I Built The Cross - Bridging The Gap Between Heart And Mind
The Nevada, USA grind-core band, I Built the Cross (IBTC) certainly stands out in the Christian Underground scene. Their stuff is as heavy as bands like Splitter and The Lucifer Principle, but they showcase technical prowess in the vein of The Dillinger Escape Plan on their metal side. With “Bridging the Gap Between Mind and Heart,” IBTC opens with a narration of war, guerilla war to be exact, by stating that their intention is to pick up their enemies’ weapons and use those very same weapons against them. This action represents standard operating procedure for guerilla style warfare. Their goal is to fight the enemies of God for the rest of their lives.
The first music track after the narration, “Minus One Star for Christianity” takes that same track of thought and puts it into words all the way through the song. For example (lyrics found in a Blog at their myspace page), “Your hostility doesn’t scare us…share Christ with everyone. Please understand that we do this out of love…This is where we belong - we will stand strong.” These are words of strength backed up with proper grind core for one, but also these are words that express that the band has been CALLED to do this job – not that it simply feels like fighting. That attitude is expressed from first to last in this album via the lyrics.
The music shows equally this performance of strength. For one thing, even though most grind core bands feature some elements of a second guitar riffing over the strong rhythm section, IBTC’s second guitar is riffing in almost a heavy LEAD guitar method, sort of like noisy distorted improvisation, all through the tracks in a way that matches the rhythms right on but adds a specific strata of music on top of the powerful grind-core bedrock. But just when you wonder where the band can go next musically after the just-brutal track, “Borrowed Parts,” slows into a wall of distortion, the final track is an off-kilter super-clean whisper with only the strings of guitars and a bass picked. I could be wrong, but something feels to me that after a CD full of grind-core assertion, the last track is an instrumental love song that carries the message: Everything will just somehow begin again in high energy status.
I Built the Cross have released a serious grind-core piece worthy of real note.
The first music track after the narration, “Minus One Star for Christianity” takes that same track of thought and puts it into words all the way through the song. For example (lyrics found in a Blog at their myspace page), “Your hostility doesn’t scare us…share Christ with everyone. Please understand that we do this out of love…This is where we belong - we will stand strong.” These are words of strength backed up with proper grind core for one, but also these are words that express that the band has been CALLED to do this job – not that it simply feels like fighting. That attitude is expressed from first to last in this album via the lyrics.
The music shows equally this performance of strength. For one thing, even though most grind core bands feature some elements of a second guitar riffing over the strong rhythm section, IBTC’s second guitar is riffing in almost a heavy LEAD guitar method, sort of like noisy distorted improvisation, all through the tracks in a way that matches the rhythms right on but adds a specific strata of music on top of the powerful grind-core bedrock. But just when you wonder where the band can go next musically after the just-brutal track, “Borrowed Parts,” slows into a wall of distortion, the final track is an off-kilter super-clean whisper with only the strings of guitars and a bass picked. I could be wrong, but something feels to me that after a CD full of grind-core assertion, the last track is an instrumental love song that carries the message: Everything will just somehow begin again in high energy status.
I Built the Cross have released a serious grind-core piece worthy of real note.
- The Narration
- Minus One Star for Christianity
- Hatred from the Religious
- Misguided Ministry
- Stand Together
- To Deface Grace
- Heart of a Servant
- Head High Heavy Heart (cover Charlatan)
- Romans 1:20
- Borrowed Parts
- Ascension
Open Grave Records
Reviewer: Jesse
Dec 1, 2009
Dec 1, 2009
Next review:
Heathen - The Evolution Of Chaos #1
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