Band: Sacred Sorrow
Title: Deliver Us From Evil
Label: Wounded Records
Tracklisting:
01. No Surrender
02. Idolatry Of Fashion
03. Judas
04. Sunsets Over Salem
05. The Kiss Goodbye
06. Less Than Here
07. Paper Airplanes
08. From The Wings Of A Fallen Angel
09. A New Hope
10. Conflicted
11. Proverbs 23
12. Social Suicide
Members:
Blake: Vocals
Jeremy: Guitar
Joshua: Drums
Dustin: Bass
Mike: Guitar
Sacred Sorrow formed in early 2003, after a praise and worship session. The band has made it clear that they were fed-up with the “anti-god hardcore scenes” and “set out to change the pace”. They form in the ranks of many of the up-and-coming spirit-filled bands.
“No Surrender” kicks in with a nice gang vocal and then kicks into the verse with a raspy screamed vocals which fits the tune well. Musically I’m getting a mix of older street punk mixed with hardcore and metalcore. I dig the track! “Idolatry Of Fashion” comes right back in hitting me hard again. About two and a half minutes in we get some spoken vocals and then gang sung vocals. This is where the first disappointment hit. The part fit nicely but better singers are in need.
“Sunsets Over Salem” is a punk song, which caught me off guard. I mean I heard the influence before but this song moves into a completely different direction. The sung vocals again really hurt the song. The next three songs are all clean vocals as well. Now I’m really beginning to be confused. “Less Than Here” comes across like an attempt at a Tool song. The album has really lost me at this point. Paper Airplanes at first sounds like it may redeem them but then kicks right back into the singing.
“From The Wings Of A Fallen Angel” brings back the harder side and is a decent song but is quickly forgotten when the next 2 tracks return again to the clean vocals. Thankfully the album ended on a goodnote with the spoken word “Proverbs 23” and the heavy hitting “Social Suicide”.
Ratings:
Album Art/Design:
Front cover looks like some guy’s drawing while not paying attention in class. Who am I to talk though because I have no artistic talent. The booklet however does contain the lyrics which, as I’m sure you all know by now, gains points.
Lyrics:
The lyrics are one of the better parts of this album. I enjoyed reading through them. They’d definitely fit the old spirit-filled movement of early Tooth & Nail days.
Highlights:
“We will not bow down/ We will not hold back…” “Throw us in your fire/ God will deliver us” (“No Surrender”)
“Savior Savior/ While on others you are calling/ Do not pass me by” (“Less Than Here”)
Marketability:
In a sea of hardcore/metalcore/screamo bands out there this band, unless a more focused standpoint comes forth, will most likely fall through the cracks. Sadly, I think many will be turned off by the clean vocals.
Production:
Obviously this is a small label so a huge production budget was not expected. I felt that it was decent for an independent album. Nothing really could have been changed. They did the best for what they had.
Vocals:
I have to rank the vocals separately I guess. The screamed and gang vocals are good and I enjoyed them. The sung vocals are not good at all. They stray off tune often and just switch the style way too much. That
Overall:
This cd lacks focus. There’s far too many styles presented here to maintain a listeners attention. There are some brutal, almost old-school hardcore (without the overabundance of breakdowns) which then in the next track immediately switches to an almost nu-metal rock ballad. My recommendation, like it matters, would be for this band to drop the clean singing, or at least keep it very infrequent, and follows the patterns of the first 2 tracks. If that had been the case a much higher rating would have been given.
Standout Tracks:
“Social Suicide”, “No Surrender”
Similar to: their myspace says similar to older AFI and Stretch Arm Strong
http://www.sacredsorrow.com/
http://www.myspace.com/wearesacredsorrow
http://www.woundedrecords.com
Buy:
Interpunk