The year of 2002 was a magic one for me because many bands that I
listen till today were presented to me by my brother back then, bands like
Tourniquet, Stryper, Relient K, Whitecross, Bride, Switchfoot and Anberlin. It
was also presented to me the band Narnia which, initially, hadn't pleased me,
but I would eventually listen to it because my brother listened on the
computer. A side note here: most of these bands, that my brother presented to
me, were presented to him by our cousin Thiago.
Fast forward to 2006 or 2007. My brother was already living on his
own and from time to time he would visit the place where I was living with my
parents and sister. In one of those visits, he gave me as gift a green Kelpex
CD with some songs I could enjoy. There weren't any artists or songs names
written anywhere. Amidst those songs, I remember being included Liquid Tension
Experiment, Bride, U2, P.O.D. and Narnia. I remember that Narnia's song caught
my attention and I really liked it, maybe because it reminded me the beloved
Mega Man X6's PlayStation 1 soundtrack. It was the song Judgement Day, and
after that, when I discovered what band it was, I sought on listening to all of
theirs and, from then on, they became one of my favourite bands.
Every release or announcement, there I was enjoying and supporting
it, alongside the parallel projects of each member. The departure of the singer
Christian Liljegren and admission of Gérman Pascual on vocals; the hiatus and
eventual return with Christian, again, on vocals, yielding the production of
new material in 2017. Even one of my greatest sad moments was not being able to
attend their first concert in Brazil, also in 2017, that gave in to a live
recording named We Still Believe.
Although, in 2019, with their new album, From Darkness To Light,
they returned to Brasil and, for a great happiness, my cousins Vinicius and
Larissa gave me the tickets to their concert, that would be in partnership with
the bands Tourniquet and Stryper, already mentioned in the first paragraph.
Because of a disagreement with the producer, the band Tourniquet didn't attend
to the concerts, only Narnia and Stryper came and played which, even so, was a
marvellous moment of my life. Besides, I had the opportunity to have the albumautographed by Christian and also a picture with him.
The album From Darkness To light is the band's apex. Though some
changes have occurred in their 24 years, some details from the classic albums
showed up here or there, making it the most innovative and also reaffirmed
their musical roots. Another thing I must point out is, even with some musical
changes, one thing was always the same since their very first album in 1996:
their belief.
Just like me, they are Christians, and this is something very clear
in their lyrics and even in the way they pose, which I have witnessed in the
concert and they the singer talks. This was no hurdle to them on covering songs
of non-Christian bands during their career, like Uriah Heep, or even being on
tour with non-Christian bands, like Stratovarius. In this album this pose is
not different at all. On the contrary, they bring as the main theme what many
preachers have been forgetting to mention: the return of Christ. We can also
notice in the lyrics that a Christian being goes through hard times, that a
life with God doesn't spare one from facing problems, but the way we see and
deal with them is different.
From the beautiful and sharp Christian Liljegren's vocals, CJ
Grimmark's arrangements and guitar solos, Andreas Johansson's drums in simple
and complex time signatures making the heart pulse along with the beat, Jonatan
Samuelsson's bass (the most recent member in the band) filling "the
kitchen" of the band in perfect accompaniment with the drums and punctual
arrangements without differing from the group, and the keyboardist Martin
Härenstam, which have already been in other albums but not as official member
hitherto, contributing with the fulfilling ambiance to the songs. This album is
a voyage of about 45 minutes that looks like 10. Musicianship overflows.
Even loving all songs and knowing all beginnings, arrangements and
solos, I highlight these, in the order they show up, as main ones:
- A Crack In The Sky
- You Are The Air
That I Breathe
- MNFST
- The War That Tore
The Land
- Sail On
- From Darkness To
Light (Pt. 1 e 2)
My darling one in the album is "The War That Tore The
Land", which even I already had been fond of before the concert, seeing it
being played live had made a special moment, where hairy, bearded and grown-ups
were crying while singing it. The album as a whole has a special and separate
place in my heart, which is the most played in my last.fm (though I have
listened to it many other times without registering through the website).
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