Album Review: There Was A Light Here.

Rev. Jonathan David Faulkner

Rating:

LONGTIME READERS know that I’ve often written in reviews about how hard it is to stay on top as a musician in an industry that is constantly changing and demanding content. Criticizing the industry is often a common theme in the Christian Rock/Metal world and for good reason. You either produce new content that is radio friendly or you die (at least in the industries eyes). Bands that do stick around the industry often fall into the trap that has plagued bands like Switchfoot and Stryper, sounding so much like themselves that there is not much “new” to attract younger fans or which sets the new music apart from older music. For some bands this is the price of staying “relevant” to the audience the radio station panders too. It’s a great way to make money, not a good way of making music, leading to reused sounds and watered down lyrics.

So, when I hear a mainstay in releasing new music, I am always a little cautious when I approach the album. I want bands to break their trends and come up with something original to them or give me their version of a genre/idea. It is very hard for a band to do what Thousand Foot Kruth did when they went independent and released “The End is Where We Begin.” To give fans a new take on a familiar sound with lyrics that punch you in the cut as much as they lift you up.

Which brings me to Demon Hunter, who just released their twelfth studio record “There Was a Light Here.” As many of you who have read my reviews of Demon Hunter records from my Autoclave days, I have an affinity for Demon Hunter and their music, even as an objective listener I have not yet found a song or album that feels like the band sold out or phoned it in. The band has always gotten better with age, experimented, changed up the instrumentation and of course, hit you with some of the hardest and most provoking lyrics in the entire industry. After 20 some years of listening to music as a fan and as a critic, I can tell you that most bands do not get to 12 albums, some of the biggest names in the industry are lucky to have 10 and the last few records of some feel like the band has run out of steam and out of ideas.

That is not the case with Demon Hunters TWALH. In fact, this may be their best album in their discography. I want you to understand reader that I do not take that assertion lightly. This album expertly combines some of the best elements of every era of Demon Hunter and crafts them into a long form album which also includes new sounds and ideas from a band that has been making music for over 20 years, again, not something you typically find in bands that have been around that long.

The album opens with what is sure to be a mega hit: “My Place in the Dirt” which opens a melodic instrumental that sounds like a bit like it might have been composed by an 80s metal band before launching into the heaviest track on the album. Similar to how 2017’s Outlive opens with two “Trying Times” and goes straight into “Jesus Wept.” The song features a perfect transition from front man Ryan Clark’s signature screams to his (also signature) clean vocals. The song is one of the bands true masterpieces and was definitely worth the wait. This is followed by the second single “Sorrow Light the Way” which is a blend of several of the band’s historic elements from both the bands heavier tracks and their famous ballads. The song reminds me of “Died in my Sleep” (also from Outlive) but could also find itself at home on an album like 2014’s Extremist. It also includes one of the heaviest breakdowns which may very well include Demon Hunters first “Blegh” and then gives way almost perfectly to the ballad like chorus. Next comes the song “Light Bends,” which is another unique Demon Hunter track that bridges the gap between the band’s traditional ballads and hard rock.

The album goes back and forth between heavier, face melting tracks and ballads. Each track is unique, like “By a Thread” which travels a bit outside the bands genre and pulls some pop vocal elements into the chorus. By a Thread is a good example of how the band has been able to experiment with new sounds while staying true to their sound. The album also includes several incredible straight rock songs (“The Pain in Me is Gone” “I’m Done” “Reflected”), as well as some of the bands signature ballads (“Overwhelming Closure, There Was a Light Here”).

The final track, also the title cut, is truly a unique Demon Hunter song, taking everything, they learned from reimaging their ballads for “Songs of Death and Resurrection.” The song incorporates strings and a choir, two things we do not always associate with a Demon Hunter song. Longtime fans will be hard pressed to find something to compare it to in the bands other 11 albums, but the song works, in fact it raps up the album better than any ending ballad in the band’s discography, and that includes “I am A Stone” (which is actually referenced in the song itself) from the Deluxe version of True Defiance. The song is truly something new and different for Demon Hunter with the light guitar, bright organ and choral finale and I hope it gets airtime on stations that would not usually play songs by metal bands.

Message wise, it is important to note that the album is dedicated to Ryan’s mother who passed away in the last calendar year. Fans of the band know that he and his mother were close and that she was one of the people instrumental in forming and maturing his faith in Jesus Christ. The album is full of tracks specifically dedicated to her, the title cut: “There Was a Light Here” or about her passing: “Light Bends,” Sorrow Light the Way.” I would like to pause here to thank Ryan Clark for opening the door for us to suffer with him, to feel what He is feeling. I know many of us who have lost parents and grandparents in this life have felt what these songs are describing. I also want to give my condolences to the Clark family on this loss. From the lyrics in these songs, which feel too personal to include in this review, Margret Ellen Clark was an amazing Christian and Mother.

The rest of the album delivers harsh criticisms of the modern American Church. The opening track: “My Place in the Dirt” delivering the hardest of all. The song talks about how the people that come out to Demon Hunter shows, the people Demon Hunter ministers too on a weekly basis, are often not the type the church wants in the doors or who have been directly rejected by the church. He talks about his own ostracization by church leaders who: “seek their escape in the walls of the church” while he: “found his place in the dirt.” The song directly attacks the notion that the church is where the Gospel is spread, it is doing the work of the Good Samaritan, finding ones place in the dirt, to carry to the gospel into the darkest places in the world. It requires us to “Drink with the wicked” and “Offer (ourselves) to the way of death” and “hearts to the suffering lambs.” Reflecting that the call of Jesus was to go to those at the bottom and lift them up. The rebuke is scathing, but necessary in our times.

The same can be said of the song “Ouroboros” which takes Christians who identify with both the political right and left to task for causing division while trying to impose their own “heresy” on the other. The song name reflects the futility of this cycle as an Ouroboros is the Egyptian sign for eternity and is commonly depicted as a snake eternally devouring its tail. The point is that our constant destructive cycles of not truly following Jesus will lead to our destruction and the destruction of our children. This theme can also be found in: “By a Thread” and “Hang the Fire.”

“Reflected” is a truly unique Demon Hunter song thematically because it reminds us that the only way for us to fix what ails us as the American Church is to lean into the Imago Dei and walk as one through the Holy Spirit. The only way to bring our sons and daughters forward, to undo the damage described in “Ouroboros” is to let the Spirit bind us together as one by reminding us that we are all made in the image of God. The song serves as a great corrective to the albums secondary theme introduced in “My Place in the Dirt” as well as a bridge between the two themes, setting up the title track.

It is hard for me to find anything truly wrong with this album, if there is any drawback its that the contrast between the different styles feels a bit unevenly mixed at times, but if that’s the only issue you can find with an album, then you’ve got yourself a pretty good album and it might be a bit too nitpicky anyway. Some fans have described it as what one would expect if the bands double album War and Peace had been one record. I do worry at times the harshness which Ryan brings his criticisms of the church may turn off some who need to hear them, but it also needs to be said until someone listens and makes changes.

I 100% believe, after listening to this album through 10+ times and then listening to the entire discography, that this is the best Demon Hunter Record ever released. What do you think? Let me know in the comments!

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