I do listen to both Christian and secular music and like one as much as the other. But there’s just something about the former in which the lyrics are too flowery, as if nothing bad has happened, and life is easy and free of hard times.
Not with Love and Death, in their recent CD Between Here and Lost. Compared to Head’s solo CD, Save Me from Myself, there are fewer sound effects. In this way, we hear more lyrics, making it more real.
Brian “Head” Welch is downright honest and holds nothing back, almost to a fault. Just about every song is about how he’s hurting, has scars, whether physical or emotional, or is trying to fight drug addiction. So you had better have an open mind toward this kind of music and be able and willing to empathize and commiserate with Welch. In other words, you cannot be faint of heart-or ears-as you hear these songs. Burning, bleeding, dying in “I W8 For You.” Wow! That’s deep. Love grown cold and dying inside, expressed in “Paralyzed”-that’s more than enough to make one literally paralyzed. Wisdom cries aloud in the streets, even in “Whip It,” a nu-metal cover of Devo’s timeless one-hit wonder. We do have the power to move mountains, to whip them.
If “Bruises” doesn’t give you chills and goosebumps, you’re not emotionally involved with the music like you should. It’s a softer song from Love and Death, poetic, soft, deep. I was almost disappointed when the song picked up.
Whispering to screaming in five seconds-that’s what Welch does best. “The Abandoning” has the cleverest vocal introduction! If you don’t think so, I suggest you get your metal head examined. Others that stand out are “FED UP!” in “I W8 for You”- it’s almost funny the way he says it and as many times as he does-“FALL!” in “Watching the Bottom Fall,” and, the ultimate, “TIME…STRESS” in “Chemicals.”
“Meltdown” is a “tell and show” song. Welch starts out the song stating he’s having a meltdown; I find this very amusing. But then he “shows” us in the lyrics; a great song for a writer wanting to get into the head of someone having a meltdown. If you want to get more inside Head’s head, listen to “Chemicals.” Welch outdoes it…nails it…in sharing his deepest thoughts-in the deepest way. This killer line that says it all: “Inject as I crawl to my Master!”
Every song has a conclusion, and a solution. Welch doesn’t fail to deliver hope and restoration in these almost grave-sounding lyrics. Just a simple “I need You” in “Paralyzed” is self-explanatory. In “Watching the Bottom Fall,” he’s strongest when he admits weakness-“I don’t have energy to see this through.” Delayed gratification is effectively expressed in “I W8 for You.” “Feeling everything crashing down on me…Losing everything giving all of me” and “I’ll make it through”-and I’m convinced-in “My Disaster. What to take away from “Fading Away”: we are but dust and “LIE…DOWN…LET…GO”-very deeply spiritual, if you really think about it.
The only thing I have left to say is: You left out dry bones, dude!
Julia Pope, HMS
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