Pillar

So Pillar released a new album in September called Confessions. I got it from the library a couple of days ago. I've this band ever since hearing "Fireproof" on a Christian rock compilation and buying the special edition of Where Do We Go From Here. When The Reckoning and For The Love of the Game came out, I was surprised. For my favorite bands back in 2005 or so, which were Steven Curtis Chapman, KJ-52, Switchfoot and Relient K, I couldn't wait for new albums and checked for news all the time. But for bands that didn't mean too much to me, like Pillar, I'm surprised when I come back later and their discography has changed. Kind of like Kutless. They released To Know That You're Alive without my knowledge, and upon hearing it I was very happy that the average tempo seemed to exceed 100 bpm. Anyway, I liked The Reckoning a lot (I waited for the special edition of that, too) but was hugely disappointed with The Love of the Game. The album art looked cool, but it made me think that "The Game" meant being a gladiator. What kind of a title is that? It's supposed to be secret appeal-to-secular-market code for "The passion of the pursuit of Jesus Christ", but it sounds more like a documentary by Valeisha Butterfield to me. Well anyway, the "passion" part of the non-title sticks out disproportionatly, since almost all the songs are just tailor-made to pump up the crowd when playing live. I mean just look at the lyrics for "Turn It Up" (largely sampled from other artists in a Portnoy-esque manner): "Turn it up/Throw your hands in the air/All the people everywhere/Let me hear you say/Woah, oh, oh, woah, oh, oh/Yeah, Yeah" Genius, right?
When a band says stuff like "throw up your (rawk) fist" or "Whoooaaaaa" incessantly for the crowd to participate and feel happy (DragonForce), "Everybody jump" or some reference to "tonight" meaning "a concert" , they are eliminating room for them to improvise on stage. What if you don't WANT to have everyone "get crazy" at a certain part? Too bad, you've been playing this song for years and those are the lyrics everybody knows. In case you weren't already tired of playing the same songs on tour year after year, feel free to undercut yourself by scheduling spontaneous moments. My worship team schedules spontaneous prayer in services all the time. Anyway, Confessions has nothing too special on it. I don't like the ratio of metal to ballads, and "Shine" sounded like a cover even before I checked who wrote it. The bassist and drummer have gone off, perhaps to restart Seven Places. That's a bummer, because Lester gave the band a lot of personality. "Kal-el" I didn't like right off the bat because on the pretension involved in naming yourself after Superman (besides, who needs a stage name in Christian rock?). After seeing the Reckoning DVD and playing some of his parts, I grew to like him. Oop, there he goes, off with Lester to focus on Stars Go Dim. Maybe they'll win some Doves that way. So much for metal, you guys. So much for skill.
I leave now to type "homework". Actually I just typed it. So now I'll go complete it.