Who says Christian Metal has to be boring?
Artiste: Narnia
Nationality: Swedish
Album: Desert land
Year: 2001
Label: Nuclear Blast
Genre: Christian Metal
Tracks
Inner sanctum
The witch and the lion
Falling from the throne
Revolution of mother Earth
The light at the end of the tunnel
Angels are crying
Walking the wire
Misty morning
Trapped in this age
Chronological position: Third album
Familiarity: “Long live the King”
Interesting Factoid: After releasing six albums, plus a live set and a compilation, Narnia disbanded in 2010. I have to say I'm sorry, and will miss them; they were a lot better than I had expected.
Impression: A good follow up to "Long live the King", though a little lacking compared to that album.
Best track(s): Revolution of mother Earth, Angels are crying, Misty morning(find this instrumental very Gary Moore-ish)
Trapped in this age
Worst track(s): Not really any bad tracks.
Intention: Find Jesus. There He is! No seriously, I'm going to listen to more Narnia though, especially now that I know that what we have is all we'll ever have of their music.
Comments:Okay, so it's another metal album. I'm in the mood, to paraphrase the Nolan Sisters, for metal! This time, however, I have a good idea what to expect, as I reviewed the album before this, 1999's “Long live the King”, and was surprised to be very impressed with it. So I'm hoping for more of the same. I have to say, initially Christian metal was a foreign subject to me, and I would never have willingly explored the genre, but I stumbled into it via Narnia, who I began listening to before I realised they were that sort of band, and yet found it did not take from the music at all. This album doesn't have the immediacy of “Long live the King”, but it's still not bad at all.
There is, nevertheless, something odd, even somehow wrong about a metal band singing about God. We're much more used to its adherents swearing fealty (however superficially and theatrically) to “the other guy”, and it's both refreshing and confusing to hear a guy like Christian Liljegren sing about meeting Jesus, and talking of “living water from the Father”, but to be honest the music is so damn good that you soon forget what the lyrics are about, if it bothers you, or embrace the subject matter if you're interested in it. Or just ignore it altogether. But you can't ignore the talent and skill of these guys. Switch out the lyrics and throw in some about beer, women and motorbikes and you'd not pick them out from a lineup of some of the best metal bands around. Seriously. Such a pity they decided to call it a day.