End of the Age

Heavy forms of Christian music often have a specific, difficult to define but uncomfortable character. Somehow, no matter what the actual genre is, it's virtually always somehow timid, kinder than its peers, and, frankly, a bit crappy. Why? We can never know...

Theories can be cooked up, ideas can be thrown around, and here are a couple:

1. The message needs to get through: No matter how hard the grind-for-Jesus blastbeating and guitar-crushing band might be, it still needs to get its message through to the audience. And that does not work if the vocals are senseless growling. Hence, almost every Christian band feels a need to modify their chosen musical style to accommodate a vocal style that allows hearing the lyrics and works as a sermon of sorts. Also, that means the vocals pretty much always get a lion's share of the total volume, thereby tuning down the instruments and neutering the overall sound.

2. It needs to be friendly: Jesus was friendly. The local pastor is usually friendly. All the people at the local sect gathering are friendly. Even the fiery layman preacher in his fifties, the one who allowed the band to play their seven song set on the Thursday evening on the main stage of the weekend long prayer gathering to lure in a few more young and rebellious souls in need of saving, is obviously very friendly. He even makes that little dance move reminiscent of that tiny jig that Air Force colonel does in Spinal Tap before "letting his hair down" and partying hard. And thus, the music needs to be friendly, and thus, any aggressive components need to be downtoned a bit. Let's stay positive out there!

3. It's divine inspiration: There's no need for any kind of silly creative controls or restraint, it flows from the Big Guy himself, and it is, by default, good enough. Don't like it? Have fun in Lucifer's wok and enjoy the 234000 Scoville chili sauce on your charred flesh for eternity, you dirty fornicator and your whore-of-Babylon girlfriend!

4. It must have an atmosphere: Since the emotions a simple and honest faith gives the believer are huge, the music needs to reflect that. If the individual faith creates somber and peaceful emotions with a melancholic edge, it's time to make melodic, mildly Gothic-tinged poppish metal, and you end up with the likes of, say, HB. If the feelings have an epic grandeur, it's time to go all out and make an album that recalls the dreams of the heavenly host, armed to the teeth, riding heavenly beasts with trumpets blasting down the flimsier walls built by heathens, and crossing the sky with thunder and rainbow-coloured flames raining down death and destruction of the unworthy at the moment of the Rapture... And you end up with a bedroom version of the love-child of Therion and Candlemass, with no brakes in the cart careening down a steep hill towards an artistic landfill filled with rotten stuff and sharp objects.

Whoops... hehe... how nice it was to get that out of the system. Sheesh. Now, how does this apply to Hallowed's End of an Age?

Well, the Items 1 and 2 definitely fit the album. The music is quite friendly power metal, with a heavy emphasis on the vocals and the way the message tries get through. Item 3, however, is a bit iffy, but as the EP is not quite that crappy, and even has some decent songwriting, it might be fair not to forcibly apply that on End of an Age. As far as Item 4 goes... well, the EP very much tries to have epic gallops and neo-classical parts striving for a feel of grandeur, but not to the point of turning cheesy. Thus, we are left with a 2/4 score on the Christian Metal Scale. And that's good.

Overall, the EP is decently but not truly skillfully played power metal in the late-90's style. It's too user-friendly and too focused on the lyrics for its own good, but it's not atrocious, either. The skill level of the musicians is reasonable, but not even close to sufficient to turn Hallowed into a hit band, even within the confines of the religious scene. However, the band members have since played in several other bands, many of them with obvious and some with veiled Christian leanings; perhaps the past fifteen years have served them well, and the quality of their more recent works has improved. At least they have diversified stylistically, as the genres span from melodic heavy metal to death'n'roll.

In the end, End of an Age is roughly as listenable as its cover art is enjoyable. Take a look and draw your own conclusions.