Top 10 Album Of 2009
Posted January 04, 2010
By KevinMcNeese_NRT, Staff Reviewer
2009 was an incredible year for Christian rock, anchored by this stellar, career high album from Thousand Foot Krutch. The band has always been well-respected for their lyrical honesty as well as their ability to rock hard while remaining accessible. With an amazing track record behind them, the bar has been raised with their fifth major release, Welcome To The Masquerade, and all rock acts are hereby put on notice.
The album opens with an instrumental track that sets the tone of the album, building seamlessly into the scathing electric guitar opening of the title track and for the next 14 minutes, through "Fire It Up," "Bring Me To Life" and "E For Extinction," it's a tidal wave of sound that pounds measure after measure, allowing you to come up for air for just a few seconds as the waters calm down during a bridge only to surge all over again.
TFK masterfully mixes living, breathing energy in their music. For example, "Scream" starts with a nice drum beat, then layers on a heavy guitar riff to kick off the song. The music fades on the verse to allow Trevor's vocals to shine clear and strong and then the chorus hits heavy while Trevor kicks it up a notch vocally right before the classic rock whisper. The bridge pulls back almost entirely as a piano plays quarter notes, joined by guitar a few measures later. An electronic fill brings the song back to the beginning. And this is just on one song! It's this musical blender that makes every song such a thrill ride to listen to. This is ear candy at its sweetest.
While I'd highly recommend the entire album, standout tracks besides the ones already mentioned include "Forward Motion" (an instant classic that even non-rock fans will be able to appreciate) and "Smack Down."
As one of the many career defining albums in this year's list, 2009 is certainly a year of incredible music and TFK is sitting at the top of the rock genre, hands down. View All Music And Book Reviews By KevinMcNeese_NRT | View KevinMcNeese_NRT's Profile
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