End of Grey (CD - 2006)

Christian rock albums often suffer from much of the same lyrical banality that afflicts many black metal records. Despite the obvious differences in ideology, each genre sticks so closely to its initial themes of God/Satan, light/dark, and grace/violence that the music becomes the sole focus. This debut from the band formerly known as Allysonhymn ("all eyes on him") is a hard-driving collection of melodic post-grunge/alternative metal "message rock" in the vein of Nickelback and Creed, and it dutifully goes through the requisite motions. End of Grey has all of the rockers ("I'll Breathe for You," "Never Lost"), power ballads ("Burn Back the Sun, " "No Longer"), and calls to arms ("Break Free," "Fight Like This") one would expect, and it's impeccably played and produced. But there's nothing here that hasn't been done a hundred times before. ~ James Christopher Monger minimize