ARMOR OF GOD
2 Face Reality (Giant Records)
Reviewed by DJ Johnson

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Christian heavy metal has never worked for me, not due to religious conflicts but because it's always struck me as gutless, bland, one-dimensional and devoid of creativity. Armor Of God aren't a kick-you-in-the-teeth metal band, and their sound isn't going to endanger your speaker cones or any glassware in your home, but I find them more interesting and creative than any of the Godrock bands I've heard in the past. And truth be told, your glassware and speakers will be in considerably more danger than they ever were if you listened to, say, Stryper. (I shudder.)

It's easy to compare, too, because they're quite lost in the past, with a sound that is right out of the early 80s. As a matter of fact, when I first put the CD on, unaware they were a Christian metal band, I commented to another Cosmik Debris staffer that the intro sounded a little like Queensryche with Geddy Lee on vocals. I caught on fairly quickly, though, when lyrics like "you crossed your moral boundaries" popped up.

Geddy, by the way, turns out to be keyboardist Donna Worsham. Yep, keyboards. She's joined by Kevin McElyea on guitar and David Worsham on - are you ready? - drums and bass. Not a band coming to a church or a pub near you. The same thing that bugged me about the other Godrock bands bugs me about this one: they don't know if they want to rock or sing hymns or flat out preach, but there are more ideas here when they do rock, including interesting tie-ins with 9/11 via radio-dial searches, some vocal harmonies that sound pretty good and would have sounded better if they hadn't been overproduced in the tradition of the genre, and one ingredient always missing in the earlier stuff: one electric guitar with a serious distortion instead of some treble-whine of a cough that couldn't outrock Kenny G. I'm thinkin' that if you ever were into religirock, you'll love this band. If you're a Megadeth fan who collects other hot metal as a hobby, there's not enough wattage here for you.

© 2003 - DJ Johnson