Honor & Glory: An Honorable Debut Posted May 23, 2022 By RyanAdams_NRT, Staff Reviewer
What You Need To Know:
Honor & Glory is a contemporary worship band formed by members of the Christian rock band Disciple. Additionally, members from the bands LOYALS and Amongst the Giants helped with the debut record. Their debut, self-titled was released with BEC Recordings and features both covers and originals.
What It Sounds Like:
Each core member already invests into their local churches through playing on those worship teams, so it is a natural flow from that environment to a recorded album. After 20 plus years for some of these members, they know how to exemplify a great side project. With Honor & Glory, you'll hear familiar songs like "Battle Belong" (Phil Wickham), but most of them are original worship songs.
The passion of Kevin Young's voice empowers these songs; having an excellent balance between rock elements and modern contemporary worship music. More guitar riffs and commanding drums would separate these songs from the typical radio hit, but they could fit in on the airwaves just fine and I hope they do.
Spiritual Highlights:
The whole album reverberates with devotion to God, exemplified with the melodic guitar riffs, passionate vocals, and intimate songwriting, each song is filled with hope and truth. "Victory" is about victory in Christ, if not in the present, the eternal future. "Come Alive" is a celebratory song about revival in our hearts. The mission of the band is well-put but Kevin Young, shared with BEC, saying "I'm not performing. I'm not trying to stir up a crowd or be the lead singer of a band. I'm just worshipping."
Best Song:
One of the most emotional and well-written songs is "God of My Story." The song is a dedication and testimony to the work God has done in our lives. Kevin shares, "When I look back on my life, the successes and failures and everything in between, I can see the handwriting of God through it all..."
Throughout the song, you can hear the pure focus of the band's mission. Each note cries out in personal worship to God while written in such a way that you could find this song sung in your church soon enough. The chorus is a resounding truth that claims "Every chapter is Yours/You are God of my story/All I have is Yours."
Honor & Glory is a refreshing addition to the growing catalogue of artist's side projects. The likes of which remind me of Stephen Christian of Anberlin and Matty Mullins of Memphis May Fire. As the others have before them, Honor & Glory has created a unique self-expressing labor of love that focuses entirely on Christ. I think it could have benefited from more Disciple influence to further set it apart. But the band does a good job of sounding separate and focused on a new mission.
