Post Tenabras Lux/Attalus

A blogger friend of mine wrote a review for the newest Attalus Album, I won't steal his thunder because the review is EXCELLENT. His blog is here. Go take a gander at his blog and follow him folks! Oh, and if you want, Attalus' album is coming out on Itunes today, go buy their album! Their Facebook page is linked in the review:

"I was asked to write a review of the new album from Attalus titled Post Tenabras Lux, which is Latin for "after darkness, light." This is a concept album, meaning that the theme and sound of the songs all progress according to some overarching design (I'm a creationist, can you tell). In this, the title kind of explains it. The songs start off darker and get lighter, both musically and lyrically. I personally think that they did a brilliant job with the whole album, each song progresses to the next flawlessly and each song is great by itself as well. One can tell that they really spent a lot of time on even the smallest details. So, now that I've hyped it up some, time to digest each song and after that give my final thoughts on the album.

01 Night - The album opens off with with this powerful song. It opens with a soft and sad piano piece then Seth strikes a note, pause, and bam! You are hit with the rest of the band. I love the sound of this song. It starts out with dark undertones and then picks up pace getting more jaded as the song goes on till the line "if this is enlightenment, then why is it dark as hell?!" Then it just gets crazy as they vent the frustrations of living in this post-modern age, screaming "all is vanity" over and over. I love this song because it deals pretty honestly with some of the doubts I know I myself have felt as I try to make sense of the world.

02 Problem of Pain - This next song flows thematically right from the album opener with a really moving intro featuring clips from the news about various tragedies locally and around the world. With night they opened up the subject of faith and admitted to the seeming meaninglessness of life. Now they go straight to one of the hardest subjects in Christianity. The way I see it, after admitting that enlightenment kinda sucks and is rather meaningless, the next step is to look for meaning. One of the reasons a lot of people have trouble with Christianity is this problem of pain. How can an all powerful God love us when so much seems wrong with the world ("either you're not good, or your just not that strong). I think that this song captures the full depth of the pain and frustration, and then flips that on its head when God replies to the man.

I may like other songs more musically, but this stands as one of my personal favorite (not just on this album, but in general) songs because it reminds me why I do what I do as a δοῦλος Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ, "slave of Jesus Christ."


03 Post Tenabras Lux - I'm not going to lie, this may be my least favorite song just for the beginning. I just personally do not like the sound of this song at all. But I am torn, cause I always find myself singing along to it and lyrically it is solid (like every song Attalus has). There is a turning point at about the 3 minute mark where I actually enjoy the song. I love the refrain "whoa-a-oh, whoa-a-oh, the road of faith will lead to sigh, after darkness comes the light." It is so fun live. So, I can't say I don't like this song altogether, but it's not my favorite and I think it has a lot to do with the sing-song voice Seth uses. Oh well.


04 Faith and Reason - Wow, so pop-punk, and I still kind of like it. This is a song that I started out hating and grew to absolutely love it. The biggest thing is the line "whoever said life is easy... They lied!", it makes me smile every time! If you look around this blog at other posts, you'll learn more about why I smile at that line. This song won me with the lyrics and the part about "a faith that's never broken is a faith that's never healed." I find so much meaning in this song because this spring I nearly walked away from my faith and you have no idea how painful an experience that can be unless you've been through it yourself. But I came to that same conclusion, that your faith has to be broken, like muscle fibers, so that it can be healed back stronger than it was before.


05 Shadows of Doubt - This is just an all around good song. It does not stand out as much as some of the others but I really really enjoy it. The progressions and lyrics and tone of the song are just so in sync with each other. I'm actually not sure why it does not stand out more to me, cause it's really good. It could just be that it just lyrically does not grab at me personally as much as the previous song, they deal with more or less the same thing.


06 When I Lose My Way - This song flows so smoothly from Shadows of Doubt on the album. It starts off really slow and is just personal reflections on what it is like to struggle with feeling like you have lost your way. How you put the Bible back on the shelf and kind of drift away, but you keep feeling called back for some reason. Again, like Problem of Pain, this is a conversation between man and God. After these confessions God comes in to comfort his wandering child. This song is so great, especially where if comes at in the album. After all these songs about the struggles and such, this song is like a turning point where finally the man collapses and just rushes back to his Father. It is interesting cause the song just continues to build and build. I tend to reflect on my own life during this song and the pace is just right. I would sing this on Sunday morning in Church for worship, actually. It just about brings me to tears at the end.


07 One Defining Spark - Okay, so after getting so sentimental and deep and even getting me to tear up, this song comes up with the new screaming vocals and instrumentation and I just go crazy in my head (and sometimes I will actually jump around and headbang to it). This album is organized so well, the songs flow so well from one to the next. I won't really talk about this song much cause most of you should already know it as it is just the same song re-done all prettyful with the screaming added (hehehe). I will say this though, I absolutely love this version of the song.


08 At the Rubicon - Now that we have gone crazy, they calm things down a bit with this song. This song is about finally really committing one's life to Christ, I think. It captures that scary happy feeling you get when you know this is for the best but you don't actually know what is going to happen. You have to fling yourself headlong into this world of faith where you're not really sure what's going to happen you you feel like it is okay because God is in charge. 


09 A Country Road in Two Seasons - Honestly, this is actually my favorite song on this album. If we can take this album to be a progression from sin to salvation, this is the aftermath. The gentle maturing process that can be turbulent at times, but it is much better. It is like looking back at all that we have gone through, all the doubts, all the pain, and just seeing how God has led our lives along and also looking ahead down the path to where we are going. It is so beautiful, and the fall/winter imagery is so beautiful. I like to relax and just listen to this song and pray.


10 Let There Be Light - This song closes the album and is just a powerful song of worship repeating the words found in Genesis, "let there be light". After everything else on the album, this short simple song contains more meaning in its notes and words than can actually be written down. It is the culmination of this album's progression from darkness to light and just brings closure to the whole thing.


Overall, I think this is one of the best Christian music albums I have heard in a long time. This is the story of salvation and dealing with doubt and all the crap we have to go through and coming through hurt, but better off for it I think. A passage in Luke comes to mind actually. Jesus is eating with the pharisees, a very strict religious sect in the Jewish culture at that time, the typical "holier than thou" stereotype (all too common in the Church today too). While there, a sinful woman washes His feet with her tears and pours perfume on His feet. The pharisees were appalled that Jesus let her touch him, so He told them a parable where two men owed money but were each forgiven their debts. Jesus asked which man loved the king more, the one who owed much and was forgiven much, or the one who owed little and was forgiven little? The pharisees replied that it was obviously the man forgiven much who would love the king more. The point of all that was to explain the line in Luke 7:47 where Christ says, "he who has been forgiven little loves little." (implying, he who has been forgiven much loves much). So, this is how I see the trials we go through and the pain of our own sin. It hurts a lot, but without it, we would not have this wealth of love that we can share with others. I plan to try to pick up a handful of the CDs and give them out as Christmas presents to friends I know could use encouragement or just need to hear the Gospel. I think that is what I love most about this album. It is not just more music to enjoy by myself or at concerts, but it is a new avenue to evangelize and talk openly about my faith, and I pray my Lord would give me the confidence to be able to do that. So please, don't just listen to this album and move on. Let the words and the notes speak to you, and if you find something that sticks, share it with a friend and tell the band. I know they love hearing how their hard work affects people's lives."