All right. Now I was pretty hard on No Compromise, and was skeptical when I first listened to this one, too. This strikes me as a big step forward for the band, however.
One of the things that held their last effort back was the less than stellar production. Now on Victory Records, this is without question the best the band has ever sounded. The guitars are much hungrier, particularly, and that really helps deliver some additional power to the sound. Also, in the past there has been something about the way the vocalist enunciated his words that rubbed me the wrong way. Well, I'm happy to report that this has been reduced to where it scarcely bears mentioning on this record. Considering the place given to vocals in hardcore, this makes for a huge improvement.
The songs are generally in the same vein as before, it's old school hXc, straight and simple. I'm not the biggest old school fan around, but this is an album that I'll listen to on purpose. When I first heard that NIV got signed to Victory, I was a little worried that they would make me ashamed of the state of Christian hXc, but upon hearing the disc, I'm happy for this to be a representation of what we have to offer.
7.5/10
Other coverage for this album
Dead Zine 2002Reviewed by Hey YouI was pretty happy to get this cd for a couple of reasons. First of all it's on the huge hardcore label Victory Records. This shows that it will be a pretty good release. Second of all it was the only Christian article in the store where I got it, that being Hot Topic. I wasn't completely yearning for the disc, but when I saw it in Hot Topic, I had to show my support. This was by no means a…Dead Zine 2002Reviewed by WoodensoulFor some unknown reason I put off buying this cd for a long time. I always liked NIV's debut on Rescue Records with No Compromise. But I thought this cd would just be another copy of that 1st album. It turned out I was wrong ... WAY wrong. Coming to us via Victory records NIV has matured so much I am amazed. These guys play with the likes of Hatebreed and Earth Crisis ... and they still keep…Dead Zine 2002Reviewed by thOrNFirst off let me say this.....HARDCORE!!!!!!! If you've ever wanted to know what these guys sound like live but haven't got the chance to see em this album captures their sound (though not their stage presence) extremely well. Being produced by the master Barry Poynter doesn't hurt at all either. The other releases always lacked the energy of NIV and Barry harnessed that and threw it on disc for…HM Magazine #82Reviewed by Doug Van PeltThis album was forgotten . . . or at least we were. The record label advertised with us, but forgot to hook us up with a review copy. We love this band, so we decided to give the label a call and commence to reviewing this slab of metalcore. The first thing to note about this album is how significant it is to have a Christian band being distributed by a label with the underground and street cred…Art for the Ears 1999Reviewed by Marco PovervestHere's the first NIV release through Tony Brummel's label Victory Records and let me tell you, this is brutal old school stuff! And aggressive too! On Flesh And Blood the band displays hardcore with some metal-influences. Watch out, this ain't metalcore! These metal-influences must be courtesy (or not) of Barry Poynter with whom they produced and recorded the album. There are even guest roles for…Similar sounding releases
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