Review Summary: A steak from your local cheap diner.
Don’t judge a book by it’s cover is something that’s been crammed down our throats since childhood. And to an extent, there is merit. However, there is a morsel of truth in at least taking note of the cover. And boy is the cover here ripe for judgment. This is the mid 2000s (at album release). We are far beyond the days of lazily posing in a field for a picture of the band, putting it on the album cover, and then lazily slapping the logo (an extremely poorly drawn logo at that, differing greatly from the classic Pillar logo for essentially no reason) above the picture. Especially if you’re a band that claims to have a message. Ok then, prove it. Make the album art count. Make the title count. What is
The Reckoning supposed to mean? What does that have to do with Pillar’s message? Is a cohesive concept album? Well, only one way to find out.
The jump from the rap/rock of
Fireproof to the straightforward alternative metal of
Where Do We Go From Here was a slight improvement, but it established the fact that Pillar were really going to need to impress and establish a solid identity with the next record. Improve on lyric and song-crafting, clean up the production, and for the love of God, show Noah Henson that Drop C isn’t the only tuning to play in. Oh, and give bassist Kalel some actual significance in the band. Something. And to keep further problems from coming up. Right off the bat, the production is just as bad if not worse than it was before. The guitars sound muddy for the most part , the vocals sound unnecessarily distorted, and overall it just feels grating. But, if you can get past all of that, opener “Everything” isn’t a bad track in itself. There’s a southern rock flavor in the main riff, adding a nice little brush of attitude, but this is still fairly familiar heavy rock ground for the band. It does, however, feel a little bit heavier than before, with Rob pushing his vocals both in the cleans and the screams, which are done well enough. “Awake” further forges new ground for the band with more from Kalel, a tempo that deftly switches from plaintive melody to distortion and screams, and much improved, heavily personable lyrics. I will say, however, that it ends way too suddenly and feels quite jarring. Speaking of jarring, late track “Crossfire” throws the album out of its funk with tense verses, tightly-packed riffs, and explosive screams. It may be the best straight-up heavy track on the album, and shows the band can at least craft one powerful full on rocker. Closer “Chasing Shadows At Midnight” packs excellent quiet/loud dynamics with possibly the strongest lyrics the band has ever written.
There are a lot of problems here though. Firstly, let’s look at the pure inconsistency that this album reeks of. “Tragedy”, for example, sounds like a Dead Poetic B-side and absolutely nothing like Pillar. “Elysian” sounds like one of the instrumentals off of an early For Today album."Sometimes" is a subpar b-side from subpar fellow Flicker Records group Kids In The Way. And none of these tracks are done well either. Furthermore, many of the problems that plagued the previous effort plague this one. I already mentioned the production. Let’s look to the fact that the ballads here are still extremely generic. There is nothing to redeem them. Nothing. Let’s also look to the fact that Noah Henson still has forgotten about the four other tunings he could intersperse for this type of music. You may think it doesn’t hurt, but it hurts badly. The title track is rendered useless due to the fact that it’s main riff may as well be the one from “Everything” played a little faster. In fact, the whole song might as well be “Everything” played a little faster with a little bit more screams.
Lyrically, the band primarily suffers. Examine “When Tomorrow Comes”, which contains the absolute beauty “when tomorrow comes/today is now yesterday”. Good intentions, yes, and I’m not saying there needs to be poetry, but this is pushing it. It doesn’t help that this is repeated ad nauseum. “The Reckoning” is standard “pump-up” fare akin to hit “Frontline”, “Wherever The Wind Blows” will almost make you grimace in pain. However, for the rare moments when the lyrics aren’t horrible or forgettable, they do shine. The introspective take of “Awake” works to immerse you in the track, the darker, haunted feel of “Chasing Shadows At Midnight” immediately grabs your attention and compels you to listen to the end, and even “Everything” will encourage you to keep fighting when times get tough.
I expected more, I’ll be honest. Because there is no reason for this band to fall as hard as they seem to. They have talent, but they don’t know where to put it or how to use it. To top that off, they seem a little too interested in the fact that they are proclaiming the message of Christ (a worthy cause, don’t misunderstand), while sacrificing musical integrity.
The Reckoning has it’s moments of a prime piece of meat, but it largely tastes like an undercooked, aimless mess.
