Review Summary: Summary: Showbread returns with an excellent batch songs that diversify their signature “raw rock” sound.
To summarize the overall sound of Showbread can be difficult. In fact, from album to album, Showbread usually majorly changes their overall sound. Their debut album
No Sir, Nihilism Is Not Practical received high praise for its unique blend of harsh vocals and singing over hard rock guitars and synthesizers.
Age of Reptiles is often considered the band’s worst album, offering a more stripped-down and simple sound than their previous work and almost no screaming.
Anorexia Nervosa was a double-disc concept album. The first disc featured some of their darker work blended with vocal overlays, heavy amounts of effects, and industrial elements, similar to bands like Nine Inch Nails or old Ministry. The second disc was more like
Reptiles but kept some of their newfound industrial sound. It also brought back the screaming, using it frequently and effectively. So, where does that bring us to now? The core sound of this cd is a mix of all Showbread’s previous efforts. It features heavy guitars (and some nice solos), clean vocals blended seamlessly with the harsh vocals, and an actually awesome keytar.
After the short intro track, the album goes headlong into “Nothing Matters Anymore”, which features an intro that lasts mere seconds until you are hit with harsh vocals, an obnoxious guitar riff and a compressed drum loop. It transitions smoothly into the smoother chorus. The second verse begins with clean vocals until it stops abruptly for the main riff, then goes back to the sound of the first verse. It features a nice guitar solo and a nice bridge that has a very powerful feel to it.
The next standout track, “Out Of My Mind” kicks off with a very classic rock styled riff similar to AC/DC. The keytar and wah effect on the guitar in the verses are nice, too. The chorus is very catchy and some great lyrics. Although I don’t want to make two comparisons to the same band on a song, the guitar solo is very similar Angus Young’s style.
“The Great Emasculation” is one of my favorites. It is very fast, features synthesizers through the whole song, and almost no clean vocals. The guitar part in the chorus reminds me of “The Hand That Feeds” by Nine Inch Nails. With about a minute left it has a weird synthesizer and guitar solo in which both instruments are playing random notes.
“Shepherd, No Sheep” has a very 70’s or 80’s ballad feel to it. The guitar work is very good in this song. The lyrics can be very good (first verse, second verse, chorus) or really stupid (bridge).
"Let There Be Raw" is one of the most cheesy, stupid songs on the cd. But who cares? I love it. Why? It has to be one of the most fun tracks on the cd and is probably the best song to point out what raw rock really is.
The title track, “The Fear of God” is very soft and kind of creepy. It is a slow-building track that is over six minutes in length. The lyrics are beautiful to this song. I’m not going to quote anything because it I can’t pick a small section to put here. About 3/5 through the song the lyrics go from horribly depressing to showing comfort in God. Overall, it’s amazingly good and is my favorite track off the album.
The last track “Until We Meet Again” is kind of a continuation of the last track. It is another straight-up worship track that has fantastic lyrics, which are all loosely derived from Bible passages. After it’s over, about forty-five seconds of city noise follow to carry out the album.
The album is not without fault, however. While there isn’t a bad song here, some of the songs run together, especially after “Let There Be Raw”. And, also touched on earlier, although the lyrics can be fantastic, they can also be kind of boring at points, such as “Vehement” or "Let There Be Raw".
Overall 4/5
