Artist: Showbread
Album: The Fear of God
Label: Tooth & Nail
Release Date: 8/11/09
Reviewed By: Tyler Hess
Tracklisting:
1. I’m Lost
2. Nothing Matters Anymore
3. Lost Connection With The Head
4. Regret Consumes Me
5. Out Of My Mind
6. Vehement
7. The Great Emasculation
8. Shepherd, No Sheep
9. Let There Be Raw
10. I Think I’m Going To See You
11. Precursor
12. The Fear Of God
13. Until We Meet Again
When it comes to Showbread, you just never know what you’re going to get, even after you get it sometimes. Though they always like to call what they do “Raw Rock”, it comes in varied forms. From their scratchy recordings before signing up with Tooth & Nail, to their spazzy scream driven “No, Sir, Nihilism is Not Practical”, through the more straight forward rock album of “Age of Reptiles” and then last year’s epic double album Nine Inch Nails type of industrial sound of “Anorexia/Nervosa”, Showbread has consistently brought something new to the table for their fans, for good or bad.
The Fear of God, more than anything, appears to bring those sounds together, simplify them a tad, and just make the album they wanted to make. After a silly robotic intro, the first track begins much like that of A/N, but the album drops that sound after this. The first single, “Nothing Matters Anymore” should be a big hit among their fanbase, but with so many different ways in which Showbread has expressed themselves, I think this album will impact fans of different albums in different ways. I am probably in a bit of a minority, being a fan of Age of Reptiles, whereas Nihilism is probably what most people would like to hear over and over again, so I’m more likely to enjoy the rock songs over the screams, though I am down with all of it. The lyrics are just as cutting as ever, attacking a lot of misconceptions on what matters in life. Just a hint: it isn’t the music. That seems to be the number one thing they want to get across in this album, that the songs are going to go away and God will remain. I feel that as I’m trying to write this that my thoughts are all over the place, but I blame Showbread, because they are all over the place.
Overall: I don’t think that this album will shock any one who has heard their previous work, other than those surprised that they didn’t do something entirely new. This is almost like they fused their prior work into a best of Showbread, but in the form of new songs.