The Darkness Before The Storm Shines Bright Posted March 11, 2025 By RyanAdams_NRT, Staff Reviewer
What You Need To Know:
Caleb Hyles is a singer songwriter best known for his Youtube career of covering songs such as Disney or anime music. His Christian faith influence has been noticed in recent years such as his Skillet cover album released in 2020 and more notably, the title track for this album The Darkness Before The Dawn.
What It Sounds Like:
Caleb's style has been well honed over his years on YouTube and fits nicely with the modern rock age. He's got soaring choruses, gripping verses, and packed rock and roll music. His sound is comparable to some Christian rock artists, like Thousand Foot Krutch, Skillet, or Disciple, for example.
Spiritual Highlights:
The real reason I wanted to sit down and review this album is because Caleb's faith is most evident in this solo record than almost anything else he's made. There is some significant messages found within, some less than others. The title track is definitely a highlight, with a call for prayer for change in our lives.
A surprise guest is Josh Smith from Ashes Remain, a massive Christian rock band in today's music scene. It encourages us to embrace the hurt in our lives with love and seems to imply that love can help us think differently about our pasts, much like what happens with Christ in our lives. The most brazen is maybe "Not Your Savior" where Caleb calls out the hypocrisy and prophets.
Best Song:
The title song, "The Darkness Before The Dawn," is one the best songs on the record. It's songwriting is so potent and moving that Lacey Sturm from Flyleaf guested on it, and on a separate version, Wolves At The Gate, did too. It's an encouraging anthem and embraces the work of something greater within us to accomplish something great - though not directly referencing Scripture it does reflect truths we find in it.
It's impressive that Caleb was able to collaborate with such significant forces in the Christian rock community, even bringing Trevor from Thousand Foot Krutch out for a new song. There are some songs that fit just generically here as anywhere else in the rock world, as this isn't labeled or promoted as a Christian-based album specifically. But regardless, The Darkness Before The Dawn offers a dynamic experience with some songs that sing of strong, biblical truths among relevant struggles in life.
