Spanning the gap somewhere between Paramore and Evanescence, Texan rockers Flyleaf have always been more outspoken about their faith than their aforementioned contemporaries. The sophomore release Memento Mori, which follows their platinum-selling, self-titled debut, is bigger, more overtly Christian, and rocks even harder than their first. Memento mori is actually Latin for “remember you must die,” on which lead singer Lacey Mosely seems to have her focus as she sings unwaveringly of sharing in Jesus’ suffering and walking as close to His path as she can.
The first song, “Beautiful Bride,” might have lost its meaning in the secular world, but Christians will recognize the allusion from the Bible as Mosely sings “Body of Christ/one flesh abiding/strong and unifying/fighting ends in forgiveness/unite and fight all division beautiful bride.” I was surprised to see this playing on MTV and other non-Christian stations, but Flyleaf has quite a strong following so I shouldn’t have doubted their staying power. Track two, “Again,” is already a big single for them as well, and “Chasm” has a crushing guitar chorus accompanying powerful lyrics about Bible story of the rich man who went to Hell and prayed he could warn his friends of what the afterlife might hold if they did not repent and trust God.
The whole album is ripe with biblical allegory and connections to Scripture. “The Kind” speaks of the things that cause us to sin and how we need to cut them off and throw them in the fire. “Treasure” tries to imagine how precious we are in God’s eyes once we are refined by Him. Some very compelling lyrics follow suit on “In The Dark” where the chorus finds Lacey singing, “I’m scared to death of light and silence, Jesus heal me inside this. Raise me up to live again like you did.”
Despite the lyrics being amazingly deep and rooted in a sincere love for Christ, the music itself starts to get old as track after track thunder on with little variation. Not until the four-song bonus disc do we see a lot of instrumental depth from the band. A few of the tracks finally slow down and let the listener breathe and take everything in. The most solid song on the album, in my opinion, is the first one on the extended edition called “Break Your Knees.” A mounting and dynamic guitar hook plays alongside encouraging lyrics that sing “steadfast my love the end is near/Just keep your eyes ahead/Grab hold of Me/I’ll help you there/You’re never on your own/You’re never all alone.”
December 1st, 2009 at 1:10 am
Thanks for the review. I must disagree with you about the repetitive tracks though. I think they give their fans what they want. You can listen to a lot of their new tracks (and see the variety for yourself) on their site.
December 1st, 2009 at 2:28 am
Hi Jessica, I appreciate your comment and you visiting our site! Thanks for keeping me in line…I need that from time to time! I may have to give it another listen or two! Keep rockin’ the good music!
December 7th, 2009 at 2:23 pm
I’m an aethiest but love their message. Good review.
December 7th, 2009 at 3:45 pm
Thanks Joshua! I appreciate hearing from you and I wholeheartedly agree with you about their message!