The Physics of Fire

Not too long ago, the Christian metal community was definitely astounded and impressed with the Solid State release of Terminate Damnation from a band called Becoming the Archetype, formerly The Remnant, that almost seemed to come out of the blue. The album brought them much well earned respect because of their creative melodic metalcore sound, with the addition of piano and acoustic guitar.

What made that album so impressive to me was their incorporation of three guitarists, giving them the freedom to make all the guitars do something different, yet make it all sound so well thought out and put together. It happens to be one of my favorite Christian albums to date.

Of course, good things don't last forever. So much has changed about the band that pretty much the only way to tell that it's still BTA is Jason's voice. Everything else has changed dramatically. With the loss of one guitarist, it seems that their creativity has somewhat gone downhill, yet there's no denying that their guitars have definitely gotten a LOT more technical.

Creativity: 75

As I said before, I believe their music creativity has gotten somewhat lower since their last album. There are still melodic parts, but they've become fewer in number and longer.

Melody: 87

Melody is still good, as they try their best in every song to keep the same beat and have melodic guitar parts, as well as piano, acoustic guitars and a new incorporation of a creepy synth sound. Not bad at all.

Technicality: 92

One thing that's changed is that they've definitely gotten a lot more technical. Their guitar solos are faster and more improved than from their last album (the tapping work on Endure is insane). I can barely hear the bass, and, as a bassist myself, that kind of pisses me off, so I can't really make assumptions of technicality on that level. The drummer definitely blasts more often, I've noticed, and there are a few parts on the album (Immolation, f.e.) where they try to go black metal and actually don't do a bad job. I'm impressed with their technicality, although they lost some of their melody as a result.

Vocals and lyrics: 95

The vocals haven't really changed since Terminate Damnation, except with the incorporation of clean vocals by guitarist Alex, which I think is a neat little addition, and actually improves the sound (Autopsy so far is my favorite song). I have to say that the lyrics have improved, as they've definitely revealed their Christian side a lot more, which demonstrates a rise in boldness of faith, which I really admire. The lyrics follow a central theme: fire. Sounds simple, yes, but I think the lyrics are better than the last album.

Song arrangement: 96

The album structure is similar to their last album (melodic to hard to melodic to hard then end), but they did something different this time. They made four songs into a series called The Physics of Fire which, when read from first to last, make up one whole song. What they did that I think is cool is that they arranged the four songs throughout the album in an incorrect order (part 3 is first, then part 1, etc.), therefore requiring some effort on the reader's part to read them in order. Some may not like it, but I do.

Band photos: 65

In this album, they now have individual photos, instead just one whole photo like they did on the last album, and I don't exactly admire that. The incorporation of fire into their pictures looks pretty cool. What I don't like is the inconsistency of the photos. Jason's so far is my favorite, because the fire is coming out of his mouth, and that's cool. Alex's photo, sorry to say, looks just queer. It looks like he's posing for some stupid magazine, and all he had to do was stick his finger in his mouth, and it would be complete. Count Seth's picture was just a giant face with fire in his eyes, and I didn't really like that. The lack of a real band photo was disappointing.

Album art: 90

Really cool. It's a guy encased in ice surrounded by fire. Freaking awesome, but I kind of like the album art on Terminate Damnation a little better, because it was hand made.

Overall: 83

The Physics of Fire was a very good addition for the Christian metal community, but it lacked the melody and innovation that was presented on Terminate Damnation. Many things have improved, but many things have gotten worse. My brother just bought it, so I can enjoy the things I like most of the album whenever. He bought it in Hot Topic, so I have no doubt that one could find it pretty much anywhere.

This is my first real album review to this awesome web site, and I hope you enjoy it!

Sir Lancelot.