Monday, November 9, 2009

Mirror of Souls (Random Review)

5/5

In 2002, Matt Smith decided to start a progressive metal band called "Theocracy" which means "a government controlled by God." He had been listening to Contemporary Christian Music, and was disappointed. He decided that Christian music needed to be as powerful as the message it brought, and he went as far as to say "when you're dealing with the most powerful and serious subject matter in existance, you can't back it up with weak music. It just doesn't work"

Fast forward 6 years, and Theocracy is now a full band, and they have just released their sophomore album, "Mirror of Souls." It combines their original Progressive Metal sound with the epic choral sections of Power Metal, creating one of the best metal projects to ever be released in any medium, and easily the best metal album to be released to the Christian market.

The album kicks off with A Tower of Ashes, which starts with an orchestraic section before adding guitars, and eventually an element of speed metal. The song talks about how craving glory and being prideful takes away from God, referencing the Tower of Babel in the beginning. The next song, On Eagle's Wings, is a song about God carrying us through the hard times in our life. Laying the Demon To Rest is a song about the war fought every day between God and sin for our hearts. Smith realizes that fighting the demons by ourselves is futile, and that only God can give us peace.

The next song is the only slow song on the album, entitled Bethleham, and it is beautifully executed. The song is from the point of view of the old Prophet that recognizes Christ as the Messiah shortly after His birth. Absolution Day is next, and takes some elements from Thrash Metal. The song is about how Christ will take our sins for us on Judgement Day ("Wait! No more! Suddenly another takes the stand: my advocate to plead my case; a perfect, blameless man"). The Writing in the Sand is heavily orchestrated, and is based on when Christ stopped a group of men from stoning a woman by saying "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone," and is from the point of view of one of the men. He describe's Christ's gaze like a mirror to his soul, reflecting all his sins and hypocrisy. Martyr is song about Christ's sacrifice, and the greatness that came about because of it, and is one of the albums strongest songs.

The finale is the title track, and clocks in at 22 minutes and 26 seconds. The song ebbs and flows beautifully, with a few acoustic parts and soaring choruses. The song includes and orchestraic section and a shredding guitar solo. The song is the epic tale of a man who finds himself in a hall of mirrors that show him what other people think of him, and he is overcome with pride. He is, however, locked out when he mistakenly enters a door that leads outside into a raging storm. As he makes his way through the storm, he is convinced he is going to die when he sees a light. He makes his way toward it when he finds a massive gorge in his way. He is devestated, when a stranger appears, and leads him to a bridge. The man is able to cross, and finds that the light emenates from behind a door, which he promptly enters. Inside, he finds a massive mirror. When he looks at the mirror, he finds that his reflection is not there, instead a creature that is diseased and decaying, with completely black eyes. He runs away and exits to find the stranger once again. The stranger reveals that the creature shown in the mirror was the narrator's soul. The narrator realizes that what everyone else thought was a lie, and only what God sees matters ("The truth unveiled before me with these words of the stranger: 'The mirrors you saw in the hall long ago Were mirrors of lies, not reflecting the soul When you look unto others to see what they see You see an illusion, deception, false reality'"). The stranger then takes the man back into the hall, and the mirror only reflects the stranger, not the man. The stranger (Christ) took the man's sin, and repaired his soul.

There is nothing to complain about on this album, it is progressive/power metal at its finest. There is absolutely no doubt about Smith's take on Christianity, or what he is singing about. The album flows beautifully, and this group of musicians has never been tighter. Smith has the most impressive range I've ever heard from a male, and more impressive than most females. I highly reccomend this album to any fan of metal, or even fans of orchestraic rock like Skillet or Red. And anyone looking for heavy music without screaming has succeeded in their search.