As an avowed atheist, it should be fairly clear that the thing that will keep drawing me back to Stryper is not the message or the lyrics, but the music. Add to this a blantant dislike of most ballad-type tracks, and given the excellence of the previous two albums, that job became a lot tougher here on In God We Trust.
For whatever the reason may be, there is a drop in quality in the songs here compared to their earlier efforts. Perhaps it is unfair to compare it to Soldiers Under Command and To Hell With The Devil but this doesn’t stack up against them. The stronger tracks on the album can hold their own – such as “In God We Trust”, "The Writing's On The Wall" and "The Reign" – but there is far too much wimping out here for my liking. As per always, ballads have their place, but too many just detract from the overall picture.
My major gripe is that, in essence, this sounds like a poor rip-off of their previous album. Take a close listen to "Always There For You", and tell me you can't hear "Calling On You", and there is little doubt that the rather disappointing "It's Up 2 U" is a very ordinary re-hash of the infinitely better "Sing Along Song". One can only imagine in the writing process it was decided that they needed to retain the same successful formula as for To Hell With The Devil or that the band had simply run out of ideas.
Kudos to Michael Sweet, whose vocals again soar to hitherto unnatural heights. I am constantly amazed at his ability to not only sing how he does, but to play guitar at the same time as well. The other three guys are again moire than adequate in their playing, but Sweet’s vocals are the winner here.
To me this album had the potential to be as good as their previous works, but it falls down in the final direction they allowed the music to go. A shame when you actually listen to the album, and can hear for yourself where they really should have taken this material.
Rating: Disappointing. 2.5/5
No comments:
Post a Comment