“Wasted Life” is one of the better tracks of the record, but compared to other rock tracks and openers by the group, it absolutely falls flat. What’s here is decent, but it isn’t near as impassioned or energetic as a track like “Awake” or “Break Me”. “Addicted To My Pain” is similar, though it stands out a little more because it feels much more passionate and grabs the listener slightly tighter. Also, this track does have a pretty cool main riff admittedly, as does follow-up mid-tempo rocker “Never Too Far Gone” that doesn’t sound too far off from the mid-tempo tracks of
Once Upon A Shattered Life.
That’s really it. Everything else here is just boring rock/worship fodder for HisRadio and sounds almost exactly like Kutless or Jeremy Camp. It’s the same lyrically. The standouts have some cool moments, but for the most part its cliched phrases that belong in Chris Tomlin, not a self-proclaimed rock band that wants to address real issues.
This is so disappointing. And there’s no potential either. Nothing here got me excited for another SDS record, the exact opposite feeling I had after my runthrough of the previous album and even the slightly mediocre first record. The standouts are decent (decent meaning if you want some alt-metal/modern rock background noise, these tracks are perfect for that), but the rest is just garbage.
