Monday, October 20, 2008

Theocracy - Mirror of Souls (2008)


You don't hear power metal hailing from Georgia very often, and after hearing the sophomore effort of Theocracy, I can only be thankful.

It's flighty, Christian power metal, of course. If you're not into the idea of a band singing to you about God and the glory of serving in His name and, angels, or whatever the fuck nonsense people are still being brainwashed about these days, then just stop here.

If you love Jesus and kiss the sky and want some spirituality in your metal, there are other reasons to pass on this. The music is very well produced but lacks any real staying power, even when the band manages to create a decent charging riff and great vocal lines like those of "Absolution Day", they fail to capitalize on it because they lapse into the typical 'anthem' sound that plagues so many boring, 2nd rate European bands of this style. And I consider this by far the best song on the album.

Take a band like Freedom Call, or Heavenly. Now strip those bands of everything bordering on excitement or memorable riffing (for Freedom Call you don't have far to fall). Add the preachy Christian lyrics, and voila, you have Theocracy. Does this sound exciting to you? Yeah, it wasn't for me either. I will make note that the band can play their instruments well, the singer is decent, if all the tracks were of the quality of "Absolution Day" I might favor it a little more. Die hard fans of the bands I've mentioned here, or maybe Helloween, who REALLY love Jesus, will probably be in Heaven here. Pun intended. "For Christ alone is worthy, to pay the price to set our sinners free!"

Thanks for that lesson.

Verdict: Fail [4/10]

http://www.theocracymusic.com/

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