Album Review :
Hundred Year Storm - The Future Belong To The Brave
Artist: Hundred Year Storm
Album: The Future Belongs To The Brave
Label: Doll House Recordings
Release Date: 6/12/09
Reviewed By: Tyler Hess
Tracklisting:
1. Lift Your Voices
2. Look To The Skies
3. Crown
4. See You On The Other Side
5. Float Away
6. Barely There
7. Sunrise
8. It’s Alright
9. Eclipse
10. Success of Liberty
11. Dying Giant
12. Come Broken Heroes
Is space rock a genre? If not, I’m declaring it to be one anyway. Hundred Year Storm has come out with something that would never in a million years make it into pop culture, not even close, not by a long shot. Though the vocals are mostly ignorable and used in small amounts, this is masked by an array of quotable quotes that anyone in America has probably heard at one time or another, from Ronald Reagan to the movie “Network”, to supplement their soft-hearted and well crafted instrumental atmospheric sound. The strange part, as if there was a non-strange element to this album, is that the lyrics seem to be telling a completely different story than the quotes are talking about. Though the background is clearly space travel, the underlying theme is really in seeing the bigger picture. This isn’t really about the final frontier in the Star Trek sense, it is about the end of who we are as people on this planet. From the opening track’s Revelational impact, past the second track’s call to look to God in the sky and beyond this album calls us to seek something even greater than space. Yes, there are other themes, actually. War is a big one as well, with quotes from several world leaders. That, too, falls so short of our need. Our need not being one more great album, but being in God.
Overall: You definitely have to be in the mood for this one. I was bored to tears the first time I heard this because I was tired and wasn’t really paying attention. This is a story, an adventure, one where you need to pay attention to in order to get the full effect. The music is serviceably peaceful, the vocals work well enough (but aren’t amazing by any means), but the story has been crafted quite well. I wonder how they pull off a live show?