Reviewed by Si Bibby

At last, here we have Believers long awaited second album, 'Sanity Obscure'. In my opinion (and in Kerrang's) these guys lead the way in Christian thrash, so it's a good job Road Runner Records have given them secular distribution saving them from certain death in Christian bookshops. Since the release of their debut 'Extraction From Mortality' they have enrolled a Mr W Robertson to take over on the important instrument - the bass, other than that drummer 'J Daub' still can't grow any hair on the one side of his head. Now the album, well it contains eight tracks - six thrash, one U2 cover and an orchestrated track with a female soprano to sing the Latin lyrics. The thrash numbers are ridiculously complex in places but that doesn't make the songs sound disjointed as can be the case. Each song has been maturely written by four excellent musicians. There is plenty of variety in the music, and lyrics that cover subjects such as the environment, drug abuse - 'stop the madness' and idolatry. The high point of the album for me is the Latin ditty - "Dies Irae".     ; Believer show their intelligence in this song by mixing thrash with orchestrated pieces and to top that they use a completely different vocalist (someone who can sing), it's difficult to describe but suffice to say its amazing. Finally the album ends with "Like A Song" originally performed by U2. Now I'm not a fan of covers at the best of times, but finishing a superb album with one seems pointless to me so I'll leave that alone. My only other com­plaint is sometimes the lead work seems a bit weak, but that's only very minor. 'Sanity Obscure' could well be the album to make a major breakthrough for the Gospel in the area of death metal, definitely worth buying.

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.

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