Great Message and Great Music Combine on This Album
Posted March 05, 2014
By jesbalascio,
We As Human’s first full-length effort did not disappoint those with high expectations from their EP.
After relentlessly touring with industry big-shots such as RED and Skillet, WAH returned to their Nashville studio with a good deal of material for their next project.
Lead singer, Justin Cordel, spoke of the hardship of touring and constantly balancing the demands of the general-market shows with the expectations of the Christian-music scene in the rock anthem “I Stand”:
Why should I be ashamed
To talk about the God that I know is real
Or about how sick I think it is when babies are killed
Or the fact: evolution is just stupid and wrong
I didn't come from a monkey but you believe what you want
I believe that Jesus died and He is risen again
I believe that He will burn this world down in the end
I don't care what you think about me or what I say
I mean every word, why should I be ashamed
The song also highlights the band’s fearless profession of that which they hold dear. WAH has no problem taking on major social issues: abortion, evolution, and Christ’s supremacy are all taken head-on in the opening lines of “I Stand”. This is social conscience is also evident in the runaway hit “Zombie” which features Skillet’s John Cooper.
In the hard-hitting scream-a-thon, Cordel and Cooper address society’s reliance on medications. The convicting lyrics include: “Wake up the zombie / So long over medicated / Thinking nothing's wrong / Cause you're so sedated”.
Alight with heavy guitar rifts and strong percussion (provided by Justin Foreshaw, Jake Jones, Dave Draggoo, and Adam Osborn respectively), this album certainly carries the influences of their hard-rock tour-mates.
True to form, this album casts a long emotional shadow. “Take the Bullets Away” (which features Lacy Strurm [formerly of Flyleaf] as a backup vocalist) was inspired by a family member’s experience in a bad relationship, which left her on an emotional precipice – even considering suicide. The lyrics “Am I worthless / Am I filthy / Am I too far gone for a remedy” capture grief succinctly, and have inspired more than one teary-eyed fan profession of how the tune has helped them through a valley in their life. (For the deep-in fan, this song marries Skillet’s “Last Night” beautifully.)
Drawing from their lives and the Bible, WAH has managed to align personal trauma with beautiful melodies in songs such as Sever which addresses the loss of a child to cancer ("Cancer in my bones / You won't let me go") with a marked duality paring it against Satan (“I cut the ties / I've been betrayed / My flesh and soul are still at war”).
The entire album reads like this, and it is great; it carries my seal of approval.
Should the reader be interested in learning more about the band, please check social media. They’ve active accounts on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
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