This album and this band have a real polemical style reminiscent of the Old Testament prophets. First is the name which is a stab at Frank Zappa who claimed that Christians were his enemies. Secondly, the subject matter of many of the songs on this disc take issue with many things that are at odds with Christianity. Most noticeable is the song "Stephen Hawking Walked Away". (Hawking is the Cambridge Prof. who popularized cosmological studies in his book, A Brief History of Time. Hawking suffers from Lou Gehrig's Disease and is confined to a wheelchair, thus the irony of the song title). So, like Elijah and the prophets of Baal, FE takes issue with the "gods of this age". I admire this so long as it is done competently. I'd say that FE has done an adequate job, though I'm reluctant to be too critical of Hawking. After all, Hawking does not deny God. Secondly, Hawking is a whole lot smarter than I am.
Musically this album did not really tickle my fancy. For one thing the disc is only 37 minutes long. While 37 minutes is standard for a pop album, it isn't for metal, especially when there are 11 tracks! The first song--which happens to be my favorite--is not even metal and is one of the longest songs on the disc at 3 minutes. It is a quiet, gypsy-like song with acoustic guitar and female vocals. This song bleeds into 9 super heavy, grinding, hard to distinguish songs, many of which sound tongue in cheek. All of them are blurry, fast, and erratic. And then the last song, "Stephen Hawking Walked Away" is a funky, slap-metal, Primus-like song. It is also enjoyable. So what we have musically is a folk and funk on the ends and a lot of sludge in the middle. Perhaps Steve Rowe described it best when he called it a "bizarre noise/grind combo". I'm sure that there are some people out there who will love this disc. I however, prefer something a little more consistent.
Other coverage for this album
Garlic Press #6Reviewed by tedcoreMaybe you caught our interview with Julio Rey in Garlic #3 where he told us all about this CD, well now we have it beginning with a beautiful gtr ballad. Then you hit track 2: grindcore in the truest sense of the word. The best way to describe this song or album for that matter would be to somehow mix Disrupt with Slayer & Earth Crisis and occasionally throw in a little Minor Threat. As with FE's…The Phantom Tollbooth 1996Reviewed by Josh SpencerDon't buy this unless you have to have every Christian death metal album. Very fast, sloppy death metal with some hardcore vocals and slowed down doom metal thrown in on occasion. Below-average production (but much better than previous Frank's Enemy albums). 1.5 tocksSimilar sounding releases
2005Pale HorseUntil the Last Seal Is Opened...
1990Seventh AngelHeed the Warning
2002Acoustic TormentSchwarzwald
1994Living SacrificeInhabit
1996Eleventh HourDistorted Visions of Unreality
1989The LeadBurn This Record
